Birthdaypalooza

My 32nd birthday has come and gone. Sorry it took me a few days to get this post up, but in addition to my birthday revelry, I'm also coming off of two days of conferences. Thanks to all for the well wishes. Some highlights from the last couple of days:

1) The day began with the traditional "ha, you're old as hell" phone call from my sister. This year's version was a friendly reminder that in 8 years I'll be 40. Nice.

2) My kids presented me with a homemade card that they all signed. I knew it was coming, of course, because they're 5th graders and apparently thought that I DIDN'T see it being passed around for the last 3 days. =-) But they were so proud of themselves that I pretended to be surprised and totally caught off-guard. I also got various individual cards and some presents, 5th-grade style (ie, a Hershey's candy bar, a sparkly pen from the book fair, etc).

3) Mom sent me New Kids's new CD--whoo hoo!

4) Renee sent me a box of her famous Chex Mix, some fall leaves (another yearly tradition) and one of those over-the-door bathroom organizers that I was coveting at her house this summer.

5) I spent the actual birthday evening with LCB. Yeah, I know. We had dinner at my favorite place (Outback).

6) The following night, the birthday fun continued as I celebrated with my friends from work. About 10 of my nearest and dearest showed up. A good time was had by all. (A special shout out to Mike, the only one who has been there for all 3 of my Florida birthdays. He's now at a different school, but he still came out to keep the tradition alive.)

And I still have one more thing to look forward to:

7) I'm going to a psychic tomorrow (Saturday!). Anna took me for my 29th birthday (or was it my 28th?), and it was such a great experience that I figure I'm due for another psychic tuneup. I'm sure my spirit guides and angels will have some very choice words for me regarding some of my latest dumbass moves. =-) Expect a full recap.

And in unrelated-birthday news, I had my first field trip as a team lead today--and I'm pleased to announce that it was a success. It was more of a mini-trip--3rd, 4th and 5th grades attended a play at the high school right down the road (it was so close that we were able to walk). All the kids behaved quite well and represented our school very well, I think. (The coolest part was that the cast was outside to greet the kids as we left, which they really got a kick out of.) It was nerve-wracking, though, being responsible for 100 kids (all of 5th grade) instead of just my own class, and it gave me a preview of the stress-fest that will be our trip to Busch Gardens (really, there's a big difference between going on a field trip as a team lead and going as a regular teacher). LOL--you should have seen me prowling up and down the aisles in the auditorium, on the lookout for bad behavior.

So...yeah. Now I'm 32. Whoo freakin' hoo.