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Birthday Wishes BlahBlahBabble

The Big Four-Ooooh…

Yes, you read that right. I turned 40 yesterday. At least that is what the math works out to, because I don’t personally believe it. I still feel about 27, or maybe 32. Definitely not 40. Or not what I thought 40 would feel like – although I did go to the orthopedic last week and discover that I possibly have a torn meniscus in my knee, which is why it feels all creaky and weird. Then there is the whole pulled hamstring thing (which I did at the same time I hurt my knee) so I look a little like I have a limp right now. Maybe I look 40, but I sure don’t feel it.

I was thinking about this post yesterday, thinking about how much my life has changed in the past 10 years. It is incredible to say the least.

To sum it up, back on September 27, 1999:
– Jason was only 7 years old.
– I lived in an apartment a few miles from where we live now.
– I was no longer working at Fulbright & Jaworski by a few weeks.
– I was making soap full time for a living. Yes. Soap.
– I was also working on building a great friendship with Anne-Marie, the owner of BrambleBerry, and I later helped her develop her site.
– I was already online for a few years, and knew how to code HTML by hand. I rock it old school.
– I was in a relationship with someone who never could commit, and I still thought it might work out although deep down I probably knew better.
– I didn’t know all of the hundreds of people I know now that make my life so amazing.
– I loved to take photographs, but didn’t know I could make a living doing it.
– Instead of having coffee with my friends like I did this year, 10 years ago I was having the best party ever at the Pink Palace in Melbourne.

In the 10 years that have passed – my 30s – I have worked for two web design companies and another law firm. I lost a job in the dot com bust of 2001, but had another one within 2 weeks. I owned my own blog hosting company, which I eventually sold for a profit. I’ve been told that makes me a dot com success story.

I started this blog in early September, 2000. I’ve met zillions of people thanks to my blog – seriously too many to name here – who have all blessed and enriched my life in countless ways. The best one, of course, was Mike, who I married in 2004. (Props to Ann for nudging me to meet him when he got back to Houston.) People have come into my life and stayed, and others have passed through – but I feel like all of them have made some sort of difference.

Jason has made it through elementary school, junior high, and is now in his senior year of high school. It hasn’t always been easy, but I’m incredibly proud of him – he really is the most amazing son.

And after all those jobs, I’m doing what I love the most for work – taking photographs of amazing, beautiful clients at such an important time in their lives as they get married, graduate from high school, have a baby, or whatever the occasion may be. People even give me gifts or advice on from their lives, like the couple who was having a baby told me to get My Babies Planet Baby Gear if I were to ever have a kid. Working with Elaine & Brittany has been the best. On top of that, I get to stay true to my geek roots, writing here and helping people out with their blogs and SEO. I get to travel for both jobs. I am most grateful to Jason & Mike, along with my parents, for their tireless support.

Thank you again to everyone for their warm birthday wishes on Twitter and Facebook, and a special thanks to those of you that joined us on Friday night for my birthday party to kick off my birthday weekend, and to my family for wrapping it up with a fantastic brunch, Euchre, and a delicious dinner at Vic & Anthony’s last night.

I would have written this yesterday, on my 40th, but spending time with family was much more important. I decided it could be a day late.

I am blessed. I am blessed indeed. My 30s were AMAZING. I am a bit stunned when I think of what all has changed in the past 10 years. I can only hope my 40s go as well! Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of it all!

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Birthday Wishes

Add Another Candle to the Cake!

Ahhh… while Mike is still out of town for the start of my birthday day, it has still gotten off to a wonderful start. Many thanks to my Mom for the birthday lunch (a day early, as I have an engagement session today with Mercedes & Tim), to Elaine for the early birthday wishes phone call, and to Jason for offering to share Halo 3 with me. The day is off to a good start, and will only get better when Mike arrives home later today!

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Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Posting has been light this week. It has been a bit crazy around here, and it isn’t over yet. One more week to go, as I wrap up a contract project that I’m loving – it just takes me away from blogging and other things! But I couldn’t let today go by without a public shout out to Jason, who turns 15 today.

Fifteen. Wow. It is hard to believe, and while he still seems like a “kid” at times, I keep reminding myself that in just over three short years he will be going off to college. In one year, he will be legal to drive. He officially has a razor now – the facial kind, not the phone kind – although he is not up to shaving daily. Yet. He is a great kid, and I’m so very proud of him. Sometimes I really wish he wasn’t growing up so fast, and other days I am impressed with the man he is becoming.

We had dinner with my parents last night to kick off the birthday weekend. Today we went to see the Lager Rhythms at Mojo Risin’, and then we came home to pick up his friends Ryan & David. Then the guys headed out for laser tag, and now they are back here playing Xbox and the Wii. It has been a good day!

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Birthday Wishes Educate Me

It’s Over!

Wheeee! Fall 2006 semester is officially behind me! My Trig final yesterday was supposed to be from 12:30 – 2:20. I finished at 5:00. Yes, over 4 hours on a Trig final. However, I think I did pretty well – I won’t get the A in the class that I originally wanted because I never could remember some of the formulas in the middle of the course (double angle identities, half angle identities), but I should come out with a B. Considering I have thought for over 20 years that I am terrible at math and I never took Trig in high school, I did really well. If the third test had not kicked my butt like it did, I probably could have had that A. (I had a 94, then a 99, and then a *gasp* 57. Thank goodness for the 20 points worth of test corrections I did over the semester!)

Thanks to studying so hard for the test, I totally forgot to wish Elaine a happy birthday on Wednesday. I didn’t forget her birthday – it is the day before my Mom’s, which was yesterday (Happy Birthday shout-out to Mom!), but I forgot to call. Or e-mail, since this is the first time I’ve been on the computer since my last post. Eeep! I hopefully have rectified the situation with sufficient groveling to make up for it, and we will be at her birthday party on Saturday to celebrate in person.

Now I just have to figure out what I’m taking next semester, and decide if it is time to transfer to a 4-year college next fall or the following spring. I hate to pay the higher tuition, so I’m trying to stay at the junior college level for as long as possible!

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Birthday Wishes

Birthday Wisdom…

The first thing I thought when I woke up this morning was, “What do you mean, I am 37?” It seems like only yesterday I was 23. But I’m not one of those people that freaks out about birthdays. I welcomed my 30s – I just can’t believe I am getting so close to my 40s!

So my profound wisdom that I want to share with everyone on my birthday is this: You are OK. Embrace yourself. Don’t try to be someone else – be true to yourself. Life is too short to surround yourself with things – and people – that do not make you happy. Find joy in the little moments. But most of all? You are OK.

(We are studying all sorts of different theories in my psych class right now, and the whole “I’m OK, You’re OK” thing of Transactional Analysis came up yesterday – and really? There is a lot of good things to that theory.)

I will have to go look back at old birthday posts later on, but I can tell you that my life definitely took a positive turn at the point when I realized that I had lost “myself” in the shuffle and I started to find myself again, working on accepting myself just as I am. I still have to think about it from time to time, but I know in the end if I listen to myself and am true to myself, I will make the right decisions. Because I am OK.