My Birthday

Yesterday was my 36th birthday. I told the kids I was going to start counting backwards this year, so maybe it's my 34th. It was an eventful day. Not sure I would say a good day or even a bad day. I'm still undecided.

It started at 6 a.m. when Little Bit woke up to nurse. She had slept ALL NIGHT LONG (went to bed at 9). This just means we'd worn the poor baby out all week and she was exhausted. Since I'd had 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep by 6, I figured I would go ahead and get up and have some time to myself. Ahhh, quiet. Oops, then David woke up and crawled his little body in bed next to me because he was cold. So I did what all good mother's would do and took him downstairs to watch television so I could have some quiet. :-)

I decided to make biscuits for breakfast. Turned the oven to 450, made the biscuits in and popped them in the oven. When I opened the oven door, I noticed a bit of smoke and remembered that the cheesecake I'd made on Wednesday had dripped a bit. No big deal, it didn't drip too much. When I checked on the biscuits a few minutes later I realized that I was mistaken. Apparently the cheesecake had dripped a LOT. Here is the way I woke up Old Man:

Me: (whispering) Ummm, honey, I think we have a little problem.
Old Man: (eyes still closed) Huh? What?
Me: (still whispering) Well, we have a fire in the oven.
Old Man: (waking up a bit more) WHAT?

At this point he was looking at me like I'd gone insane. I'm not typically starting fires in the oven. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure that was my first one. He climbed out of bed and went in the kitchen to check with me. By this time, the fire was out, because, even though I'm obviously not paying attention to details, I knew enough to turn the oven off and NOT open the oven door. In case you're wondering, the biscuits actually cooked in the smoky, turned off oven. And they tasted pretty good even with the smoky flavor added. Oh, and remind me to check my smoke detectors. Not a one of them went off.

My family gave me my birthday gifts while we ate the smoked biscuits. The kids got me a new griddle - a huge one, much needed. My sweet Old Man gave me a wonderful card and diamond earrings. Shock. Not because he doesn't get me wonderful gifts and he has given me jewelry before. This was just unexpected. They are very beautiful, dainty studs. I actually needed some, but never ever ask for jewelry or expect it. I was guessing I would get a new camera body or boots or pots and pans - and those would have been just fine. But these were special and I love them!

After breakfast, we went to a 5K. My dear sister had somehow convinced me to do a 5K "with" her. Really, I just went so a slow person could jog/walk it with Anne and her cousin (they are 7 and 8 years old). Here's a tip: if you're less than 3 months postpartum with your 5th child, you haven't run but once since the baby was born and it is your 36th birthday, DO NOT, I stress this, DO NOT attempt to walk, jog or run a 5K. It will depress you. And you will worry that your uterus is going to be dragging on the path the entire run. But hey, I do have a new PR (personal record for you non-runners) for a 5K. My new PR for my slowest 5K time EVER - 45 minutes. And just to make me feel better, my 10 year old, Dawn, ran the 5K in 30 minutes, 20 seconds and my 7 year old, Anne, did it in 43 minutes. Old. That's how I feel. And tired.

The rest of the day was less eventful. I took a long bath, which I figured I had earned after that "fun run". Old Man took a nap. Tell me, how does that work. My birthday, he sleeps in later AND takes a nap? Oh, he did get me those earrings. He's totally off the hook for the next year. We had good friends over for supper. Old Man cooked seafood for me and we had a fun evening just chatting.

One thing I forgot! I figured we'd go to bed a little early. But Dawn was overtired and when she gets that way she sometimes feels very sick to her stomach and feels like puking. We were up with her until about 10:30. She never did puke. Now that was a nice gift - no puke on my birthday!