It's my party and I'll cry if I want to . . .

Yesterday, I celebrated my 41st birthday. It was a lot less traumatic than LAST year's big 40th. Ugh! Just the thought of it makes me want to run and hide. Anyway, this year's was fine, except that it was on a very busy Sunday. Keri Lynn and Kristofer had to be at church an hour earlier than usual, so Keith took them while I got the rest of the kids ready. Of course, Keva decided to present to me a mongo-dirty morning diaper. While I was cleaning that up, Kody sauntered into her room while I was changing her and deposited his own mess right next to me, something that he hadn't done in the house for quite a while. Happy birthday to me!

As my own birthday present to me, I decided not to cook/clean/do laundry. So after church, the whole family headed to one of our favorite restaurants -- El Charro Mexican Restaurant. Yum. When we got home, we decided that there was not enough time for Keith to take me out for a movie because Keri Lynn and Kristofer both had commitments at 4:00. So Keith took me to Hastings, a book store similar to Borders, where I wandered around happily for an hour or so. I got a commentary on Revelation, a handbook of the Bible (to aid in Bible time for homeschool) and a Kay Arthur study on prayer. I'm not always so "spiritual" when I go to a book store. I'm just in a very theological frame of mind right now and I'm thinking about leading a neighborhood ladies group soon -- the need continues to germinate since summer.
Then, at 4:00, Keri Lynn headed off to her choir practice and Kristofer to D-Teams (a Bible study group for Middle Schoolers). Shortly after Keith took those two, I left with the rest of the gang for the Christmas Choirs Program. This was picture-taking heaven, since Kristofer, Kathleen, Kylie, Kade and Konner all sang in their respective choirs. Even Konner mostly sang this time. (Last year, he just kind of stood and stared out at the crowd like a deer caught in somebody's gun sight.)

On the way, Kade told me, "Won't this be great Mommy for your birthday! This is going to be your best birthday EVER!"

It was a good birthday. Having an early December birthday is a little bit of a challenge because this is the time of year that everyone's trying to give/go to Christmas parties, put up decorations, shop, etc. I've celebrated half a dozen birthdays at Sunday School Christmas parties over the years. There's also the UCLA/USC game that Keith absolutely HAS to watch the first weekend of December. Still, it's a fun time to celebrate a birthday since most people are in a festive spirit.

Today, when I got up, Kathleen had a note waiting for me -- a card wishing me a happy birthday and that she loved me and would I please look in the microwave. I did, and found a breakfast that she had prepared at 6:00 this morning as a surprise. I didn't get a chance to eat it until after 8:00, so it was a tad cold, but it was such a sweet gift! Two halves of a bagel with cream cheese, scrambled eggs and an English muffin with jelly.

We got off to an excellent start for school. And I'm just about caught up with housework again after letting it go most of the weekend. When the house is in order, I always feel so much better.
Tonight, I'm going to a leaders meeting for our Sunday School class. A few months ago, I volunteered to send out class emails. I've sent out a grand total of TWO emails. I had figured, when I volunteered, that this job would be a snap, since I'm on the computer a lot anyway. Well, I've had trouble getting the addressed transferred to my Juno account, and I'm going to try it at Yahoo! to see if it's any better there. So I feel a little foolish going to this meeting when I've not done much in the way of my job . . .