Happy Birthday to me...

There were two good things about my birthday-- all of the kind birthday wishes posted by friends on my Facebook account, and the fabulous dinner out with Kevin without the kids (thanks to the Jarvis family for babysitting).

Everything else about my birthday made me want to cry.

And, no, it had nothing to do with turning (gasp) 30. I really don't care about that. Yeah, it's weird to be leaving my 20's behind, but it's kind of exciting to be starting fresh on a whole new decade of life. A lot happened in my 20's (marriage, college degree, kids, the "real world," and a few near-death experiences to boot!), so I'm sure there's a whole lot in store for me in these next ten years (although, I'm hoping to skip over the near-death-thing this time around).

But my birthday just wasn't a very good day, and really, the rest of my week has seemed to follow suit. That morning Allie was great getting ready for school, until it was time to make her bed and put her shoes on. She had plenty of time to accomplish those two tasks before leaving the house at quarter to nine, oh yes. But somehow, she just couldn't get her rear in gear to do those two simple task in fifteen minutes, but rather took ten minutes past that to get it done. So she was ten minutes late to school. Not a huge deal, but I hate being late anywhere anymore.

By the time I got home, I had to feed Drew immediately, then shower and dress, and then go grocery shopping. By the time I finished grocery shopping, I was ten to fifteen minutes late to pick Allie up from school.

When we got home, I dumped the groceries on the kitchen floor, and got the girls lunch, following which I nursed Drew. Once all three children had been fed, I walked into the kitchen to grab some lunch myself when I looked up at the clock. Hmmm... 1:30... 1:30! Yup, I had a doctor's appointment right at that moment. I yelled, "Hurry, girls, get your shoes on! Let's go! In the car NOW!" I shoved a couple brownies down that had been leftover from FHE (hey, it's calories!), and started the car.

So I was fifteen minutes late for my appointment. The receptionist took my co-pay and asked the nurse if the doctor could see me.

"He said he would only have time to establish her-- anything else and she would need to make another appointment." I looked down as my eyes started to tear. See, I needed more thyroid medication (I have hypothyroidism). My doctor left the practice, so they needed to give me a new doctor, who needed to "establish" me as his new patient before providing any other health care (meaning, just a routine check-up and review of medical history). So, the nurse's response meant I would have to come back another day to have my thyroid re-evaluated, and my medication prescription refilled. Having all three kids in tow, I thought I would have a breakdown right then. But I blinked and held it together as the nurse called me to the back.

I think Dr. Chrieki must have felt sorry for me, as he walked in to see three children crowding the tiny exam room along with me. He not only did the check-up, but refilled my meds, and gave me the blood test, a flu shot, and a strep culture. He actually offered a tetanus shot, too, but realized later they had run out of his preferred variety. Darn. After the flu shot, I rubbed my shoulder and sang "Happy Birthday" to myself. The nurse laughed. Yeah, sure. Funny when it's someone else's birthday. :)

After coming home, I nursed Drew again, and then put Sami down for a nap (two hours late). When all was quiet, I got on Facebook, and saw that Sarah had had her baby, precious little Peter. I thought I should call her. Forty-five minutes later, I realized I should get off the phone and give the girls a bath before leaving to go out to dinner. After I finished drying Sami's hair and warming a bottle, Kev walked in. I threw on some lipstick and ran a brush through my hair, and we threw the kids and the diaper bag in the car and left for the Jarvises' house.

Normally I would say birthdays are a family event. And actually that morning I had thought, Ya know, maybe we should tell the Jarvises to not worry about it, and we'll just bring the kids. But then the day kicked my trash, and I knew I needed to go somewhere nice and quiet without children. We went to our favorite schmancy restaurant, Continental Flambe.

That was possibly the best dinner of my life.

And then we picked up the kids (it took thirty minutes to get them to leave), and got them to bed over an hour late, and that crappy-day feeling came back.

So, I tried to remember the Creme Brulee.