First anniversary of my 29th birthday

Yep. I turned 30 today. Just like most birthdays, I don't feel any different. It's just weird that us Gen Xers are heading into our thirties. I got lots of nice cards, emails, and notes wishing me a happy birthday, so that was cool :)

On Sunday, I went over to my mom and step dad's house for a small celebration. My mom has been really sick recently, so we didn't do anything big. L. and I went and visited for a few hours, and I opened my presents. They did the coolest thing for me this year. My mom had a bunch of old Super 8 tapes of me when I was a little girl, and she had them transferred to DVD. She was disappointed because Kits messed up by not adding the sound (which she told them about several times). They're making her a new copy with sound, but they didn't get it done by this weekend. So, we watched the silent one anyway and tried to guess what year certain things were taking place.

Normally, I disolve into a bucket of tears at old movies of my family because there are so many people who are gone now and it reminds me of a time when my parents were still in love and married. And even now, 23 years later that still makes me sad even though I think that things ended up much better this way. But for some reason, it was different on Sunday. Watching those videos made me laugh, and it made me think about how lucky I am to have all of those people in my life and to be really loved.

Today was my actual birthday, but because it was a work day, we didn't do anything big. L. came down and brought me some beautiful tulips (my favorite flower) and gifts. I'm always amazed at the things he thinks of for me. I've been collecting the Denver mint and Philadelphia mint state quarters, but I was missing quite a few from the Philadelphia mint. So, he figured out which ones I still needed and found them for me at a coin shop. He also got me a cool CD, some yummy-smelling lotions, and a gift certificate to White House Black Market. So, I need to go shopping soon so that I can get some new clothes and find something to buy with my Sephora gift certificate (thanks A.!!!).

This weekend we're going to do a small celebration with a few friends, so that will be fun. For awhile, L. and I talked about doing a larger party with a lot of friends, but I didn't really feel like it. Normally, I'd want to go out and do something fun like bowling and karoake while drinking lots of alcohol with a bunch of my friends, but due to my diet and exercise regime I'm not doing that this year. So, it would have been a lot of "no, I can't do that" and what kind of fun is that for my birthday? So we scaled it way back. We're having the biggest party ever later this year anyway - our wedding :)

My 30s are starting out great. I have so many things to look forward to this year alone: new house with my fiance, wedding, honeymoon in France, puppy... Wheee!