Tag Archives: forty

It was a two week celebration…

So, my birthday celebration is finally over.  It started with a party on December 1, my real birthday on the 13th, and then a night out on the town with Tom on the 15th.  A night out was the big finale and it was really fun!

Tom has accumulated a large amount of points with Sheraton due to his travels to Roanoke.  We decided to use some of those points and stay at ALoft in Charlotte’s Epicenter.  The Epicenter is a new three story, square, strip mall full of restaurants, bars and activities.  The hotel is attached to the Epicenter and is a trendy and modern hotel with a very European feel to it.  It was perfect.

The first thing we did when we got to the hotel was climb into bed and take a nap.  Tom thought I was kidding about napping, but I was not!  I was exhausted.  We napped until 6:00, showered and went out to find some dinner.  I wanted to eat at a restaurant that wasn’t too upscale, but also didn’t have too many TVs either.  We found Black Finn.  It was perfect.  An all wood bar/restaurant with good seafood and a medium/casual atmosphere.  After dinner went went to the bowling alley that is in the Epicenter.  We couldn’t bowl because of Christmas parties so we opted to have a drink and a tequila shot (my favorite).  I had to bring in 40 with a tequila shot.  It was delicious!

We did realize that we are a bit old.  There isn’t much going on at 9:00 pm.  As I age, I have to adjust my idea of “fun”.  Fun is enjoying who you are with, having some laughs, and getting a decent night’s sleep.  We did that!  Tom and I laughed more than we have in a while.  It is amazing how much more we get to talk and laugh when we can finish a sentence and not have our conversation be about the kids or finances.  We had a great time together.  We even got to sleep in until 7:30am with out anyone pushing us out of bed or telling us to “get up”.  It was fabulous.

Tom had to get up and go to church that morning to work the A/V stuff.  I had decided to skip church, even though Faith was singing in the service.  In the end, mommy guilt got the best of me and I took a taxi to church and saw her sing.  She did pretty well, except that she kept staring at the song sheet….pretending that she could read it.  She just did what she thought everyone else was doing.  :)  Too funny.

That night she also sang at Little Church’s Lovefeast.  She sang Morning Star.  A song that the children sing each year.  It is sort of a rite of passage for kids in the Moravian church.  She did it!  I am so proud.  She is singing it again at the 2:00 service on Christmas Eve.  I will definitely get some pictures of that!

It is official….I am 40

My birthday came and went without any major changes. I didn’t wake up with more wrinkles, a new ache, or a need for glasses. It was just a regular old day. The morning was actually the most fun and special. I woke up to Wilson sleeping with me and Tom in our queen sized bed (needless to say it was a little cramped). Then Faith came in carrying Miller. She likes to get him out of the pack-n-play and then carry him around. It was nice to be with all my kids in bed. While we played I thought, “Life is pretty good. I am very blessed to have these three wonderful children. I should be happy that I even made it to my 40th birthday.”

After we played in bed we all went to the kitchen, ate breakfast, and then had some cake. I froze a huge part of the cake from my party so that we could eat it on my real birthday. It was just as good as the first time. We ate cake, talked and laughed, and then packed up to go back to Charlotte.  Here is a phone pictures of me and Miller eating cake…

 

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Doug ended up coming over with his two kids around 6:00pm. The kids played while Doug and I hung out and then we put all five kids to bed at my house. Jacqueline was at her last class so she dropped off Doug and the kids at my house and was coming back to get them later. That allowed Doug and I could hang out and we didn’t have to get a babysitter or drive home. Our plan worked perfectly….except that all the kids didn’t get to sleep until after 9:00. We let Faith and Gabriel watch the ipad in my bed and eat waffles…as long as they were quiet we didn’t care. :) We watched Bill Burr, a very funny comedian on NetFlix, laughed and had some good brother-sister quality time. In the end I was ok with being 40. I don’t want to say “40” too many times though. Here is one of the cards I received. How true (unfortunately this happened due to children, not being 40)

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Becca’s 40th Birthday Bash

I have not been very excited about turning 40. A month or so ago I told Tom that I was going to be depressed if my birthday came and went without a celebration to liven the event up. Tom and my friend, Michaleh, decided that they would throw me a birthday party. I was to do nothing but give them the names of those that I wanted to attend. Begrudgingly, I did that and waited for the big day. (Turns out that I am a total control freak!)

A number of mishaps and illnesses whittled down my expected party guests from 40 people down to 20. Between noon and 6:30 the night of the party, I received numerous texts that many of my friends and family were not going to be there. I began to cry. I thought, “Great! This is just going to prove that being 40 is going to suck!”. Tom tried to console me and remind me of all of those friends that were going to be there. Jacqueline even called to cheer me up. I told her that I was now going to need some tequila instead of just wine. :)

I arrived at the house and it looked great. Tom, Chaz and Michaleh were there to greet me and hand me a glass of wine. Slowly more friends and family began to arrive. Sidney Youngs drove down from Asheville to help celebrate and Patty Wunsch Smith came from Lake Norman. These were two important guests for me. As time went on, more and more of my best friends showed up. Tom finally put on some hip-hop music (my favorite) and my disposition changed drastically…with a little help from the very strong margaritas that Doug continued to make for me!

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I even got a birthday cake. It felt very surreal standing there looking at a giant birthday cake with my name on it while people sang Happy Birthday. I don’t know when that happened last. I guess it was in high school. At some point in your life you stop getting birthday cakes with your name in it….until your 40th. A big enough occasion to warrant a cake and candles….I got 5 of them. :) A delicious (gluten free) cake from Aunt Lisa.

 

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For fun, Tom had set up a photo booth in the office. He had the camera on a tripod and Michaleh had brought some really fun and silly dress up props. My friends took turns taking silly pictures and writing up birthday wishes for me to enjoy later. I even got to go into the photo booth with all of my girlfriends. I don’t remember laughing that hard! Here are a few of the pictures that were taken.

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The party ended up being the perfect size. Had there been more people then I would not have had a chance to talk to all my friends that came to celebrate. The party was fabulous! I was able to talk and laugh with the people in my life that mean the most to me. I am so blessed to have 20 beautiful, caring and fun people that love me and walk with me through this life. I am thankful for Tom who cared enough to throw this party and ensure that I had a great time.

Happy 40th!

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