Turning 4-0

I have often heard the quote "life begins at 40" and wondered what it was supposed to mean. When you turn 40 is something magical supposed to happen? Are you really supposed to wait 40 years for your life to begin? Are you supposed to feel older or wiser? I guess I am in big trouble if any of that is true.

So I looked up the quote which was made by an American journalist named Helen Rowland. She actually was a very quotable journalist. The entire quote goes like this "Life begins at 40 - but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person, three or four times." Oh, now that makes more sense.

My 40th birthday has come and gone and so far all is well. I remember being young and thinking that 40 was so old. Well, when you look at it from this side it doesn't seem so old to me. And I am really ok with being 40.

To celebrate my big day, my husband took the day off from work so that I could take the day off from my job. I changed no diapers and only gave orders as to what needed to be done to get everyone ready for the day. I have major control issues and it is very hard for me to be hands off.

In the evening, my husband took me to dinner at this very nice restaurant in historic Ellicott City. We also invited our neighbors to come with us. The dinner was absolutely wonderful.

The partying didn't stop there. My neighbor called me about noon on Sunday and asked me to come over to help her pick out paint samples. I didn't think anything of it at that particular moment. I finished putting up groceries and then took Jay over to his play date down the road. I took my time because the Mom just had her 4th child and he was just precious. I then actually thought about it a little more and it smelt a little fishy to me. Mind you I didn't think anything about driving down the road past all of my friend's cars that were "hidden" from me. As I pulled in my driveway I thought it was odd that she had her blinds closed, because they are always open. So I made my way over there and when I walk in I get the big "surprise". There are about 10 of my friends waiting on me. It was a very fun lady's brunch.

Our neighbors have been so incredibly nice to us since we moved here over a year ago. It was very thoughtful of her to plan this party for me.

And that is how I celebrated turning 40! Although we know someone who says that you really have a week to celebrate, so I guess I have about 4 days left.