Who would've thought????

Who would have thought that I would be "40".  Wow, I remember being 13 years old, wondering if I the world was going to end before I reached the age of 18.  I turned 18 and then started wondering if I would live past 30.  These ages crept up on my so fast.  I graduated from high school, got married, had children and life just went on. 

Now I'm at the ripe old age of "40"...Who would've thought???  I know I certainly didn't.  I had the opposite thinking process when it came to aging after 30...I wanted to stay young and feared the 40's.  I've embraced aging, because age is nothing but a number.  I beleive that "growing old gracefully" is attainable, if you just accept who you are, how you look, and where you are going. 

To kick off my 40th birthday, my sister planned a night with our new family of friends.  We went to watch a comedy show and then went out to dinner and just chatted.  For many, these things may seem boring, but I wouldn't have done it any differently.  The best medicine for happiness is laughter, and boy did I laugh.  I laughed so much that my stomach hurt so bad that I couldnt laugh out loud anymore :)  We then went to a very casual mexican restaurant...and I'm talking very casual, but the atmosphere was surprisingly liberating.  Noone judging what we wore, how we decided to eat our salads or burrito's.  It's not that they didnt care, it was because they were all there to eat and have a great time....That's my kind of people :)

On Saturday, we went to watch a young man play football for a college in Dallas, who Kenny coached in Pop Warner and high school.  We are extremely proud of Richard.  Kenny and I somehow had a sense of pride for his accomplishments.  We've watched this boy grow into the young man that he is today.  Time is so valuable, and what happens while its ticking, is so overwhelming.  For a brief moment after the game, we were able to catch up with him before he had to head to the locker room.  God is good!!!

On Sunday, I woke up at 8 and called my sister and asked her if she wanted to do our 4 mile walk...although both of us were hoping the other would decline...we both got out of bed and hit the pavement.  What we thought would be our regular walk, ended up being the start of a great day.  As we were walking up a hill, I looked back and saw three stray dogs walking together up the hill.  One was a huge Rotweiller.  As I look over my shoulder, I tell my sister "Grace, there are three dogs coming up the hill", when I turned around, she was already booking it up the hill.  She is fast.  I yelled out to her "Where are you going, dont show fear", she said "I'm going to find a stick!!!".  I followed her into a home that was under construction to find some sticks for protection.  I found a regular sized stick and I was ready for battle :)...My sister comes around the corner with a 2 x 4 the length of her body and more than the width of her leg.  She carried it close to her, but I tell you that stick was HUGE :)  I asked her if she thought she could swing it if the opportunity came..and she said "I'll swing it girl". 

Well we walked almost 3 miles and she decided that her "stick" was too heavy and she was going to leave it behing, which left me with my regular stick to protect her.  We proceeded back up the hill not realizing that the dogs were still in the neighborhood resting and waiting.  As we approach the last street before home, we see the dogs.  Grace immediately tenses up.  I tell her "Girl, dont show fear"...well apparently the Rotweiller was preparing to dominate her.  As the approached us like a pack of wolves, I tried to sternly swoosh away the two stray dogs.  Meanwhile, the Rotweiller decided he was going after Grace.  She ran behind me screaming "Fran help me!!!".  I came to her rescue :) I fended off the Rotweiller and saved my sisters life :)  As we walked up the hill and knew we were safe from the "attackers"...we just looked at each other and bursted into laughter.  Gosh, that laughter felt amazing!!! What felt like a start of a really bad day, started off the way every day should start - With Laughter :)

In ending, a word of advice "Often times when things seem rough at first, it ends up being a blessing, bring on the blessings!!!"