Birthday List

I know this is another ‘list’ post, but I can’t let this weekend go by without a blog entry to commemorate this momentous occasion! Tomorrow I will officially hit my mid thirties – (yikes!) However, instead of giving in to the thoughts of, ‘crap! I’m getting old’, or examining my face for wrinkles (I just tell myself I slept funny, and they are pillow creases imprinted on my face), or other tell tale signs of aging, I decided to take the positive route and reflect on all the good things in life.

So, in honour of my 35^th birthday, here are 35 things that make me smile:

1. My baby boy’s face each morning when I go to pick him up. And, the way his arms and legs go crazy as he ‘tells’ me he’s pleased to see me.
2. My daughter’s anticipation of her trip to Nana’s house, and her eagerness to ‘rets go and pack our supercases’.
3. The fact that I will get to hug my Mum and Dad next week!
4. Knowing that I don’t have to be the one to rush out to a job in the mornings.
5. Staying at home, even though the ‘bosses’ can be very demanding and downright unreasonable at times.
   
6. Lasagna (European style with béchamel sauce).
7. Moose Tracks Ice Cream.
8. Pizza and beer.
9. Fruit Pastilles.
10. Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha.
    
11. The movie ‘Sweet Home Alabama’.
12. Everybody Loves Raymond (I only discovered this recently and love watching the reruns).
13. The fact that Rosie O’Donnell is leaving ‘The View’ (at last), not that I get to watch it that often since our tv must be faulty and is somehow ‘stuck’ on Noggin!
14. Paula Deen, and all that butter!
15. Recent British Movies, like The Holiday, Love Actually, Wimbledon, and watching them in the movie theatre and laughing out loud when nobody else does (I’m assuming it’s because some of the humour or particularly British swear words are lost on an American audience at times, and not because I’m a fool who laughs in all the wrong places!)
    
16. Our healthy, happy families.
17. Old friends who still keep in touch, despite all our kids, hectic days and different time zones making this contact sporadic at best.
18. New friends that have helped me not feel so lonely when I’m so far from family and old friends.
19. Grandmothers who spoil our children, like we were spoiled by our own grandmothers.
20. Aunts and Uncles who spoil them just as much!
    
21. The fact that I am only 6 pounds heavier now than I was the day I got married (which was less than 4 years ago, but I have had two kids since then!)
22. The fact that I’m still nursing, and this means I can stay only 6 pounds heavier than the day I got married, despite the inordinate number of calories I consume on a daily basis!
23. I found a great pair of jeans that fit me the other night (should have bought another pair.)
24. My husband has been able to lower his cholesterol because I’ve cooked him healthier meals.
25. That I know how to cook healthy meals (and quite a few less healthy ones!)
    
26. Puppies make me smile, but not enough to make me want one in my own house.
27. The smell of cut grass, that I can smell right now as my husband mows the lawn.
28. Snuggling with my babies – especially after a bath and right before bedtime.
29. Dimples on my baby’s soft, pudgy hands.
30. A clean and tidy house (especially if I didn’t have to do it).
    
31. When my husband says ‘I love you’.
32. When my daughter says ‘I ruv you’.
33. Baby giggles.
34. That I carried two beautiful lives inside me, nurtured them and brought them safely into the world.
35. Thirty five, wonderful, happy, healthy, and fun years of my life, here’s to many, many more!