How I Spent My 30th Birthday

Our family tradition, is that you get birthday gifts FIRST thing in the morning.

Before you’ve gotten out of bed.

Before anything has so much as happened.

And the trick for the gift giver is to anticipate when you will wake up so that you can have their present waiting as they open their eyes.

The birthday boy/girl can’t get out of bed until gifts are opened.  It’s just not right.

Hubs scored this year.

I got me a new lens for my camera.

Which I then played with all day long.

AND I got 6 of these beauties.

Eye candy.

A few days earlier, Andy asked what I wanted him to cook me for breakfast.

But, see…I’m not a breakfast person.

So, I asked if in lieu of a big country meal, I’d rather hide out upstairs…do whatever…while he had solo kid morning duty.

And oh. LET. ME. TELL. YOU.

My birthday could have ended there and I would have been content.

I don’t sleep in, but instead I drank coffee, surfed the web, fiddled with my new lens, finished reading a book, showered, and absolutely dawdled for…um…HOURS.

Brilliant.

All the while, I could hear “Lucy!  Stop rubbing your food in your hair!” “Henry, get off the counter!” “Jill, I’m getting your milk!  Be patient!”

(The baby monitor picked up the sound so I could hear everything).

A few times I wondered if I should go down and help.

Breakfast time with three kids 3 and under is no easy task.

But instead, I hid out and giggled a little at the pandemonium downstairs.

When Andy had asked what I wanted to do for my birthday I knew without hesitation:

I want a day to myself.

“Do you want a party?  Friends over?”

Nope.  I want to leave the house in the morning and be gone until I get bored.  It might be an hour, it might be all day.

“Do you want me to go with you?”

Not really.

“You don’t even want a FRIEND to go with you?”

Nope.  Just me.  Myself.  And I.  No girlfriends, no husbands, no kids.  Although I love them all dearly, I wanted to dawdle.  Drag my feet.  Take my time.  No one else’s opinions or feelings to consider.

So after spending the entire morning upstairs lolly gagging, I headed out.

And stopped at Panera for a fresh bagel, smathered with cream cheese.

I got my haircut at one of those fancy places where everyone wears all black.

And my stylist explained that he spends 20 minutes every morning doing his hair to make it look like he just rolled out of bed.

And went on to tell me that his Halloween costume was “Marie Antoinette meets Donnie Darko meets Harajuku”.

I can’t make this stuff up people.

And then I went to the fabric store.

And looked at all the pretty colors.

And stacked a bunch together.

And put it all back because I didn’t feel like waiting in the crazy College-kids-last-minute-Halloween-costume-shopping-line.

I fell in love with this monochrome white on white Christmas display.

I gawked at pretty things.

And wondered if I could possibly think of an excuse to buy this funky chandelier.

But couldn’t think of anything.  So in the store it stayed.

Boo.

I had lunch (a caesar salad in case you were wondering).

And topped it off with a towering mound of deliciousness.

That I didn’t have to share.

Not even one tiny bite.

But at this point in the day, was when I started feeling a little homesick.

And I texted Andy telling him I missed them.

And seriously considered packing up and going home.

Because I’m not used to being away from my kids.

And I felt a little guilty.

Because being a mom does that to you.

But I pressed onward and spent an hour in the local camera shop.

With an enthusiastic employee who was in camera geekdom heaven with this newbie who owns a fancy camera and has no idea how to use it.

Then I headed over to the bookstore.

If I get to pick my own version of Heaven (which I’m fairly sure I don’t), it would have aisles and aisles of cookbooks.

Because next to a fancy kitchen store, the cookbook section holds a close second in my heart.

P.S. don’t let anyone tell you that blogging is a waste of time.

Ms. Pioneer Woman’s book.  Right there.  Front and center in a chain book store.

I found myself a cozy spot on the floor and flipped through cookbooks, wishing I had the time to make all the decadent recipes.

Until I got a phone call that Tess had gotten into a car accident just down the road from where I was, so I packed up and headed out to meet her on the side of the freeway.

She was fine, albeit a rattled.

And finally, I headed home.

Where I had dinner with this handsome fellow.

And brought home leftovers because I had completely pigged out on my day alone.  Oops.

And as any good and perfect day should end, we stopped into Target to pick up a few things.

Bought a bag of food for the homeless guy outside, and went home.

To find Henry still up and very excited to see his mama.

It was simple.

It was perfect.

It was just what I needed.

Thank you husband for pampering me on my day.  You are amazing.

• Bio
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Latest Posts

jeannett

I'm a mom to four. A wife to one. I believe in story. I love telling you about mine and would love to hear yours. There's really no sense in wasting our suffering and not sharing in each other's joy. We're all in this together...even if it doesn't always feel like it.

@jeannettg

Follow @jeannettg

jeannett

Latest posts by jeannett (see all)

• Dirt in a Jar, Laundry Scientists, and Clean Water - October 20, 2015
• Because Cake. - October 11, 2015
• How to design a luxury bathroom for less - August 12, 2015