Week 21-Birthday Blog!!!

  Our weekly wrap-up is a wee bit late this week. This week has been kind of emotional for me and I haven't felt much like writing. Today is my 45th birthday. I have never liked my birthday. Not because I'm getting older. I don't feel 45. And I LOVE other people's birthdays. And birthday cake (who doesn't love cake???) and parties with good friends. My birthday has just always sucked. 

45 is a perfectly good number, if you're made of vinyl.

  My birthday is at the tail end of 6 days of celebration in my family. My brother (who is one year younger) was born on June 18th. Dad was out to sea when I was born. He came home and 9 months later I got a baby brother. Okay, maybe it didn't happen QUITE that way, but it's my story and I'll tell it any way I want to! For 6 days every year, Mom calls us her "twins" (which incidentally, we both dislike, but neither of us has the heart to tell Mom). My dad's birthday is June 23rd and then there's me on the 24th. Father's Day is always wedged in the middle of this birthday bonanza. So, by the time we got to my birthday, my family was broke, burnt out and sick of celebrating. When you're little, you hope your birthday will be a big deal, but mine felt more like an obligation. I didn't have parties, or much in the way of a celebration. Sometimes, my family would forget who they were singing "Happy Birthday" to. Seriously.

It's nice being a decade baby. It makes the math easier.

  Every year my mom would make my dad an angel food cake for his birthday. For my 8th birthday, we still had half of Dad's cake left, so Mom turned it on it's side, frosted it with chocolate frosting, wrote "Happy Birthday Angie" on it and stuck two plastic hula dancers on it. Yep, I had a recycled birthday cake. Did I mention that I don't really like angel food cake? 

Words cannot express how much I don't like Angel Food Cake.

  I don't mean to sound ungrateful-Mom did the best she could with what we had. And, as an adult, I totally get it. I know why things were the way they were. We weren't rich by any means. And that's a lot for any family in 6 days. And to my mother's credit, she always made Christmas AMAZING!

  When I was 22, my father died in a car accident. He was 45 years old, the age I am turning today. I spent yesterday, what would have been his 68th birthday, pondering the fact that I am the age he was when his life ended. This was it for him. It's all he got. I like to think I'm only about halfway through life, but we just never know. Dad and I were not close. He was an alcoholic, and the accident that ended his life was a result of his own drunk driving. With our birthdays right next to each other and Father's Day right before, it's so very difficult to enjoy my birthday and not think of him. My oldest daughter, Chelsea, is 22, the same age I was when Dad passed away. I look at Chelsea and think that I can't believe I was so young when I lost my father. She was only 5 months old when he died. 
  So this is why I'm not a fan of my birthday. As an adult, I have had a couple of small birthday get-togethers, nothing extravagant, and have preferred to ignore it whenever possible. I can count on one hand the number of birthday parties I've had. Jeff insists that we celebrate it and is throwing me a party with some good friends and family. He is the sweetest man and I am so lucky to have him.  And maybe this is the beginning of learning to enjoy my birthday. 

My birthday last year-ah, to be 44 again!

  And speaking of celebrating-our weight loss numbers for the week are definitely something to celebrate!
  Well, not mine. I actually gained .2 pounds. I'm not going to stew over that for too long. And yes, if there is a cake tonight I'm gonna eat it! Maybe the whole thing by myself! But I'll pass on the ice cream...that seems reasonable.
  Katie dropped 1.2 pounds this week! She was concerned about possibly having gained weight, but the scale doesn't lie. 
  Jeff lost 3.6 pounds this week! He said that when he stepped on the scale the first time it registered a svelte 269.4 pounds! He ran to grab his phone to link the scale to the app and stepped on the scale 3 more times-each time it read an EVEN 269! He broke through the 270's! I am so incredibly proud of him!
  So our team weight loss this week is 4.6 pounds with a total weight loss to date of (drumroll, please)...101.6 pounds! We have lost over 100 pounds!!! Yay for our team!!! Now pass that cake!

Ta-Da!!!!!!!!! We've lost 100 pounds!!!!