Getting ready for the big day

Tomorrow is my birthday. Actually, by the time my East Coast family reads this, it will be my birthday. I've had so many memorable birthday experiences. I remember as a little kid, my birthday parties were always scheduled around Superbowl Sunday. The theory behind this was that my birthday parties got the moms and kids out of the houses so that the dads could watch football. It seems like many of my birthday parties were at McDonald's or Papa Gino's. I always liked the Papa Gino's parties best. Papa Gino's had a jukebox and they let the birthday person back with the pizza making people so that I could make my own pizza. I can remember trying to mimic the guy and making this awesome attempt at throwing my pizza dough in the air. It ended with my dough on the floor and my pride mortally wounded. I've had a few great birthdays since being here in Kodiak. My first birthday here, I was about 33 weeks pregnant with Megan. Keith and I had planned to meet at Henry's (one of maybe 5 restaurants in Kodiak). Keith was supposed to pick Joshua (who was about 17 months old) up from daycare and meet me in town to eat. I waited outside Henry's for over 30 minutes, and just as I was getting ready to leave. Keith pulled in and apologized. He and Joshua had been sitting over at El Chicano's waiting for me. By now both places were packed and I was too hungry to wait, so we just went home. That was also they day that Keith dropped Joshua's Ruffy (his lovey that he sleeps with) on the ground outside the daycare and didn't realize it until hours later at bedtime. Fortunately, Ruffy was sitting under the streetlight just waiting to be picked up by Keith. A quick trip through the washer and dryer and he was good as new. The whole birthday wasn't a complete bust. That was also the day we took a quick peek at the mystery baby in my belly with the ultrasound machine at the clinic and the doctor made an unofficial guess that it might be a girl.

Another memorable birthday in Kodiak was when I turned 30. Daniel was just 3 months old. Keith had gone out with all the kids to the store and bought balloons a cake and a few small things. While I was at work, Keith blew up all the balloons and hid them in the kids' bathtub with the shower curtain pulled closed. Daniel was our child that never took to a bottle. So I would come home every day for lunch and nurse him. As I was sitting at the table nursing the baby and eating a sandwich, Megan was going on and on about something that I just couldn't quite understand. Then finally, she and Joshua ran into their bathroom and starting bringing out balloon after balloon after balloon. It was fun.

We don't have anything big planned for tomorrow. I have school on-line for an hour in the morning, and I have a paper due that I need to finish. Keith has a doctor's appointment that he'll have to leave for while I am doing school. We have the cable guy coming to fix our cable outlet. We don't actually have cable TV, but we have our internet and telephone through the cable company. Keith has to work tomorrow evening and the kids and I have AWANA. So not a lot of time for birthday shenanigans. The kids and I are planning to make some cupcakes tomorrow morning, but that's about it. I'm very stressed about the move and preparing the house to sell and taking two classes at once instead of just one, and keeping up with Joshua's school work - I told Keith it wouldn't be worth the time or the money to go out right now. But next year, we'll be near free babysitters (I mean, Grandparents) and we'll paint the town red for my birthday.

The pictures are Megan and Daniel baking me a cake in Megan's room. They are all about the birthday thing.