Back to Back 40th Birthday Bashes and I lived to tell the tale...

Imagine that. lol Where do I begin?

Well my 40th (not Surprise) Birthday party was just great. Not to mention the spa day my hubby sent me on while he cleaned, cooked and organized it all. All my closest friends minus one or two were there. Sometimes when I am the hostess I get worried that I am spending too much time with one group and not talking enough to another...but I really felt like I got to talk with everyone and flit around from one person to the other. I hope everyone had fun I know I did. I have the goofy pictures to proove it!

That all being said, like I just told someone a little while ago..it is not often that I am rendered speechless. But my 40th birthday has left me that way about ten times over. I can't say how many heartfelt things people have said to me, about me...me and my husband..etc. over the last few days. I have learned in my 40 years how to take a compliment better, and not to counter-attack it with something negative about myself, most times. That's really hard for me to do.
But the things people have said to me, not things like.."oh I love your shoes...where did you get them" to which I would usually reply something like..."These? Oh they were only $10 blah blah blah..."
I am talking about friends telling me or writing in cards how they feel about me. Making me realize how important I am to them. I know how important they are to me. I guess I just never really thought about what I was to them. It's so hard for me to put into words and my emotions keep sneaking up on me. As happy as these past days have made me and how many times I have laughed til my sides split, that's how many times I have been brought to tears.
Silly I guess.
First on the actual b-day when friends decorated my house, car etc. and kids decorated the inside. (as I am thinking are you nuts..what the hell are you getting choked up about?) Then out to breakfast and floored with such thoughtful and labor intensive gifts...(again..ok you are in a public place..keep it together!!)then during dinner with my hubby....(again...uh public place..but thinking how this guy is really working this birthday week thing for me...), then laying there getting a facial or one of those treatments during my "spa day" thinking...who the heck do I think I am? And how lucky am I today...and most days come to think of it. (CANNOT cry here they will think I am a nut...), then listening to the crazy sweet things my friends wrote about me for the basket Hubby set up during my party...then trying to say something not completely stupid afterwards. It really has been too much!
And finally, the next night at my new "bff"'s surprise 40th birthday party...now my birthday week was done. It's not about me...truthfully I was getting tired of it being about me already..imagine what those around me must've thought! But after my pal got the living you know what scared out of him when we surprised him and came in to say hello to all these 80 people standing in his house hugging & kissing him I looked at his face and I thought 'well that says it all. " Tears in his eyes and a look of shock. But I knew that look. I felt that look. It wasn't just the surprise at that point (although I must say it was the best surprise I have ever seen in my life...can you say..."How YOU doin'?). It was a look of...this for me? All these people did this for me? I know I am a good person, people like me, I try like hell to be a good spouse, parent, friend...but all this for me? I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is a good way to describe it all. Then after a night of partying HARD...dancing for hours, singing and all the carrying on you can imagine that goes on at a 40th birthday party...it all comes full circle. Everyone went home, except for a few house guests and us, we hung around cleaned up a little...had a night cap or two (more like a morning cap seeing it was like 2 a.m.), laughed ourselves silly while we reviewed the night and all the planning and sneaking around that went down to get this party pulled off. The surprisee got a gift from a dear cousin that flew in just for the occasion, a picture of them as kids, blown up to 8x10. This would be the only picture of himself he has, since his mom died when he was very young and he never had any pictures of his childhood. So when we were all done crying (thank God now I could finally cry since everyone else was ...and at that point I almost lost it)we all knew that this is what's important. Not where you live, what you wear, what you drive or how many figures are on your paycheck. What you make your life to be is important. At the end of the day you know you've done your damdest.. you love your family, your friends...your life. And if you're truly blessed these wonderful people that you build your life around love you back.
So now that I have arrived at the decade of 40...I am so very grateful, blessed and humbled by the people I have in my life. All of them. I will let them all know whenever I get the chance, because them letting me know has been the best gift I will ever receive.
OK OK...lets not get crazy I still like pocketbooks too...!
Good grief and I have a LOT of thank you's to write!