Happy 30 years of being alive

So this is much later than usual, I usually hit this on my actual birthday but I was out of town, soaking up retail civilization as much as possible and enjoying my wee family.  I’ve been doing this “Year-In-Review” recap for 9 years now… I’m not even going to go through the archives and see what interesting things I did in years past since they involve stuff like “graduated college” “traveled to Australia or all over Europe” and “was cooler than boring stay-at-home-moms.”  But, a tradition is a tradition so wooooop, here it is:

• Went to Colorado to throw the greatest surprise birthday party EVER for me amazing mutter on her 60th turn around the planet.


• Woke up sick after eating some chocolate and KNEW - yup, I was knocked up with spawn #2 (aka the Dude).


• Got my fancy schmancy red laptop that I spend more time with than my spouse.  But it’s RED.


• Got to be the maid of honor at my girl Dani’s wedding extravaganza!


• Oooo, got my iPhone that may or may not rival the birth of my firstborn as the coolest thing ever.


• Continued gigging with the 2 celtic bands.


• Found out I was having a Dude of the MALE persuasion and got so hysterical they had to send me home from the doctor’s office.  I’m am now slightly less hysterical.


• Husband got laid off, because of my magical uterus that has the power to make that happen each time I am knocked up.


• Headed to San Diego for less than 24 hours to mostly sit in traffic, but to also see my brother get hitched.


• Got to see Death Cab For Cutie in concert, wootwoot!


• Took advantage of the laid-off-ness and took a road trip to Denver to see my parents.


• Did the random single-parenting thing as Husband flew all over the country interviewing for jobs.


• Had my house SERIOUSLY worked on and renovated while I simply sat around pregnant and went to Little Ceasars every day to feed the troops.


• Went to Wisconsin on a fact finding mission after being offered a job there in Iceburg… found out the fact that living in the middle of nowhere will be super creepy.


• Took the job, packed up the house and put it on the market (want a recently awesome-d house in the burbs of Atlanta?!  Cheep!) and left out wonderful family and friends  and bands in the South…


• Lived in an apartment for a month in Baraboo (not kidding on the name) before settling in a lovely home in Iceburg.


• Gave birth to the Dude.


• Labor is the easy part.  Realized that I should be locked in a dungeon for the first 2 weeks post-partum, holy SNAP.


• Amazing sis-in-law Jane was there to cook and wrangle WonderGirl (cook us some dinner, not cook WG), thank the heavens above.


• Got the hang of this 2 kid thing mostly - enough to be able to single-parent it when Husband hits the road for work every other week.


• Grandpa C passed away so Dude and I trekked to California to be with family.  Quite awesome, and sobering experience.


• Celebrated WonderGirl’s 3rd birthday in style.  I love me some WonderGirl.


• On the eve of hitting 30, Husband packed up the whole family to take us to Chicago (ie, a big city with civilized things like Targets and Children’s Museums and Wendy’s restaurants).  He.  Is.  Awesome.

I was freaking about 30 all year long… we are all quite aware of this, but at the last second Husband swooped in for the touchdown and made my day so great that I feel like I could do another 30 if I’ve got someone this wonderful to do it with.  After one of the early morning feedings on my birthday, he slipped back into bed, wrapped his arms around me and whispered “Happy birthday!”  It makes all the insanity of my present life worth it.