Bring on the Next Decade

The clock struck midnight on Friday night and I turned 30. I've been dreading this day all year.

Jason already witnessed my crying fits over turning 30 and pulled through with a day full of pleasant surprises. I really wanted to drink my face off, but Nugget spoiled that plan. Don't get me wrong, I would so much rather be pregnant than drunk... most days

My day started with a prenatal massage that I set up for myself. It was fabulous. Later that afternoon one of my favorite college friends showed up unexpectedly at our house. Jason set up manicures for us. I adore my college friends and miss them dearly. It was lovely to chat with Erica for a couple of hours and have some much needed girl time.

Next we went to Little Italy in Baltimore where I figured some of my teacher friends would join us for dinner. I was shocked to find more out of town friends. Jason arranged for 9 of us to have dinner together. Each person from a different stage in my life and most people did not know each other, yet everyone got along.

We finished the night with some game playing at our house then all our guests left. I was bummed no one spent the night, but it's probably better since our house is a disaster upstairs right now.

I normally dread birthdays because I feel this need to do something big then usually I am disappointed. I didn't have to hear one excuse from friends about being too busy or not having enough money, blah, blah. Jason planned the whole thing, so I had no expectations. It was a perfect day once I finished crying about having nothing cute to wear.

My 20's were OK. I was afraid to turn 30 because I felt I didn't do everything I wanted in those 10 years. I'm ready to put them behind and start enjoying my life in my 30s. We have many exciting plans for our 30s and I think it's going to be a great 10 years.

I've turned into my mother

As I set up my calendar for 2011, I thought about transferring over all the birthdays I wrote down on the 2010 one. After skimming through the calendar, I put the pen down and hung up the calendar without any birthdays or anniversaries

There are just too many birthdays and anniversaries at this point. Now there are babies galore and many due dates in 2011. It's impossible to keep track of everything. So I decided, there will probably be no cards in 2011 unless you're lucky and I remember. A phone call is a bit easier than finding a card and a stamp.

Actually, it started in 2010. Did you notice you didn't receive a Christmas card from us? I was torn between photo and regular and then felt like all we do in our hustle bustle lives is plop a card in an envelope and it's done. What happened to personalized messages in Christmas cards? I used to spend days writing out messages. I even received a card this year that wasn't signed. It's amazing how nice a hand written message is these days. We got maybe 3 cards with that.

So in my ripe age of 29 and 11/12ths I realize that my mother was not a grinch all of these years. My sister and I used to give her crap for never sending cards. I get it now and think I may be my mother this year. No cards unless the mood hits me or you invite me to a birthday party.

The ironic part- I am the head of the party planning committee for my team at school which means I'm in charge of getting cards. Ha ha.

I expect to receive zero cards this year after this post. Instead, I'll wait for your phone call on January 29th :)

Maybe when I'm a stay at home mom I'll be more aware of birthdays and other important dates. Until then, don't take it personally if you don't hear from me on your special day. Blame my mother. She taught me well. Just kidding! My mother has actually gotten better about sending cards, or at least to me, recently.

The Joys of Home Ownership

When I was in elementary school, two events scarred me for life.

1. A house in a nearby neighborhood got struck my lightning and resulted in a fire. The family was not home at the time, but luckily a neighbor called the fire department before the house burned to the ground.

Result- I'm terrified of thunderstorms, mostly because I'm afraid my house will get struck by lightning and burn to the ground.

2. The episode of The Hogan Family where a lamp in the attic somehow starts a fire.

Result- After we put boxes in our attic, I ask Jason if he turned out the light. I do open the stairs from time to time just to make sure it is off.

Both of these stories show my fear of fire. As I fall asleep at night I will think about things, like did I turn off the stove? When I drive to school- did I turn off my straightener? I will tiptoe downstairs often to see if the stove is really off. It always is. I drive home to check my straightener. It's always off.

While a light in the attic or lightning have not sparked a fire, we have almost caught our house on fire twice.

We were having Jen & Matt for lunch on their drive back to NC. We decided to have burgers and other BBQ type food. I put eggs in a saucepan to use for deviled eggs. When the timer went off, I didn't believe the eggs were fully cooked, so I left the stove on but did not reset the timer. We left for church and after being away from the house for almost 2 hours, I realized I never turned off the stove. I know I say I am having a "panic attack" often. I really believe I was moments away from a serious panic attack. We quickly called our neighborhood to go into our house. We peeled out of the parking lot and raced home. I never felt so guilty in my life. Parker was in his crate. Did I just kill our sweet dog? Did I burn down our house?

The damage: Yes, the water completely evaporated and the eggs exploded over our kitchen. The house was filled with smoke. Our dog was alive, but VERY scared. And it smelled like burnt eggs in our house for days. Parker freaks out every time I cook something that sizzles or makes a little smoke/steam. I don't blame him. I also never leave eggs boiling if I don't plan on staying in the kitchen the entire time. We also bought 2 fire extinguishers

Fire hazard story 2. I have read numerous times that you should never run your dryer when you are not home. I abide by this rule. I don't even like going to bed with stuff in the dryer. This past Thursday I had jeans in the dryer and it was going to be a while until they were finished. I decided to go against my policy and go to bed.

Jason emails me the next morning to tell me the dryer was STILL running when he got up for the gym at 4:30. Environmentally friendly me could only think that we wasted electricity for at least 7 hours. Then it dawned on me. We could have burned our house down, AGAIN! AND my jeans are already a little tight, are they going to be midget size after being in the dryer for 8 hours?

The damage: Jeans are fine. Dryer is dead. We bought a new washer and dryer this weekend. To be delivered today during the Eagles game.

This means we have officially replaced almost every appliance in our house. 5 years, 7 appliances. The only thing left "to go" is the sump pump. Luckily the plumber that was over to check our new water heater that was leaking, said it looked fine. We keep joking that we can't move fast enough. What's next, the deck falls off the back of the house? Ah, the joys of home ownership.