I finally found my #40...

I left number forty blank on my list because I was waiting for something really good to fill it. I think it's been filled. 

My bestie (Can I say that at forty? Other bloggers do! But maybe they're not forty. Maybe they are twenty-nine and can still get away with it. In fact, I've never said it in real life. I just like how it reads).  Anyway, my best friend (yea, that's more my style) Kristen threw a surprise party for me that truly was a complete surprise. I had no idea. We always cook a special birthday lunch for each other and that's what I thought this was. I was wrong! The kitchen was filled with friends from the neighborhood, run club and book club all waiting to surprise me! Kristen had made two  big pots of wonderful soups (Pioneer Woman's cauliflower soup and chicken tortilla soup...try them if you haven't yet), corn muffins, two big bowls of awesome salad, tea sandwiches, subs, and  baquettes. Suzanne provided the amazing dessert (in fact I always think of Suzanne when I write the word dessert because she said she always remembers the word is spelled with two s's because she'd rather have two desserts instead of one). A great big beautiful cake (big enough for forty candles), gorgeous chocolate covered strawberries and carrot cake (2 of my all time favorite desserts!). Kristen had a beautiful champagne toast and everyone so generously brought presents (in fact one of them was a gift card to laser tag....which is one my list of forty things to do!). 

Here's me looking very surprised walking into Kristen's kitchen. I need to work on a more attractive surprised face.

 The beautiful cake with room for forty candles!

 Suzanne, me and Kristen.

It was such an amazing afternoon and I was on a high the whole rest of the day. I felt so special and lucky. I've never had a surprise party and always kind of wanted one but that's not the kind of thing you can put on your list....have someone throw me a surprise party! So thanks, Kristen, for putting it on my list and simultaneously crossing it off!!



On the Pride and Prejudice front, I am a little further into it. I did take a bit of a break to pretend I was a tween and read The Hunger Games...which I read very quickly...because I couldn't put it down...and then I had to google the summary for the second book...which led me to google the summary of the third book. And if there were anymore books in the series I would have googled those summaries too. Seriously. It was good.

Pride and Prejudice

I started reading Pride and Prejudice two nights ago. Actually first I started reading The Woman in White but there was an introduction followed by a second introduction and a preface to a preface. I just wasn't in the mood for all of that yet. So Pride and Prejudice it was.

There is a lot of dialogue in the book. Much more than dialogue in modern books. Maybe its just Austen's style. I can't believe for as much as I love to read and really enjoy classics as well, that I haven't read any Austen. I do have four of her books in my bookcase though.

I took the book to Noah's soccer game but it was raining and I didn't want to get the book out of my bag and risk getting it wet. It has such a pretty cover. I also have a weird thing with the condition of books. It makes me cringe when I see someone turn a page down to mark their place or, horror of horrors, fold the cover and pages of the book back to read it. It literally hurts my heart to see that. I may be a tiny bit OCD about it!

So I may be a bit slower in reading this book than I normally am. There are just so many good blogs that I've bookmarked and love to read at night. Food blogs, fashion blogs, decorating blogs...all totally pleasurable reading! And if I'm not reading blogs, there's all my cookbooks to go through. But don't worry, Mr. Darcy, I will get back to you soon.

The List...

Without further ado, here is the list...

Forty Things to do in my Fortieth Year:

1.            Make my own cheese.
   2.     Make cheesecake.
   3.     Cook something with tomatillos in it.
   4.     Bake bread.
   5.     Read Suze Orman’s guide to finances for women.
   6.     Learn excel.
   7.     Complete one race I haven’t done yet (ex: Duatholon, Warrior, etc).
   8.     Start a blog.
   9.     Read Pride and Prejudice.
   10. Take an exercise class I’ve never taken before.
   11. Take a cake decorating class.
   12. Take a knife skills class (preferably live, but on-line will count).
   13. Spend one day saying “Yes” instead of “No”.
   14. Make Mimi’s apple pie.
   15. Go see a movie by myself.
   16. Take on-line singing lessons.
   17. Eat an ethnic food I’ve never had before (that one downtown?).
   18. Pack a picnic, a blanket and book and take myself on a picnic.
   19. Watch the DVD that came with our camera.
   20. Research how to photograph food.
   21. Take on-line beginner clarinet lessons.
   22. Get a mammogram.
   23. Go for a walk in the rain.
   24. Draw with charcoal.
   25. Make frozen hot chocolate.
   26. Go in Suzanne’s Jacuzzi in the middle of the day while it’s snowing.
   27. Play tennis at least once a week for a month (this involves someone else’s ability to do this as well).
   28. Play laser tag.
   29. Learn how to use the riding mower.
   30. Learn how to use the snow blower.
   31. Cook an Indian dinner.
   32. Host a breakfast after the bus stop.
   33. Go Rock Climbing at rock climbing gym.
   34. Take a really long bike ride.
   35. Learn to do at least two long hair pulled back styles.
   36. Try to get a poem published.
   37. Do at least one month of P90X.
   38. After learning food photography, make a photo book of my food.
   39. Read The Woman in White, the first “mystery” novel from the Victorian age.
   40.  
   
   
   
   
   Number 40 is blank because I'm saving it for a really good suggestion!
   
   
   Here is a picture of the list that I texted to my best friend off my computer screen:
   
   
   
   And here is a picture of the gift that she dropped off after seeing the list (she got the gift before seeing the list though!):
   
   
   
   
   
   The flowers in the background are from my darling husband. Pretty!!
   
   
   Number 8, "Start a blog" is on it's way!
   
   
   
   

And so now I'm forty...

Happy birthday to me! Happy 40th birthday, that is. 40? Already? Why do I still feel like I am in college? It's not possible that I'm forty yet, is it? And yet, my slightly spreading waistline, beginning of wrinkles and creaking of joints beg to differ.

I've spent the last year feeling a bit apprehensive about turning forty. On the eve of my fortieth I decided to try and make it into something a little bit better than just starting the "second half of my life." (I never remember whether the period goes inside or outside of the quotation marks. Something tells me I may have gotten it wrong because I like the look of the period inside the quotation marks. It looks like it's been "tucked in " nice and snug. Kind of like how I think the spoon should be set on the inside of the knife because it looks so cozy and like it's being taken care of by the bigger knife. But, I digress...). Anyhoo, I decided to try and make turning forty not so dreadful. Many of my friends have done it with nary a negative word. I needed something to help suppress my negative words though.

A list. A list of forty things that I would do this year to make the start of the second half of my life exciting. Something to look forward to. Things that I've always wanted to do but haven't found the time to, things that I've kind of wanted to do but was scared of, or things that I simply should do.

Let the year of the list commence!

(I'll post the list tomorrow because I am on my iPad in bed now and my list is downstairs. Good news, though..."start a blog" was one of the items on my list. Not bad, Day 1 of forty and I've already gotten started on my list!)