Turning 41

Yesterday I turned 41, and I must say I think it was one of the nicest birthdays on record....truly; so much so that I wanted to record some of the best things down here in my journal, k????

• Tom had a beautiful birthday card waiting by the nice warm fire for me.
• I had gotten emails from Irina (all the way from Germany including pics of the baby) and Aunt Judy, and oh so many facebook messages!
• Enough calls to make me run late; a nice long chat with my sister Lisa who I never get to visit with anymore, Scott, Kelly, and I know I'm forgetting some....
• And then lunch at VI with Grandpa and Mom and Dad!  What a treat for me; great company and lots of food.  I got to tell Grandpa all about The Double J, and have him all to myself, er share him with M&D, but they get to see him pretty often so they didn't mind!
• Mom and Dad all to myself for the car rides to share a few of my ideas about the new house and maybe going back to school???  Yeah, if we can afford it I may hit the books again.  I could substitute teach at the kids' schools and learn more in my field; I want to study Agricultural Business of course.

• The wonderful email from Tom about remember when:  reminding me of times like when we had just gotten rid of Isabella's pacifier at the age of 2 and we travel all the way to CA and hop out of our Suburban and see a friend whose 4 year old has a pacifier hanging out of her mouth.  The look our daughter gave us was priceless.  Halfway between you guys tricked me and that girl looks ridiculous!!!!  And how about the time that same daughter had screamed so long on a road trip Tom was so frazzled at one hotel he hopped back in the Suburban and ripped the boys' bicycles right off the roof on the motel arch!  Last but not least he must remind me of our naked hike up Mt. Rosalie that started our businesses in the first place...

Yes, I am very proud of my 41 years; and looking forward to what comes in the next few decades.  We are truly blessed that even in our dark times we have family and friends to support and be behind us.  It's funny because I have a hard time truly pinpointing "dark" times in our lives as a family....because each time we have rough patches it seems as if there is always an inner lining.

Take for instance when we had lost both of Toms parents; we all were so lost and had gone through so much losing them so closely.  I was convinced my illness was grief, that was until I got the bedspins in the night and started throwing up all day....Well, we found out we were pregnant with our wonderful Bella!  And even though times might be hard right now with finances and my back; to think that we have 2 sons at college, both from families,that have seamlessly melded into one , and have never had college grads is simply amazing to me. 

And now to be dreaming of The Double J....onward and upward we go.  The Jeute's have a way of dealing with being knocked around in this life and that is to "buck up" as Tom says.  And that is what we will do; so I guess 41 is looking just fine even with a few "bumps and bruises".

Oh, I almost forgot the visit from my alter/older me.  Um, yeah no kidding.  The night before my birthday Officer H. drops off this gal in our driveway (which in itself is a bit odd seeing as how he is an officer, but we just figure he is on his way hunting or whatever) and I open up the door with a smile on my face and say Hi like I do to all guests.  And she says "How do you know me?"  I'm like, okay, well, you just came to my door, but anyway, I shook her hand and lo and behold her name was Judy!

She continues to explain to us that she was up enjoying the "babbling brook" just a month after her 15th back surgery, yes folks you read that right 15th back surgery!!!, and got her car stuck!!!  Oh, she used to clean our house for the previous owner, etc.  As weird as this sounds, she sort of looked like a combination of my beloved Grandma, who is always on my mind at my birthday, and myself; she had her hair all done up like my Grandma used to do.  So when she pulled out a cigarette case that looked just like my Grandma's (and nobody uses anymore), one that just recently had popped into my mind for some strange reason I about fell down.

Officer H knew that Tom had lots of practice pulling people out of the ditch, and he was right; so he grabbed his equipment and off they went after she and I compared notes on back injuries for a few minutes and she relived her time here at The Royal Ranch...  Crazy I tell you.  After she left my daughter and I had seen the connections right away and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.  When Tom got back, I asked him what he thought of the alter me and his face just fell; it took him a second and then he was like "OMG!!!!"  He has been telling all his friends about it ever since.

But what we can say is that at least the old gal was up there enjoying the "babbling brook" just a month after her back surgery.  We can totally see me doing that.  That is how I knew to get her a chair, and wheel it up close to the fire while she was here.  And then hand her a phone to call her boyfriend who I was sure was probably worried sick about her.  Yup, sure enough.  She had gotten lost in the sounds so excited for the holiday season coming up she didn't even realize she was stuck....

Okay, if that is how it's gotta be, then I can deal with that.  Yes, it was a very random, thought provoking birthday I must say...