Happy Birthday to me. I've turned 30!

I've been 30 years old for a day and a half now. I've come to accept it and embrace it. If I close my eyes I don't see the gray hair (well, it's not there anymore, but more on that in a minute), I don't see the extra 10 pounds and I don't see the wrinkles (maybe wrinkles is the wrong name for them. The creases around my mouth and eyes when I smile or do my best "don't mess with me" look don't go away after I'm done smiling/scowling.) But life is all about how you feel, right? I don't feel any older than 21. OK, so maybe 23. The hip thing is the only ache that keeps coming back to haunt me. Mark even said yesterday that a hip replacement might be in my future. Someday we will take the time to figure out what's been wrong with it for the last 11 years but for now I claim I feel great and NOT 30. It's not that I have anything against 30. It's still very quite young. I hope I'm not even halfway through my life, but I remember a time when I was 21 and I thought 30 year-olds were well...not young. Now that I've offended almost everyone I know I'll move on.

Yesterday was a great day. Mark took the day off. The day started off with presents and hugs and kisses from my kids. I got a cool watch that can tell me my heart rate. I already used it this morning during my run. Awesome! We sent Téa off to school and Mark went to get a Cold Stone ice cream cake with Calista. I stayed home with Piper because the poor kid can barely breath when she starts having a coughing fit. We didn't want her going anywhere. Mark came home with lunch and sour patch kids. Yum! While Piper had a nap Mark and I watched Arsenal cream FC Porto. Since I couldn't play soccer that day I might as well watch it. During the game I decided last minute to get my hair done. The gray was oh so ugly. I called and found that my usual place is no longer in business so I found a place that was able to fit me in at 4 pm. I figured since I was only going to get a partial weave I'd been done in less than 2 hours. Wrong. The girl did a great job on my hair if what I wanted was to become more of a blond. Without going into too much detail that will just get me all uptight again, I got home 3 hours later and I wasn't happy.

But my girls were waiting anxiously for me to get home so we could eat ice cream cake and they made me Birthday books while I was gone. They made me forget all about my hair. And Mark promised me that it wasn't bad at all. And that he wasn't saying that just to make me feel better. Maybe I just need a few days to accept the new look just like I've accepted being 30.

And I'll even post pictures since I know you all are wondering what it looks like.


Nice sad face, huh? Notice the wrinkles/creases? Good thing Mark works for Nu Skin. Anti-aging cream is calling my name.

Now looking at these photos you think...it's not that blond. But I purposely didn't blow dry my hair and wear it down today. I didn't want to look at it. And to be honest it doesn't look bad when it's still partly wet and up in a pony tail. But last night when it was dry and down...it was really light. I guess the really hard part is knowing that not a single strand of hair is my original color. Remember the part where I said partial weave? Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one. I guess it's my fault. Halfway through I realized she wasn't leaving any hair dangling between the foil sheets. It was all being colored. I wasn't going to go into detail. Sorry. Moving on.

Aside from the minor hair hiccup, my birthday was great! Now I just need to come up with a few more things for Mark for his birthday tomorrow.