Twenty-Eight

I turn 28 tomorrow. I like that. I finally feel like age is helping me to find my niche in the world. I like that I have two kids, one of which is almost 4. It makes me feel like I finally have some real world experience under my belt. I actually happy that 28 is one year closer to 30. I'm excited for 30. I feel like maybe when I'm 30 I won't be trying so hard to prove myself as a grown-up. I'm looking at it as a destination, not a dreaded number.

Last year I got a lot of nice gifts---but mother nature offered a couple not so nice gifts. Namely: snow on my birthday and acne. I woke up on my birthday with acne. It was like I was 17, not 27. So for the last year each night before I go to bed and every morning when I wake up I have to decide if I want to use products to prevent acne or wrinkles. I'm yet to find a acne/wrinkle dual product. Maybe the folks over at Oil of Olay or Mary Kay or whoever can work on that. So far I am yet to keep either at bay. However with how my eye has looked in the last few months, I doubt people are noticing my skin.

I've already had a great birthday with my Symphony trip and today my parents surprised me by being in the Chapel during our temple outing. We spent the day with them and had a nice time at the final party with Taylor's cohort and faculty. It made my mind go back to two years ago when we had our first party. The whole program seemed overwhelming. Now we have a new family member (Kyle) and Taylor will defend his thesis in about 12 hours. I'm so proud of him. He managed to complete a very difficult program and internships and write a thesis and other huge projects while still spending plenty of time with us. We never felt neglected. Happy Birthday to me---we're done!

And then I have my surgery Friday. While I (not-so) secretly enjoy the down-time, I'm a little nervous because I think I'm getting allergic to Percocet, and I don't know what I'll have for pain management. That scares me. But I know I'll manage. Claire is going down to St. George with my folks for Suzy's graduation (yeah, Suzy!), so that will really help her. She worries a lot about me. I intend to spend my down-time putting together all of the newspaper articles from my pageant days. I have two entire huge bins to go through. I've already sorted them, so just a bunch of cut and glue work. I'm excited to finally get it done after 8 years. Did I mention that during the sorting I found a card which still contained $50 cash! I did a happy dance. And I promptly spent it on page protectors, cardstock, and other things needed to organize all my stuff. I'm doing a minimalist scrapbook. Nothing special, because I just don't have the time, money, or desire.

So all I want for my birthday is for my surgery to work this time. I'll take as many prayers as I can get. Oh, and for the acne to go away so I can concentrate on the wrinkles :)