Birthday Time

Hard to believe that today is another Birthday for me. Hard to believe that I am 40! So, to celebrate my 40th, I want to revisit some of my past Birthday Memories!

I have not always had good birthdays. When I was young, my father was often out of town on my birthday working. This being the case, my parents flew my Mother and myself to Spokane to be with my father for the big day for my 8th birthday. I remember being excited as this was my first plane flight, and we were flying in the banana plane! I don't know who remembers them, but there was an airline that had yellow planes with smiley faces painted on the nose. We called them banana planes. So with all this excitement leading up to the flight, it was a real bummer to be delayed and redirected for hours. We spent most of our night in an airport waiting to fly. And they flew us into Boise to get to Spokane from Portland? I still don't get the logistics of going out of our way to reach our destination. Well, at last we got there sometime in the morning, and went to the hotel to rest. We spent a few days hanging out at the hotel while Dad worked, then we all drove home in the truck. Not a real fun birthday, but memorable.

My 19th and 20th birthdays I spent in Boston. I had only been there a little over a month for my 19th, and didn't know anyone yet. The Weingartens (The family I was a Nanny for) were good to me and we had a little celebration, but still I was fairly lonely. For my 20th, my friends had planned a great party for me. It was at one of their houses in Belmont. So this meant that I needed to get from the Back Bay to Belmont to attend. I was taking the T to Cambridge and meeting a friend, then we were to travel onto Belmont via bus. Well I ended up waiting on the friend for well over an hour (There was an accident(. For those of you not familiar with waiting in subway stations, it is not a fun thing. This is also before Cell Phones, so there was no way to get into contact. Lucky for me, this was the only bad spot of the day. We went on to the party, which was also a going away party for a friend leaving on her mission. I will never forget the cake. One half said "Happy Birthday to our Favorite Teenybopper" (I was the youngest of the group, with most being 5 - 10 years older then me) and the other half said "Happy Tracting to our Favorite Bimbo". The second half caused some raised eyebrows at the bakery, and needs a little explaination. My friend Mindy was leaving on her mission (the Tracting part) and she called everyone "Bimbo's". We had to look it up once in the group to prove that it was not always a sexual insult.

When Glenn and I got married, he was bound and determined that I was going to have good birthdays. My first one married, we had only been married for 21 days. Glenn made it a great day by taking me shopping. We had received lots of gift cards and money as wedding presents. We took this and went to finish out (or try to) our wedding registry. It was great. We determined what was most important on our list, and came home with over $500 worth of house goods. It was so much fun.

Two years later, I slipped back to having a not so good birthday. On our 2nd anniversary, I had a Gal-bladder attack. It was painful for the entire day. After visiting the doctor, it was decided that I would have my Gal-bladder removed on August 12th, two days after my birthday. I went on a fat free diet until that day. I remember that Glenn got me Lemon Meringue Pies as he thought they would have less fat (and I love lemon pies). He went way over board on the pies, and we had more then enough for a week - with guests over! All went well, but I did have another attack that night. It seemed my body was not dealing with fat at all. Not too bad a birthday, but having surgery around that time is never happy, and this was the first of two that I have had on 8/12. The second was a minor procedure, but was still stressful.

So, this year for my birthday, I am spending it quietly at home with a sick baby. She is on the mend, but still cranky. So would I change it! No! As my big brother reminded me when he called to wish me happy, I have wanted to be a mom for years, so I can't complain. At least I am getting lots of cuddles and kisses from her (which of course has gotten me sick as well, but I can handle it better then her!) So, another Happy Birthday for me, and hoping that the following year is healthy and happy! With such a great Husband and Daughter, how can I miss!

Spring & Summer Fun

Okay, so I have been very bad, and not been blogging at all. I need to repent, and be a better blogger. So to do a quick recap of our Spring and Summer:

April highlights: Rain, Rain and more Rain. We did manage to hit the Zoo once, but mostly we stayed home where it was dry. Of course, we did continue with our Swimming lessons where we were all wet, but that was planned. Emma also got sick for a few weeks, so we were down for a while.

May highlights: More Rain. We had a very wet Spring here in Oregon. Wettest on on history is what I hear. Even with the rain, we did manage to make it to the Zoo again, and visit the new black bears. We celebrated Mothers Day and had fun with the Family at home.

June highlights: Even more Rain. We were anxious for some summer weather. We visited the zoo once more, and spent some time in Parks introducing Emma to swings, which she loves! We celebrated Father's Day with my side of the family with a Family BBQ at Joe and Meredith's. Glenn got a Tie from them, and a book from me.

July highlights: Camping at Fort Stevens with my extended Cantrell family where we had more (you guessed it) Rain. Emma had fun playing in the sandy dirt and crawling around the RV. We also discovered that she had broken in 3 new teeth (her Molars). A week after we returned, Emma decided it was finally time to walk, and she is now on the go all the time if we let her. My cousin Bethany and her kids visited from AZ. So did Glenn's Aunt Lori and Uncle Chris, along with their son Brian. We got together with both groups. It was good to see them all. Emma and I visited the Zoo once more, this time with Bethany, Katy and kids. Also, we joined OMSI and saw the Einstein exhibit. We also introduced Emma to the Discovery Space there, which she LOVED. I can not stress enough, this is a great place to take a young child. They will have hours of fun.

So, here we are in August. Looking back over our Spring and early Summer, maybe I have not blogged because we really didn't do much. What can I say, we are just homebodies! :)