Wha? It's Thursday already?

Holy Camoley, it's Thursday already!

June is a crazy month for me. It's my birthay month and I'm turning A Decade Year this time around. Hubby has been planning my birthday party and I'm really trying not to interfere. I can hardly restrain myself. I know it's a little rude to try hone in on someone else's plans, but I am a control freak...

I know that I shouldn't complain. It only took a few hints for him to get that I wanted him to plan my birthday party. I'm still scarred from my 18th birthday party... when no one showed up. Yep, me and my mom, drinking alone. Fun!

Oh I'll just say it. I'm turning 30. About half of you just thought "is that all?"

There's something about the 30 birthday. There are so many things that I said I'd be doing by the time I was 30. Truthfully, I've done quite a few of the things ... but there are those crazy ones: learn to fly a plane, travel around the world, get my scuba license... that I just never got around to doing.

But now that it's almost the summer solstice, I start thinking about how fast time is flying. By the 22nd of June the days will actually be getting shorter, not longer... and here in Calgary the summer has only just begun.

I went to the doctor today. She was investigating a suspicious lump. She doesn't think that it's anything to worry about, but suggests that I make an appointment for a couple weeks from now to poke and prod me again. It just got me thinking about when we realize that our lives are actually getting shorter and not stretching out before us into eternity.

By the fingernails I tell you

I am hanging on to my twenties by my fingernails. I do not want to let them go. I am going to miss "my twenties". So full of mistakes and trips and falls and wringing of hands... you'd think I'd want to bid them fond farewell and open my arms wide to my thirties, wouldn't you?

Not so.

I am afraid of my thirties. Afraid of not doing all those things that I said I'd do "before I'm thirty". Can I cram them all in in the next two months? Or maybe if I do them by the time I'm 31 I can say I did them "when I was 30".

Goodness I can still remember when I wanted to write a novel by the time I was 20!

So I bring you 20 things I loved about my twenties:

1. Having children when my body still (sorta) bounced back.
2. Reconnecting with the love of my life (read: stalking him back down and roping him for good)
3. Finding two wonderful careers that I loved and figuring out a way to combine them.
4. Learning that it's not all about my opinion.
5. Learning that it's not all about your opinion either.
6. Turning a hobby into a career and finding some great hobbies to replace it.
7. Learning how to manage my own money before I had to manage money with someone. Again.
8. Getting over (sorta) the fact that I didn't get to do the whole "college in my twenties" experience and deciding (definitely) that I'm better for it.
9. Accepting the fact that there is no correlation between who I am and what size of jeans I wear.
10. Learning that I am responsible enough for children... but not responsible enough for a dog.
11. Learning what it truly means to support someone else's dreams when they need you to.
12. Learning how to ask for help.
13. Discovered my faith again.
14. Forgave myself for the mistakes I made as a teenager.
15. Found a husband who has done his own laundry for his entire adult life.
16. Figured out how to accept my friends for who they are and learning how to let the ones go that didn't accept me for who I was.
17. Learned that people will always show you who they are, if you listen and observe.
18. Learned how to trust my gut instinct.
19. Gained control of my temper.
20. Learned how to let go.

Actually, writing out that list has helped me a little... I'm more at peace with watching my twenties go bye-bye when I realize that they have brought me so much and prepared me for my thirties.