Thirty Two

As I write this I will confess that I am indeed mildly hungover.

I had too much wine last night as I enjoyed our new porch & the fact that I have nothing major to do except to sit, laugh & tell stories alongside my handsome husband and our great next door neighbors.

Oh, and it was my birthday. Thirty Two.

However, a birthday on the heels of an amazing & beautiful wedding reception is really pretty anti-climactic. So we just bummed around all day, hosted National Night Out & then drank entirely too much wine & giggled until about 3am.

What an idealic day, pure bliss.

There is a part of me that feels the need to write a list of some sort to commemorate the new year of my life. A to do list of sorts, or a list of Hopes & Dreams for year 32 of my life. But I start to write it & there are very few things to jot down. This is because at this moment in my life, everything seems absolutely stunningly fine. I live in a fantastic house with an amazing man who I am married to. We both have jobs we enjoy, great friends, and amazing family. I love our life.

And with that, Happy Birthday to me.

xoxx

Wyatt Turns One!

(That's cousin Everett off to the side taking notes for his big day in March).
xoxx

it's pretty early for me to be awake.

I'm sitting here, in our kitchen, enamored by the morning sun filling up our house.

This morning is different for me than any other all year long. This morning marks the beginning of today.

Today is my birthday.

Today I am Thirty.

So, I'm sitting here, in our kitchen, practicing saying, "I'm thirty".

I'm thirty.

I'm thur-tee. Thurrr-teeee.

ha.

thrty. (that's thirty really fast)

I am the big three oh.

I am thirty years old.

It was not nearly as painful as I expected, I am excited, and wearing my new age like a stripe on my army jacket. And, honestly, I relish the day I get to say, "I'm thirty one".

xoxx

& they're off!

Saturday handsome randy & I spent the afternoon at the horse races with my family in honor of my uncle's 50th & grandpa's 88th birthdays. It was a lot more fun than either of us anticipated & as far as gambling goes, I came out about even & HR came out only $5 in the hole. We had so much fun! We may spend every Saturday there for the rest of the summer.
xoxx

my real weekend: Friday night (to be followed with Saturday later)

working the job that I do it is so rare to have a series of days & nights off that fall on Friday, Saturday & Sunday. I did this weekend by pure chance & I made really good use of it.

Friday was a night with the fam. My uncle Chris turned 52 so there was dinner & cake to be had with my aunts, uncles & cousins. Additionally, my grandpa & his writing group were also hosting a reading that night. So got to see & celebrate something with everyone, how nice!
The birthday was great - so fun. I got to see so many members of my family & exchange stories making each other oooh & aaah or laugh really hard. I always leave family gatherings on that side (The Langers) marveling at our individual rhythms of laughter & how similar we all are to one another & how we just are together in a room. Reminiscing (of course) & making fun of each other..I savor all of it & it really keeps me happy.

Gramps' reading was great - I really feel lucky to have such a talented & active grandpa (who is nearly 88 by the way). He read two pieces, one poem called "Ode to the Walleye" which is pretty self explanatory, the other was called "Power to the People" which was a brief prose about his lobbying days at the state legislature. At the reading they had a compilation book of the groups favorite pieces for sale. Gramps put together & bound by hand all 15 of the books for sale (which were sold for cost, not profit) & they were pretty cool looking.
I was home by 11 & just was there..putzing with my keyboard, laundry and enjoying being home. I went to bed so relaxed, more than I've been in a long time. It was great. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about Saturday..xoxx
p.s. Aunts Stephanie & Kathy - this post was posted by monday morning for you...to make your monday morning that much easier. Thanks for reading so often...love you.

moonwalk.

Our next door neighbors threw the ultimate kid birthday party this weekend; they had a moonwalk! While Handsome Randy & I
were not invited, a few plans were made to hop the fence & take a jump (never came to fruition).

But, I am turning 30 in August, what better way to ring in a new decade...

xoxx

four oh in phoenix

handsome randy turned 40 on friday, august 10 and he was (& still is) on the road. when we realized that this would be the case a couple of months back, I decided to make a little trip to whereever he would be for the day to surprise him for the big four oh. our friend murs, who is the organizer of the Paid Dues and is on the tour was co-conspirator. he hooked me up with a ride from the airport to the venue & was just overall pretty great in helping me make it happen.
i arrived at the venue shortly after the tour did & murs brought me to randy in the midst of setting everything up. I ran up behind him & said, "Hey, Happy Birthday!". He looked shocked and asked what I was doing, "Well, it's your birthday so I decided to come & wish you a happy one in person." we kissed. we hugged. we kissed again & then I went to the tour bus to hang out while he worked. I hung around & watched the show taking photos and visiting our friends who he's on the road with.
We ended the day with a little birthday song with everyone on the tour and some nice cake from Sarah Jane's Bakery in Northeast Minneapolis. We said goodbye and I took a little nap before jumping on a plane to head back to minneapolis.
a good day was had by all.
xoxx