forty

Ben turned 40 a couple of weeks ago. I've been dreading 40 since he turned 38 - you know, since he hit the "late 30's.". It's a whole new DECADE! I'm not into new decades. I've really enjoyed the 30 slice of our lives. I'm not ready for either of us to move on. But what do you do?

I wanted to really celebrate 40, but by the end of this semester I did not have it in my to plan one more event. I used the excuse of Ben is an introvert at heart to not throw him a big party. So I spread things out a bit.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we met our friends Scott and Susie at Cafe Cimino for Tapas Tuesday. They are such great friends that we really don't see enough. We enjoyed a nice long dinner, great conversation and a road trip! (No pictures - boo!)

The following Sunday at Leadership we surprised the heck out of Ben. He has downright, unashamedly asked for an Apple Watch since they came out. So the leaders chipped in for half of the watch and I chipped in for the other half. He was shocked to say the least. His love language is gifts and I'm not always a great gift giver. So this was a real win in the love tank for him.

(As a sidenote to the Apple Watch: This entire year we have been saving to take the kids to Disney in January. For everyone's birthday, they have received money and giftcards to go. That goes for Christmas too. Although he agreed to it, Ben was really bumming that the gifts for his 40th birthday would revolve around Disney World. (Again, note his love language of gifts.) He really and truly did not expect to get anything for his birthday.)

Two days later there was a guys "Garage Night." Guys love to come over, throw darts and hang out in our garage (even in the freezing cold with 4 space heaters) till the wee hours of the morning. Most of the time I don't mind. This particular night I think they all did a lot of unwinding from a lot of work.

On the actual day of his birth, we both took the day off. We have really struggled this semester holding on to our once a week lunch date. In fact, we haven't done it at all. And no dates any other time either, to be honest. We haven't sat and talked about anything other than business and kids for well over two months. So we put the kids on the bus and headed over to the new coffee joint in town, Octane. It's on the Evansdale Campus and pretty cool. We sat for several hours catching up on two months worth of life. We needed it a lot.

After throwing back some caffeinated beverages (some more chocolaty/sugary than others) we headed across the street for some sushi! We also hit up the Gap for the 40% off sale and some new birthday jeans. We had Dairy Queen blizzards for dinner and closed out a great day at The Apothecary with friends for a late night snack.

As if that wasn't enough, last Saturday we went over to Frederick, MD for a fun road trip with these fine friends. Not long after we arrived we got a call from the sitter that Sophie was puking. Doh and Pap came to the rescue with a jaunt to Morgantown to care for the infirmed and ailing. Thankfully it was a one time puking event  that did not involve an entire day of bowls, laundry and trips to the bathroom. We had a great day with these friends eating great food, exploring on an unseasonably warm December Saturday and making memories on a great road trip.

 All in all, it was a great 2 weeks celebrating Ben's 40th birthday. I realized that this has been a big numbers year for us - 15 year anniversary, 10 year kid and 40 year old one of us. There's a lot of celebration in those and in a weird way there's also a little bit of uncomfortableness in how fast things are speeding right by. It's a good reminder to me that you blink and another year, 5, 10 or more have passed and you have to be intentional with your days.

Happy birthday, BT. We've celebrated 20 years of birthdays together. Here's to many, many more!