A Lovely Life, Indeed: Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday and I am as excited as the littles I work with at school every day.

Today I'm also going on a field trip, which if you ask my second graders, is probably the coolest thing that could ever happen to you in a lifetime...a field trip ON your birthday.

While I can imagine other things that are just as thrilling, it's still pretty cool, as they say, and we're sure to have a fun day.

As I move through this life, it seems that so many opportunities are presenting themselves, and I feel like I'm on the cusp of everything, even at 45.

My mom's cake (and her special birthday dinner) still makes me smile, as does the special order tortilla española prepared by my mother-in-law, and unlike when I was a little girl, the candles on my cake no longer represent my age...thank goodness.

I'm still pretty excited about my birthday.

I don't remember when exactly, but at some point, my mom transitioned candle counts to represent decades, plus single years. Almost like today's Common Core bundling charts, my cake became a math problem as guests tried to figure out what was going on with the candle situation.

So this year, my cake will bear nine candles...one for each decade, plus one for each single year in my fourth decade...nine in total if you're adding, and easier (and safer) to extinguish than 45 of them set ablaze all at once.

It's an exciting time to be 45. It doesn't look anything like I thought it would when I was this young girl, but it's a lovely life, indeed!

Happy Birthday to all of the special people who share my birthday month.

Here's to wishes come true made on our birthday candles.

Here's to another glorious trip around the sun.

Cheers to us all!