Birthdays, Boogers, and Breakdowns

WARNING - THIS POST IS LONG AND NOT INTENDED FOR THE EASILY EMBARRASSED OR THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHS!

Well, I promised I would blog soon and what better time to start than today...my 43rd birthday!! How blessed I have been. God has blessed me with a husband that is amazing, 2 beautiful children who are my world, parents that support me, a sister who loves me and makes me laugh, and friends that are the best in the world and make my life complete. It's funny how, back in the day, you looked forward to birthdays and the celebration. Now, it's kind of a day of reflection for me, of gratefulness. I have many fond birthday memories. There are the ones of when I was younger where my Mom would put together a fun gathering for my friends and I. My sister would usually make my cakes and they were phenomenal. I remember Holly Hobby, Pink Panther, Mickey Mouse. As I grew older and went to college, my Mom continued to have small celebrations but I was more interested in celebrating with friends. I would have to say I remember most....my 20th birthday. Without many details, it was an evening spent with some very dear, close friends who were a "little" rebellious and the effects lasted several days. After Sal and I got married, Sal seemed to inherit the role of planning the "birthday" day. He has many times surprised me with unique gifts, beautiful cakes and chocolate covered strawberries (my fav), and breakfast in bed. As I said earlier, I don't necessarily expect a day of celebration in fact, many more of these little birthdays and I"ll be wanting to FORGET them (that is if I can even remember them in the first place!). Today has been a bit "out of the ordinary". I have been plagued with a nasty head cold to start of year 43! I awoke this morning with both eyes matted shut, coughing, and struggling to breath because of the amount of SNOT in my nose. Sal was not home because he was out running some errands. I maneuvered my way to the kitchen for a cold drink of Diet Dr. Pepper (breakfast of champions) and my sweet Clarissa came in and told me Happy Birthday. Sal returned soon with a breakfast burrito that I could barely taste and had difficulty eating because I'd have to alternate bites and nose wiping. Sal needed me to follow him to the airport to leave his car for his boss who is coming into town today. Mind you....I had not been up for long! Thinking we'd make a quick trip, I threw on some clothes without putting on the Basic Required Accessory, found some easy slip on shoes, pulled my hair up in a ponytail (ab0ut 2" long), and out the door I went (remember...no makeup). My famous last words were, "I'd hate to get stranded somewhere looking like this!". So we drop off the car, make a few "unexpected stops", go to the cemetery because Sal wanted to see his Dad's headstone, and then Sal decided he needed to stop at Academy. NOTE - THIS IS WHERE THE STORY TAKES A REALLY BAD TURN!!!!

While waiting in the parking lot for Sal to finish shopping, my truck starts making the WORST sound I have ever heard a vehicle make! I quickly turned it off and when I tried to restart it, the sound was even worse! Great, I'm stuck here, looking like this, feeling like this and my truck won't work! After Sal returns, he decides to call his brother to come help us and I decided that this was more fun than I bargained for and called my wonderful friend to come pick me up and and take me home. (there are only a few people that I'd let see me looking like a hot mess!) I failed to mention, Clarissa had made the journey with us and she had just thrown on some clothes, no shoes, and I don't believe she visited a brush this morning! While waiting on our ride, I realized that I really needed to find a restroom but OH, I can't go in the store because I look like THIS!!! So, I will hold it! (Let's hope I don't have to sneeze too much because then holding it may no longer be an option!) Finally, my brother-in-law arrives and the guys make their observations and my brother-in-law assures me it sounds worse than it is. (easy for him to say) He tries to cheer me up and is quite the clown and so he thought this entire ordeal was pretty funny, especially when my dear daughter announced to him that I didn't have the Basic Requied Acccessory!!!! My faithful friend showed and brought me home and the first thing I did was take a shower! I have no idea where my husband or my truck are at this time but I do know that my birthday lunch is going to consist of delivery pizza! Needless to say, my husband was the LAST one to tell me Happy Birthday this morning, there was no breakfast in bead, my unique gift has consisted of car parts, and I have not seen a birthday cake or strawberries. BUT, I'm still blessed - a bit frustrated today - but blessed.

So, for the past 2 months I've not felt I had too much to blog about. If today is any indication, I believe I'm back in the saddle and will have lots of things to share!