You say it's your birthday?

Hey, it's my birthday too!

Today at some time in the early morning (I'm a second child, so no one really knows what time I was born.  Oh, but they can tell you to the minute how often my sister pooped in her first 3 months...) I hit the big 3-0.

In some ways I feel WAY older than 30, but in other ways I still feel like I'm 23 ish.  My 20's brought a lot of change for me, and the later half of the decade brought a lot of struggle, stress, and step-up opportunities (corporate speak for "here is a really shitting task for you, but you'll learn a lot from it").  Each experience has shaped the person who I think I am today.  Some days I know, some days I don't.

Birthdays used to bring excitement for gifts "what am I getting?  Will THIS be the year I get my pony named Clip Clop"?  This year, gift planning pretty much ended up like this:

Troy (via text 5 days before my birthday):  what do you want for your birthday?
Me: paving stones.  Bricks.  Compost.
Troy: K

And now, I'm officially a grown up.  Troy said he counts himself lucky that instead of asking for jewelry and expensive gifts, I simply want hardened dirt and poop.

My 20's flew by so quickly without many specific goals in mind.  To keep myself focused for my 30's, here are 30 things I'd like to accomplish/work on before I turn 40.  They're not in any particular order.
  1. Troy finding a fire fighting job (all else pales in comparison to this)
  2. Buy a house (see #1)
  3. Have another baby (see #1)
  4. Stay home for a year when we have baby #2 (see #1)
  5. Work on my swearing.  I try, but it's just so fucking hard.
  6. Figure out the appeal of Lady Gaga.  I just.don't.get.it.
  7. Get chickens.  Provide them with awesome names.
  8. Work on being a better mother, wife, sister, friend, granddaughter, and daughter.  And I'll say niece, because my aunt reads this.  HA!
  9. Find a path that allows me to not have to work a conventional job.  I have three ideas on how to accomplish this:
    1. Win the lottery (note to self: play the lottery if you want to win)
    2. Get 20k more followers to this blog who adore me, and 30 full-time paying sponsors.
    3. Create a pill from Jack's tears that bottles all of his energy and helps people lose weight.    It removes excess body fat from hips and thighs and applies it directly to your boobs.  It is activated by Haagen Daz bars
  10. Get a car with better gas mileage, that is great for our lifestyle, and can handle snow.  Oh yeah, I'm looking at you PZEV Subaru Outback. (see #1)
  11. Do better at taking deep breaths throughout the day and just learning to slow down.  I am the queen of multi-tasking, and while useful, it's not how I want to live my life, or for Jack to remember me by.
  12. Banish acne.  Um, hello, I'm 30.  WTF?
  13. Go to Italy.  I've leaving it up in the air if I'm going with Troy or not.  He is the worst traveler ever.  Perhaps I should "Mr.T" my husband and knock him out and THEN get on the plane?
  14. Be really really really good at something.  I feel like I do a lot of things well, but I'm not known for "that one thing".
  15. Get better at sewing.
  16. Make my brother-in-law enjoy hugs.  We'll wear you down yet Brian.
  17. Have an article published.  On what?  Still unsure. (note to self: actually write an article).
  18. Be kind to myself.
  19. Enable others to be kind to themselves.
  20. Inspire someone to learn to cook healthy foods from scratch.  Empower them to let them know they can do it, and that they're worth so much more than tasteless processed food all the time.
  21. Be honest and admit I just wrote #20 after downing brownies.  I believe in moderation.
  22. Read at least 1 great book each year. (Any suggestions dear reader?)
  23. Either learn to grow zucchini, or learn to admit that I'm the only person in the free world that can't grow it.
  24. Learn to spell the following words without spell check: zucchini, inconvenience, and Hanukkah.
  25. I want to track down a fire fighter named Lance whose influence was what made Troy want to become a fire man.  I would first like to kick him square in the balls, and then thank him for making my husband happy.  Finally.
  26. Figure out why in the world anyone would ever tell a working mother that "they would never let strangers raise their child".  Go fuck yourself.  Whoops, see #5.
  27. Try to learn the words to just one Pearl Jam song.  Oh Eddie Vedder, how hard it must be to sing with a mouth full of marbles.
  28. Troy finding a fire fighting job.  This is so important that I'm listing it twice.  Since you know, we're banking our entire futures on this...
  29. Double my gardening space.  Look out lawn; I'm coming for you.
  30. Be true to myself and my values.
One of my best friends always writes "may the best of last year be the worst of this year" in my birthday cards.  Every year I hope it comes true, and I'm determined to work on that for 2011-2012.