Thirty and Thrilling

I have to say, one day into being 30 and isn't bad at all...not that I was anticipating that it would be. I woke up yesterday to donuts in bed from my favorite local bakery, followed by some cute gifts from my kiddos (a miniature metal lunchbox with Disney characters wearing extra large glasses and the catch phrase, "Let's Nerd Out," on it-- that will be sitting on my desk and a Matchbox convertible so they could say they bought me a new car).

After breakfast, Eric dropped me off for a massage. Upon picking me up, it was a gray, rainy day, so Eric went ahead and gave me my birthday present from him so I could "play" with it-- it was a new iPad-- I was beyond excited! Apparently we way overpaid into our escrow account and got a refund check; Eric decided to use it to spoil me, because a massage would've been enough.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing around with it and exploring some apps. As well as trying to convince Cate that it's not her iPad. I'm hoping I can find some good apps I can use at school as well as some fun personal ones. Cate and I painted our fingernails and toenails before we headed out to dinner with my parents and grandmothers. I was expecting a quiet dinner out followed by cake and ice cream at home. Except my husband wasn't done with birthday surprises yet. His step-dad captured my reaction to what awaited me at home after dinner.

So many people that I love so dearly were crowded into our small house to show me some large love. My mom made me wear a "30 and Thrilling" sash.

It was crazy awesome and incredibly humbling to have so many people there to celebrate with me. Family, friends from work, friends from church, friends I've known since college (one who drove from D.C. to be here this weekend). I'm not normally one to really "love" being the center of attention. I found my bridal showers and baby showers to be slightly awkward (I think it's the whole opening gifts in front of other people thing and then trying to "make it around" to everyone). But this was anything but awkward. Friend groups and family meshed well with one another, kids played and kept one another entertained, pink champagne flowed freely, and in all it was a lovely evening.

I awoke only with a small headache this morning. ;-) But a much bigger feeling of being loved. Love that will carry me surely into my next decade and into my next 30.

Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes and for coming to celebrate. I am the luckiest thirty-year-old I know.

~Melody :-)

P.S.  It should be noted that I almost "ruined" the surprise party on a few occasions. Eric was surprised that I was actually surprised as he thought for sure I knew he was at least up to something. Here is how I almost found out:

1. A few weeks ago, when Eric cut his finger and went to the ER, he didn't take his phone. When I left him at the ER to go pick up our kids at our friends' house, I left my phone at the ER with him and I stopped by the house and picked up his phone. When I went to call him, his most recent calls that day were to four of my friends. I asked him what that was all about and he said his phone "butt-dialed" them. I thought that butt-dialing was impossible when you have a keypad lock on an iPhone, but he swore that's what it was and I believed him. It turns out you can't really butt-dial from an iPhone. But just to be sure I believed him, he pretended to butt-dial me later that week.

2. I made a reference to the Friends episode where they all turned 30 and said that I hoped Eric's plan wasn't to send me out drinking with friends only to come home to a surprise party. He thought I knew then, but I really was just referencing the episode.

3. A couple of weeks ago, Eric told me he had made dinner reservations for us to go out for my birthday and asked me if I would call my parents and ask them to babysit. I got pretty ticked off with him because I thought it would be rude to ask my parents to babysit the kids after driving four hours to come visit and said that it would be better if we just all went out to dinner. The original plan was for us to go out to dinner while my parents got everything set up. Luckily my man is a quick thinker and just had his sister come do it instead so that my parents could join us for dinner and I wouldn't suspect anything. Thanks, Kristin! (Sidenote: Kristin even asked people to park down the street so I wouldn't see any recognizable cars-- good thinking)

4. I almost found out about the iPad when Cate told me she had lunch at the mall with Jadyn's daddy but Jadyn wasn't there. Jadyn's daddy is Eric's friend, Tom, who works at the Apple store and hooked Eric up with a discount. Luckily, Eric and Tom get together frequently, with and without the kids, so it didn't seem that unusual.