End of an Era

Well folks. It's the last one. The last time I can honestly answer someone and say I am in my 30's.

Yep, that's right. It's my birthday. My 39^th birthday to be exact. A day of celebration of sorts. Trust me when I tell you that I am handling it much better than my mother. She is in hysterics that her “baby” is (almost) 40.

The number really isn't bothering me as much as I thought it would. It helps that I have close friends already in their 40's and they don't seem “old”. It also helps that my children are the ages that they are. For some reason, no one considers me (almost) 40 because my kids are all under 10. I am alright with that.

I have been told that many changes are headed my way. Women who are (almost) 40 tend to lose hearing, seeing, height, strength, hair, bone density, estrogen and metabolism. However, I doubt I will wake up tomorrow as a short, bald, deaf-blind, weak, fragile menopausal woman . But you never know.

Actually, there are many things I wanted to accomplish before I turned the big 4-0.

Graduate from college and have a career (check, check).

Buy a house (Check.)

Get married and start a family (check, check).

Travel around the country and see the states (38 down, 11 to go.)

Celebrate the 4th of July in Washington DC (check.)

Travel the world (not quite the world yet but working on it).

Ride on an elephant. (check.)

Celebrate Fat Tuesday and Madi Gras in NOLA. (check.)

Learn to belly dance. (Does line dancing count?)

Ride in a hot air balloon (check--with my son!)

Donate a gallon of blood (almost, but I was pregnant for the past decade.)

Mark “organ donor” on my driver's license. (I don't need them where I am going.)

Teach college classes (check.)

Learn a foreign language (that's the class I teach.)

Land on the most dangerous airstrip in the world. (I landed in the second most difficult one and that was enough for me.)

Run a marathon (well, if you add all the “little” races together that I have done and the one I have in a couple of months, they would total over 26 miles. Does that count?)

See Niagara Falls, The Grand Canyon and The Great Wall (yes, no, no)

Celebrate the New Year in NYC, watching the ball drop at midnight (not yet.)

Visit the Holy Land (Due to finances, our children's ages and the political issues there, I have a feeling that this one will have to wait until after my 40^th.)

Looks like I have a busy year ahead of me. But that's OK because I am still young and adventurous. But looking back over my list I can see how truly blessed I am, the places I have been, the things I have done and the people God has put into my life to accomplish them all.

What;s on your list? What do you still have left to check off? What can you write on there today? Go out there and live. Live life to the fullest because you never know when you are going to turn (almost) 40.