It's the little things

the girl's first ice cream cone

The first thought that occurred to me as I woke this morning was, "32, Really?" All of my birthdays after 21 have felt much the same. Another year down. A lifetime more to go. Even 30 wasn't that big a deal and 31, well, was just 31. But I am really in my 30s now. 32 years of living this life and I have a friend who is just about to pop out her very own beautiful little girl. In fact today could be the day that little baby Fernandez makes her appearance. It's what I've been hoping for these last 9 months! She isn't due until the 20th... but what's 2 days?!

My own sweet little 17 month old has just gotten done with her first total meltdown. I know it was due to her need for sleep and the 5 teeth pushing their way through her very swollen gums. If it wasn't so painful for her it would almost be funny. She refused to let me put a diaper on her after retrieving her from the bath, kept throwing her hands on top of her head when I attempted to put her dress over it and showed me just how flexible she is as I tried to comb her curly locks out of her face and into some sort of untangled mess. The comb went right, she went left, the comb went up, she went down, the comb went forward and she bent so far backward I thought she might bend in half. I wish my body was still that limber. At 32, it's not happening! Thankfully the meltdown ended with a beautiful sleeping girl on my lap.

I took the Jeep, or as an old neighbor renamed it - the Heep, to the auto shop again this morning. I spent half an hour sitting sending status updates to Facebook and checking email via my cell phone. I was assured the problem that we've been dealing with is not that big a deal. Apparently the terminals and cables to the battery were pretty corroded, which led to my Heep refusing to start. While there, I pointed out that my thermostat gauge was no longer reading the temp. A cable was unplugged. The mechanic who worked on our vehicle two weeks ago noticed that we had a tail light out. When I pulled up today he recognized me by that faulty light. As I was lamenting having to spend the morning of my birthday sitting at the auto shop the owner and the mechanic were plugging a cable, getting my battery in working order, topping off the fluids and fixing my burned out light. All this and a warning to buy desperately needed new tires, at no charge.

I dared to leave my daughter in the care of her very able brothers while I went to the auto shop. I figured that the only real worry I had was that I might come home to find that one of my sons had maimed the other. But as I pulled up, the younger and more precocious of the two, came running out and told me that the mail lady had come. It was 10 o'clock a.m. Mail doesn't come until 2 or 3 p.m. I played along. In the mailbox were two of my bubble wrap envelopes addressed to Jamie Madrid and jamie. Inside of both were cards, homemade on construction paper with colored pencils. The Artist's had a design on the front and simply said, "Happy Birthday Mom... Love, Adam" on the inside. The other was folded many times and had directions for which way to unfold with pictures drawn by the toddler interspersed. Once unfolded I was congratulated for finding my way to the inside, wished a happy birthday, told that I was awesome, wonderful and cool... all this from Avery (who cannot stand me on a regular basis) and Lu. Not only did my kids manage not to kill each other in my absence, they did something for me, together.

I was informed that since it's my birthday I shouldn't have to teach. While I really wanted to agree I felt obligated to get on with it, especially since we were already late starting our lessons. I turned on the computer only to find that my Internet was down. It's incredibly difficult to home school two children when their entire lesson plan is online and the "online" is not working. This is a Virtual Academy after all. My boys rejoiced and I wiggled cables and unplugged my modem and router, restarted the computer, had no luck, turned off the computer, unplugged everything, turned the computer back on, still nothing, called Melissa to get AT&T's tech support number. In my attempt to spare the trees I have gone paperless on many of my bills. That's all well and fine until something goes down or stops working properly. I guess I'm going to have to write down all of the tech support and customer care numbers for my paperless accounts so I don't have to bother Melissa when she's sleep deprived and caring for a newborn. In my last attempt to avoid sitting on the phone with AT&T I jiggled and wiggled some more and for some unknown reason the Internet came on! The boys moaned and groaned and started on their lessons. About 2 lessons in I decided that a visit to our old school to see Don and Susan was in order. Ice cream sounded awfully good too :o) Don gave me two more books to read and Susan gave me chocolate covered macadamia nuts. We said our goodbyes and went to Rite Aid to get scoops of Thrifty ice cream. I despise the town that the Rite Aid is in, but to remember the days of being young and walking into the air conditioned Thrifty store in the middle of the desert heat for the treat of their oddly scooped ice cream, is worth the trip... especially on a day when one turns 32 and needs to remember being "that young". The lady behind the counter offered to give Taluelah a cone of her own with a bit of ice cream in it. She said she didn't want her to feel left out. I figured it would be a dollop at the bottom, but she filled Rainbow Sherbet up to the lip of the cone. I was sure her inclusion would cost me an additional buck. We were charged for three cones, Lue's was gratis. Taluelah made a righteous mess of herself and everything around her, and loved every minute of her first, very own, ice cream cone!

Dustin beat us home with all the fixings for baked fettuccine and ooey-gooey brownies. The fettuccine is in the oven now smelling up the house, making my stomach grumble. The brownies will be baked later. I've spoken with and received wishes and blessings from those who care and have had the time to let me know. In honor of my birthday and my dad's life a paper candelabra has been decorated and will be lit for my dad tomorrow at the Relay For Life event in Petaluma. Friends are on their way to help celebrate the end of my day. Taluelah is watching her brothers and dad play Mario Kart while loving her baby and I am at the end of my birthday blog post. Cheers!