Level 38

I’m going to steal my friend 5 am Joel‘s custom of referring to birthdays as “levels”. As in, “I have now reached Level 38 in the game of life.” 🙂 Go me!

Haha. I’ve seen him use this in his emails and it always makes me chuckle. Life DOES feel like some kind of weird (maybe a little sick and twisted?) but also awesome video game, if you think about it. So it is worth celebrating making it to the next level!! (Cue the Mario Bros. music and me sliding down the flagpole in victory.)

Birthday Recap!

SATURDAY

🔷 (Morning): Went for a walk at a nearby local park with Asher and Ivan. (Ethan was in Green Bay for soccer.) It was a little underwhelming- windy and the leaves at that park were not great!! Not sure what happened there…seemed like most of the leaves were either gone already or all dried up and brown looking! Maybe the type of trees?? Oh well. It was not my dream fall walk, but it was family + fresh air + some movement, so it was good enough.

🔷 Post- walk, we went to a coffee shop for “brunch” (it got a little later than intended…). From there we ran a few errands. Asher wanted to look for some decor for his bedroom remodel and we found a new desk chair for the sunroom!

🔷 Afternoon was sort of just doing misc. stuff. Ivan took the boys out to do some “mystery shopping” (wonder what they were shopping for?? haha). I did some cleaning and mopped the kitchen floor. My parents arrived as well. It was nice to just putter around the house and have some open time to get a few things done.

🔷Saturday night we had a pizza and movie night! We ordered a couple pizzas and ate in front of the TV. We watched Luca on Disney+. Very cute! We liked it. I had heard it was kind of like The Little Mermaid, but I really didn’t think so at all. TOTALLY different. The only similarity I saw was that sea creatures convert to humans. But that’s about it.

SUNDAY, the 17th (my actual birthday)

🔷 When I woke up, it felt chilly in my room, so I decided to head outside to the hot tub to warm up with my tea. Ahhh. This is always such a nice thing to do on a cool morning. Ivan joined me.

🔷My mom went out to get donuts! That’s become our family’s birthday tradition, started when the boys were little.

🔷I took Asher to his pool reservation at the gym for about 45 minutes:

🔷The Packers played at noon, so at 11:30 we drove over to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the game. We had plans later in the day, so this seemed quick and simple and enjoyable. We watched the game on the big screen (versus the Bears, Packers won).

🔷We had to watch the clock since we had that high school open house at 4:00, and it was a little bit of a drive. Plus I needed to shower! So we didn’t catch the end of the game, but saw most of it at least. By 3:30 Ivan, the boys and I left for the high school open house.

It felt CRAZY to be even thinking about high school, but it was informative and interesting. It scares me to think how fast time is going! I feel like the little hour glass sand of their childhood is speeding up and running out!!! The boys seemed to love the school, but we’ll see. There are many considerations that will go into that decision, ultimately.

Asher was enamored with the list of all the different extracurriculars and activities, and Ethan seemed really excited by the huge list of class options. Haha. No matter where they end up, it was cool for them to get this little “early glimpse” of high school life.

🔷 Back home we returned to the festivities… lol. Still had to open presents and eat pie!

Ethan got me a beautiful new purse!

Asher got me several delicious smelling candles:

Ivan got me a NEW LAPTOP!!! Woohooo!!! I needed one so badly. (This was kind of one of those things that I really just needed anyway, so might as well get for my birthday!) I have been talking about needing to get one for a long time now, but it was a total surprise that he had actually gone to pick one out and buy it! YAY!!! So happy.

My parents got me a splattering of amazing gifts, too! Money toward the Lululemon leggings that I’m FINALLY going to order, a couple books, a candle for my office, and, my favorite- a little chair for my office!

(My office is our basement laundry room, so it’s not exactly luxurious. But it’s the only space in the house that is MY private little area. I have lamps and blankets and candles and it is very cozy. I wanted a “pop up” chair that I could snuggle in sometimes to just sit and read with the door closed, or even for a change of pace from my desk chair sometimes.)

But there’s not a ton of space, so I didn’t want a big permanent recliner or something! What my mom got is PERFECT!! SO comfy and I love it. 🙂

Asher made me this amazing card!

🔷We ended the night with key lime pie- my favorite.

I’m excited to have made it to Level 38!!! Hoping it’s a good one.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the wonderful and generous gifts I received! Really, I just love them ALL! I was seriously spoiled this year.