Over the Hill

So yesterday I turned 29.  That's right....the last year of my twenties.  I feel like this is an important birthday.  It marks the last year of all things as I know them.  Because I'm pretty sure that when you turn 30 you die, right?  So I've only got one more year to do all the things on my bucket list before I am too old and decrepit to do them.  I thought I should jot down a few of my lifelong dreams so I can get organized and plan for the next year.  I recognize that some of these are not compatible with others, but I just put them all down anyway.  In no particular order:

-learn to sew (anything really, but clothes especially)
-have a vegetable and flower garden, and ideally a fruit tree or two
-get my Master's degree ( clinical therapy, or something in education...teaching, school counseling)
-run more half marathons..improving my time to an 8_1/2 minute per mile average
-leave the country at least once (I'd love to see Europe, but I'll take anything really)

-help run a free medical clinic (the social work aspect of it anyways)
-learn Spanish
-take my girls to Disneyland
-go backpacking (seriously, I have never gone, despite being married to Mark for 6 years)
-open a pie shop


So as you can see, it's going to be a busy year.  I'm rolling up my sleeves now.  in all seriousness, I am a tiny bit terrified of turning 30.  I'm not sure what it is....I guess it's just something about having a 3 as the first number of your age.  It is a place I have never gone before.  So yesterday as I pondered embarking on my last year of my 20's, I thought about everything the last 9 years have brought.   And it has been a time of lots of change and growth for me:

-I chose my major, and then graduated from college with a degree in Social Work
-I became engaged to my best friend, and then married him
-I had my first "real" jobs as a social worker
-I had 2 beautiful children
-I ran my first half marathon
-I learned how to make pie...and little did I know how this would become a lifelong passion

It has been a good 9 years.  So I guess when I think about it, I don't see why my 30's shouldn't be just as good.  But I'm going to live up 29 just in case :)

It's been a busy time for us with Mark working so many hours at the hospital (75 hours last week), so I wasn't expecting him to remember my birthday.  Heck, I barely remembered my birthday.  But somehow he managed to pick up a surprise cake at the store on his way home yesterday.  And since I have discussed with him my fears of getting old, he also managed to find a cake that gently mocked me.