Thursday Thinking—Birthday Bullets

• Today’s my 48th birthday. I love birthdays. I don’t even need to do anything special, it just feels good to know I was born, have another year in front of me and another one behind me.

• Ray called and left me a message yesterday that said, “Janey Payney, you are a very important person to me; therefore I wanted to be the first to wish you a happy birthday tomorrow . . . I understand you are approaching 50, but you are not 50 yet . . . You are going to be like wine or cheese and get better with age. I sure love you and I can’t wait to see the aged Janey Payney.” Several hours later when I talked to him I asked, “Ray, what does old cheese look like?” He said, “Wrinkled. Hard. Moldy. Why?”

• Ty wrote me an e-mail this morning that said, “This is the only year where you will be twice as old as me. Before you were always more than that, and after, you will always be less. So in a way, it is like you are getting younger.” Now that’s certainly one way to look at it. He also included fifteen of his favorite memories.  Two of them were:  ~Meeting you for (general) conference my freshman year (at the academy). I stunk, you stunk, and everyone let us know that it was a problem. (Ty’s coat. My shoes. Pew. The memory is still odorous . . . and funny.)  ~I love that you used to read out loud to us. We loved hearing Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and other books like that. You encouraged us to read as well. I also fondly remember that you willingly listened to Ande and I read Harry Potter out loud to you even though you had no desire to listen to it. You knew it was important to us, so you made it important to you.

• On the kids’ birthdays Calvin always says, “Jane, tell them what it was like the day they were born” and we retell their birth day. The kids have heard those stories 27, 25, 24, and 21 times. One year on my birthday Calvin said, “Kids, I’m going to tell you what it was like when your mom was born.” And since he was raised in Arizona and I was born in Idaho, I don’t know where he got his information. “This is what it was like. It was a hot day because it was in the middle of the summer. She was born in the middle of the day. When she came out she took one look around, smiled at the doctor, and said, ‘Hi! My name is Jane! What can I do to help?’ And that’s the story of when she was born.” I had forgotten about it until Ray and Cali called this morning to wish me a happy birthday. Cali started laughing and said, “Ray, I have to tell you about the day my mom was born . . .”

• Grace asked me what she could cook for my birthday supper. I requested her manicotti, it tastes so good. She is making it as I type. She could be a food show host. She is wearing a long purple pregnancy shirt with an empire waistline and scooped neck, leggings, pretty jewelry, and has her hair fixed. All she needs is a microphone.

• Abe called to wish me a happy birthday. It is so funny to watch him on Skype. He fidgets the whole time. Grace mentioned to me the other day she finally figured out why their baby moves so much after watching Abe on the computer camera. The technicians are always telling the baby to please quit moving. (You should have seen the baby during the ultrasound when she had the hiccups the other day, it was pretty funny.)

• Back to Abe’s wiggling phone call . . . he is planning a family trip for Calvin’s and my 30th anniversary in a few years. He is one great event planner. It is a talent I never suspected in him. Which just goes to prove your mother doesn’t know everything.

• Ande has called me several times today and each time said, “It’s your BIRTHDAY!” punched full of enthusiasm. And that was all she called to say each time. She made sure one of the calls was at 2:19 p.m. so that I would know she was thinking of me the exact time I entered this world. She is a gift all in herself.

• I can’t tell you about Calvin’s gift. All I can say is it was funny. Very, very funny.

• Happy Birthday to me. It’s my birthday.