Wow! This past weekend was fabulous! Well, it actually started on Thursday. I went to a yummy lunch with friends and neighbors to celebrate my birthday. After lunch, I crammed in one last bike ride before the "big storm" and cold weather was upon us. I have to say, it was one of my best bike rides ever despite the fact my belly was full from a big lunch. It was that kind of "eery" weather where its unusually warm and very overcast with some pretty big wind gusts at times. I really pushed myself and just sailed along Wasatch Blvd feeling so happy. I kept thinking to myself, " I am going to be 40 tomorrow and I am riding my bike feeling like a young kid!" It was a very liberating experience.
Friday morning was spent getting ready to leave for our 2nd annual Time Out for Women (TOFW) retreat. It was extra special this year since it fell on my exact birthday. My mom, my sister Amy and my two sisters-in-law all met up for dinner before the Friday night session began. We then attended a wonderful and very spiritual evening. There were two great speakers and an amazing entertainer. After, we went to eat AGAIN! Nachos and dessert at Chili's. Yes, we love to eat! We checked into our hotel, had a sleep deprived night and got up early for another full day at TOFW. Again, the speakers were amazing and the music was so uplifting. I left feeling completely "filled up" spiritually, emotionally and yes even physically with all the eating out we did. I learned more about our dear prophet, President Monson. He is a very loving person who really cherishes his relationships with others and is a great example of "bearing one another's burdens". I learned to compliment my children more on their Christ-like qualities. I learned that Heavenly Father gives us children we have because He knows we are the best parents for them. People who are given difficult children are thought much of by our Heavenly Father because He knows we are capable of parenting them. I learned that it is great to have "high hopes". Life is good and we have every right to expect good things out of it.
Overall, I came out feeling like I want to be a better person in my 40's than I was in my 30's. I'm not saying I was a bad person before but I know that life is a refining process and over time we need to continue to get the kinks out and just strive to be better.
I came home Saturday to a clean house. That was amazing! We had made plans to go to dinner to celebrate my birthday with some close friends of ours and then Alan had organized a little "dessert open house" with mostly people from our ward. He really went to a lot of effort to get amazing desserts. It was a really fun night and it was so sweet of him to organize it. I am just feeling so grateful for so many things right now. A wonderful family with great parents and loving brothers and sisters. A super husband who continually tries to be better and puts up with a lot of my weaknesses. Children who love me and who are each so unique with amazing qualities. Wonderful friends and neighbors who really care and make time for one another.
Yes, life is good!
