Birthdays aren't quite what they used to be...

Today I celebrated my birthday.

It felt different.  It was different for a whole lot of reasons...it's the first birthday I did not share with at least  one of my two parents - both of whom are now in a much better place.  It felt kind of weird to celebrate a birthday when the two people who brought me into the world were not here to celebrate it with me.  It was just a strange feeling...

My husband, who is four months my junior (no that does not amount to a whole year as he would like others to believe) actually referred to himself as the age I am now - EARLIER than he should.  I have decided I am going to hold him to the error.  I even offered to trade my day for his  - just this once.  I could take his February day and he could have this one.
He wouldn't do it.

We traveled today to the center of the state for a conference my husband is attending.  I am here simply for the entertainment.  We went to lunch at Hoss' - a restaurant we used to frequent when Laura was young - and went on everyone's birthday because we loved that they sang Happy Birthday to the person celebrating the special day AND they gifted a little cake to the individual too.  It always was enough to share and seemed to satisfy the need for cake!  Of course, I also did not have to bake a big cake, half of which would sit around for days after the celebration and get stale because everyone felt too guilty eating it.  But today, Hoss's was celebrating their OWN birthday - yup, 30 years of "HOSSpitality!"

We did not tell them it was my birthday today too.

But as I was driving around later in the day, Laura called to wish me a happy day.  When I told her about the lunch at Hoss's, she promptly broke into a rendition of the, 'Have a Hoss' Happy Birthday' song.  It was great.

Then I went to my in-laws for dinner.  They are so sweet.  We had a great home-cooked meal of roast beef, killer mashed potatoes, their homegrown corn, homemade applesauce, and of course - a great chocolate cake and ice cream.  It was fun.  But that was a little strange too...Joe couldn't come, so I was there just by myself.  I missed having him next to me.

Everyone was just super today...got tons of notes and good wishes on Facebook (as cheesy as that is, it's really nice) and the sun was out too.  I heard from my brother and sister, got a beautiful card from my husband, and generally it was a very good day.

But I really miss my Mom and Dad.  I hope they know how much.