10:10 10/10/10 Happy Birthday to me...

I couldn't very well miss an opportunity to blog on such a one of a kind moment. Today is my birthday. My 45th birthday to be exact. I was hoping that with such a unique numerical combination that somehow the planets would all align and my health would be better and the farm would be sold and all of the things in my life that are chaos would somehow just disappear.

As I woke up feeling sick it was a painful reminder that the magic of the triple tens would not work it's mojo on me as I had hoped.  My daughter came in and said they were ready for me to come see a surprise. I went out to see that my sweet husband and my daughter had bought me a birthday cheesecake.  She had given me a halloween candle holder and scented candles. Then I see a big box. I had asked Stan not to get me anything for my birthday. I just wanted to save money so we can go to San Diego to see my son's Marine graduation. I opened the box and tears started pouring down my cheeks. I saw that my sweet husband had found 4 teacups and 4 plates of a set of china that I wanted ever since I was little.

When I was growing up, the big thing was to provide every daughter with a cedar chest. In that chest would be dishes and things to start a home with. It's become a bit of an outdated tradition. Most girls don't even know what a cedar chest is. Anyway, I had one. When I was 14 my grandmother wanted me to go pick out a set of china that I liked. I wasn't really all that interested and even then, I was rather practical. I told grandma that she had a china set that I had never seen her eat off of and I thought it was a waste of good money to buy such a thing when all it did was sit in the cupboard gathering dust. Besides, the only China I loved was my Aunt Nell's and I was sure I'd never see those dishes for sale.

Nell was a true lady. She had the softest hands of any person I had ever met. She was rather proper. We would visit Aunt Nell who was married to my grandfather's brother and we would visit them  every memorial day. Nell and Blaine never had any children. Their house was filled with things that were off limits. Don't touch that...it will break was a constant comment from my mother the entire time we visited their home.

Over the summer, my husband and I had taken a vacation to Colorado and we were in an antique store in the middle of the prairie in Eastern Colorado and I found a plate and saucer that was the same pattern as Aunt Nell's. When we got back home, I looked online and found there was a company who made replacement china and I could buy an entire set of the design I had found. I figured maybe someday I would get some but I forgot about it.  My husband knew that china meant something to me and he got online and found it and ordered part of the set and told me we would get more later.

The gift wasn't in buying me the china. It was knowing the things that have touched me in my life. It is knowing that having the china made me think of the people who I had loved and who loved me and reminded me of a special time in my life. You can't put a price on that. You can't wrap it in a box. What he gave me was love. The kind of love that I never knew existed before I met Stan.

The things that I wished to be made right are still unresolved. However, I have the love of a good man. I have a family that love me and take really good care of me. I am reminded again that I have everything that I could ever ask for. I am truly blessed. What a perfectly happy birthday. Life is good!