Continuing the Journey

The Official 40th Birthday Post...

While many think of 40 as "over the hill," it is obvious that my Little Man is skeptical that his "best fwend Mommy" has joined the Over The Hill Gang! Awwww...another reason I love my Carson!

OK, I have teased long enough. It is time to unveil the awesome birthday gift that I got from my husband and children.

Here it is...
...isn't it beautiful?? But wait, there's more...
...OK, we just went from "beautiful" to "downright gorgeous"!! (Can you tell I absolutely adore diamonds?)

Before I tell the story of my awesome ring, we interrupt this post for a medical update on The Teenager. First of all, the "boot" that she has been wearing for about a week and a half now...
...what a monstrosity!

After being told in the emergency department that she had a possible hairline fracture in her foot, her pain was getting worse and she had a marble-sized knot on the outer part of her right foot. At my friend Katie's urging (thanks, Katie -- you were right!), I got Meggie an appointment with a Sports Medicine doctor. This doc ruled out a break in her foot but said she has what looks like tendon damage (torn or stretched) in the tendon that connects the pinkie toe and the ankle. She was put into that huge "boot" for two weeks and taken out of dance until cleared by the Sports Medicine doc. Yikes! So much for her Christmas recital this weekend!

The inside of the "boot" is pumped with air to cushion her foot and allow her to walk. I feel bad for her, though...that thing weighs a TON!! I can't imagine dragging it around for two weeks. She goes back to the Sports Medicine doc on Monday and starts physical therapy on Tuesday of next week. I finally get Carson out of PT and now Meggie is going in!! Yikes!

Meggie, how are you handling it??
A bit dramatic, but we get the point.

OK, we now return to the regularly scheduled post.

Being one of six children in a one-income household, birthday parties just didn't happen when I was a kid. My mom would bake six birthday cakes every year and, while they rarely landed on an actual birthday, the cakes would count toward whoever's birthday was next in line. So, while I got a birthday cake every year, I never had an actual birthday party...until four years ago when my husband, my sister Debbie, and my friend Sarah threw me a surprise 36th birthday party.

When my friend Shannon heard that fact, she was determined to give me a party this year. So, on Sunday, I was quite surprised to arrive at Shannon's house for what I thought was a Church preschool coordinators' Christmas party -- and realized it was a birthday party for me!

Here I am with the whole gang, which included my friend Sarah (who doesn't attend our Church or serve as a Sunday preschool coordinator, so her presence was my first tip-off that this probably wasn't a preschool Christmas party...).
...the birthday cake Shannon baked for me, complete with lovely black "40" candles...
...my fabulous art skills as we played "1970s Pictionary" with clues compiled by my friend Wendy's husband, Tim (who is also my friend, by the way) in honor of my youth...
We had a lovely dinner (made by Shannon), had a BLAST playing Pictionary (thanks, in large part, to Lisa's awesome singing and drawing skills), ate a piece of fabulous cake (baked by Shannon), and did our Christmas recipe exchange. And instead of our traditional gift exchange, all of the gifts were for ME! What an awesome evening!

Shannon, thanks SO MUCH for a wonderful party...
...and for sending me the pics since I didn't know I should have brought my camera!

Now, for the story of my ring. When Kevin proposed to me w-a-a-a-a-a-y back in 1987, we were young and poor. My ring was simple and beautiful and I loved it! Right before our 10th anniversary, I lost a small diamond from my wedding band (a horseshoe-type wrap) and I was DEVASTATED! Kevin suggested we use that as an opportunity to upgrade my ring. Now if he had never said that, I would have been happy with my original ring. But if you put the idea of MORE diamonds in my head, then you've just launched a rocket you CANNOT catch. I have always (even as a very young girl) been a fan of rings, especially diamond rings.

Anyway, so we purchased a one-carat marquise-cut loose diamond and attempted to build a ring that incorporated my original ring with that awesome diamond. We redid the ring probably six or seven times and it just kept looking homemade...so we gave up and dropped that marquise diamond into a brand new setting. It was a pretty ring but had none of my original ring in it. My wish for my 40th birthday was that we redo my ring one more time...and this time, my original ring HAD to be part of the package.

So this ring has my one-carat marquise in the middle, flanked on either side by two round diamonds -- my original engagement diamond and a matching one we purchased to complete the setting. The jeweler convinced me to set the diamonds in white gold rather than the yellow gold I originally had and I am SO glad he did!

We added the two bands of channel-set diamonds on either side to complete the look. Trust me, folks, these pictures do NOT do these awesome rings justice...it was SO hard to photograph them because the flash kept whiting out the frame once it hit all those diamonds.

While this gift was not a surprise, it means so much to me because now I can wear my old ring and my upgraded diamond together! I CANNOT stop looking at these amazing rings!!

(I can't believe I am making such a big deal on this post about my diamonds...)

This morning, my co-workers covered for me and let me come in a bit late in honor of my birthday and I had time to have breakfast with my Little Man. Did we have French toast? Scrambled eggs?? Biscuits and gravy???

Nope, we had Carson's favorite breakfast...
...Cocoa Puffs! (He calls 'em "cocoa Cheerios.")

After going out to dinner with Daddy and the kids, we came home to this yummy chocolate birthday cake...
...that I was too stuffed to even eat!! (I don't even want to know how many Weight Watchers points I ate today...)

Have I had a Happy Birthday? Absolutely! I have a wonderful husband, three beautiful children, awesome friends, a job that I love...and I'm in my 40s! While my daughter congratulated me this morning on "officially being old," I can't wait to see what this decade of my life brings.

Stay tuned...