Happy 60th Birthday to Me!

Jessica posted this on Facebook to wish me Happy Birthday--

Who wouldn't love that face!

He doesn't care if I am turning 60 or not!

 

Tosha was the first person to wish me Happy Birthday as she messaged me when it was my birthday in Okinawa which happened first.  Since our birthdays are back to back, we have always tried to be the first person to say Happy birthday to each other.  As Tosha says, it was one of our "things".  I did have to report to her that the insurance man had beat her with his happy birthday postcard which had arrived on June 30th.

 

My actual birthday was quite low key and there were no black balloons hanging in our yard.  Scott brought me hot lemon-blueberry bread and cinnamon bread from Great Harvest--yummy--when he dropped off Scarlett for the day.  Scott helped Gary put together some "accidental birthday presents"--a rattan coffee table for our deck and a small water feature.  We had ordered them with HP points which we had to use prior to his last day of work.  I had forgotten about them so Gary had hid them to surprise me on my birthday.

I love it.
Surprisingly it makes a very nice water sound
in the sunlight.  I love listening to it as I work
in the kitchen.  We haven't decided on a location
yet so it is still on the deck.
The figures are a boy and girl under the umbrella reading a book.

Scarlett and I played all day inside and outside and we even got an extra hour or so because Chantel had to work late.  Jena was gone, Ben was gone part of the day, so Gary and I hung out at home and ate salad for dinner.  About 10 pm, we headed to Artic Circle for sundaes from the drive-up window since both of us were barefoot.

 

As mentioned in a prior post, we didn't all celebrate together until July 8th.  Jessica and Elessia gave me a copy of this picture which is hanging on the fridge.

 

Reading our special book to our third grandchild, Liam
He was a few hours old at this time.

 

So it seems like I should write something profound on my 60th birthday--for some reason it seems like a milestone of sorts, even though I zipped past 30--40 and 50 without feeling a need for great reflection.  I have thought about my life over the past few weeks in different ways.  I reviewed where I was at each decade mark of my life--10-Richland: 20-Amarillo; 30-West Jordan and so forth.  I have thought about my mom who died 3 1/2 months after her 60th birthday. She had celebrated her 60th birthday in New Mexico with my dad riding on a scenic train ride and seeing the Albuquerque Balloon Festival (two things on her bucket list.) I tried to figure out if there were some life lessons I wanted to record for my posterity.  A friend shared that she had done an evaluation of her life and recommitted herself to key things when she turned 60 a few months ago so I thought about if there were some grand life changes I should do. None of that matched my mood nor thoughts as I thought about being 60.  So this is what I ended up with---

 

I am not sure if I ever thought about being sixty when I was kid, but if I had--

 

• I am sure I would have thought 60 was VERY old.  I don't feel old at all.  I read that 60 is the new "40" --perhaps so.  However I still have moments when I think "who decided I was old enough to be in charge."  I don't know if you ever feel old in your heart.
• I don't think I would have expected that my youngest child would have just graduate from high school.  Yes, 41 was old to be adopting a baby--but our lives were forever changed in a great way because of that decision to add Jena to our family.
• I was sure that I would have five kids and lots of grandchildren.  And I do have 5 children. How grateful I am for the three little people who have came into our lives in the past year.  Scarlett, Niki, and Liam--being a grandma is the best!  Whether three or thirty--it doesn't matter at all.
• I would have never guessed that I would be in school again...after all as a child, life is looking forward to summer and being OUT of school.  I did like school.  How awesome is it that I can continue to learn and to go to school.
• I certainly planned to be married when I grew up.  I just didn't realize how great it would be to have someone to share your life with--one hundred percent.  And while he traveled a lot when we were first married, what a great blessing to have him work from home these past 20 years.
• I would have expected that I had grown up, gone to BYU (I was a Cougar from the beginning), gotten married and settle down somewhere (Not Utah!), and raised a family.  Those things did happen--but the way they happened and where they happened and how they happened have had such a great impact on my life and on who I am today.  I treasure each location we have lived and the friends and memories which came with it.  I loved going to BYU which was made even more impactful because of our family move from Richland to Amarillo, TX when I was 16.  And becoming a mom--none of that really happened when and how I expected---but much of what is strength and courage in me came from the battles of infertility and miscarriages, the blessing of Jessica's birth, and the arrival of Scott, Ben, Tosha, and Jena--each with their own story (on their end and mine).  Some of my most strong spiritual experiences came during those times. And despite plans to the contrary, we have lived much of our married lives in Utah and I love it here.  It is a beautiful part of the world to be.
• I would never have planned to have seen the parts of the world I have seen or to have the experiences which I have had.  I may have dreamed of scuba diving after watching a Jacques Cousteau documentary of the ocean, but I never thought I would actually do it in my own life.  My life has been so awesome and if for the rest of my life I never leave the western United States, I will still count myself as one of the luckiest people in the world.

That's sums it up.  What I feel as I turn 60 is a huge amount of gratitude for my life, my parents and siblings, Gary, our kids and grandkids!  I am grateful for this beautiful earth and all of the people and things on it which make our lives so rich and full.  Most of all, I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, who provided this earth life for us to learn and to grow and to experience.  I am grateful for the Gospel that gives meaning to life and direction during the hard times of trials.

 

So Happy Birthday to me.  Thanks for the memories and I look forward to the future of more memories.....

 

(If I can survive the next 2 1/2 months of Gary referring to my advanced age--as he doesn't turn 60 until September.)