The Life of Bon: It's my birthday, suckers!

Sunday, June 30, 2013

It's my birthday, suckers!


Today I am 27.

The age feels good on me.  Like it fits.  You know when you try on a terrific new pair of jeans, and they fit just perfectly over your hips and button up so comfortably and look just totally stunning on every part of you?

That's what 27 feels like.

I liked 26.  I really did.  Probably the happiest year of my life.  It was fun and playful and involved making lots of big decisions about our future.  In a way, I suppose, 26 feels like the end of the play years.  27 feels like a time to buckle down and grow up- a time to think about retirement plans and buying a house and babies.  And it fits.

I feel so incredibly blessed on this birthday.  I don't say that to show you how great my life has been compared to all of your sub par lives, but because the truth is I think we are all so incredibly blessed.  I feel like there are blessings beyond measure, beyond counting, beyond what we will ever have the capacity to recognize.

So for my birthday I present to you, 27 things I am grateful for today.

1.  My husband and his playful attitude.  He makes me laugh every single day and I adore him.  I'd be so lost without him.


2.  My mom who has taught me about incredible strength, faith, and the power of serving others.  I learn from her every day.
3.  My dad who taught me to work hard, to recognize God in my life, and the simple joy of a cherry coke.
4.  My seven siblings who never stop teasing me but never stop looking out for me either.
5.  My body that lets me run and play and doesn't get tired.
6.  Writing and the power it gives me.  The ability to rest my thoughts, to understand the world through writing, to record my life.
7.  My niece, Josie, who has round, chubby cheeks and asks me to paint her toenails.



8.  The belief I have in a higher power and the strength and peace that that has given me in my hardest moments.
9.  Ghiradelli's milk chocolate.
10.  My mind that never rests, that wants to do everything at once, that has big crazy ideas like writing on a blog every day.
11.  This blog and the people who read it.  The people who leave thoughtful comments and send love, and even the lurkers who read but never say a peep.
12.  My students and their sassy attitudes and their crappy papers and their great big hearts.


13.  My voice that is so totally awful- that couldn't carry a tune if my life depended on it- but that will perfect to me when I belt a song alone in my car.
14.  Running water and clean water and hot water.
15.  My time in Argentina and the people I left there.  Their faith, their courage, and their constant teasing me over my American accent and my bright blonde hair.



16.  Books and books and more books.  To travel to another world, another time by turning pages.  To understand a culture, an idea, a lifestyle.  To read something that is so profound and beautiful and that you swear you have thought before, just never knew how to say it.
17.  In laws who love me like their own daughter and sister, who accept me into the family, who raised a fine red head for me to marry.


18.  People who stop and ask you if you're okay when you're pulled off to the side of the road.
19.  Friends that are as close as sisters- that will do anything for you, that you know you can count on no matter the situation, that practically share your heart.


20.  Handwritten notes.
21.  Cuddles and hugs and kisses and handholds and backscratches.
22.  Summer and long, hot days and campfires and vacations and chocolate that melts in the car.


23.  A country that lets me wear what I want, wake up when I want, work where I want, marry who I want, worship how I want.
24.  My mom's home cooking.
25. The ocean and the mountains and the trees and the sunsets and the beauty of the world we live in.


26.  Skinny jeans that make you feel like a million bucks.
27.  The people that surround me, that love me, that make this life worth living.  That put up with my crappy moods, my crazy schemes, my fits of anger.  For love and charity and peace and beauty and all those things that make life so great.


For my birthday, I would like nothing more than for you to leave a comment telling me what you are grateful for today.  Mounds of happy, grateful comments will make this day complete for me.

Mwah!

52 comments:

  1. Thankful for ice water. EOS lip things. My mom and cousin coming to visit in October. That I am not in AZ during this heat wave. The many libraries around me. Happy blog posts. :) Birthdays, even though I am turning 40 this year. Happy birthday to you!! :)

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  2. I'm thankful for SUMMER! Amen? Amen!

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  3. I love this post! That's such a nice, great idea to do a thankfulness post on your birthday!
    morrellfairtyale.blogspot.com

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  4. Happiest of Birthdays! You make me wish I was 27 again. Enjoy!

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  5. Happy Birthday! I'm grateful for family, hot weather, and Nutella!

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  6. car melted chocolate is the greatest. Happy Birthday!

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  7. Happy birthday, gorgeous! Hope you've had an awesome day!

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  8. Today I am especially grateful for my daughter. For all of the love, joy, happiness and overall meaning she brings to my life.

    Happy 27th!

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  9. Happy Birthday! :)

    I'm grateful for my amazing, loving, selfless husband and our sweet, cuddly, crazy dog-children! <3 Oh and on a totally superficial note, my awesome new car! :)

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  10. Happy Birthday! I'm grateful for a loving family, a creative God, an education, swimming pools and days off to enjoy them.

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  11. Happy Birthday! I might be one of those "lurkers" that you referred to.

    Definitely right now I am thankful for handwritten letters!! My boyfriend has been away at bootcamp and that is our only form of communication, so boooy is it a wonderful thing!

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  12. I am beyond grateful for electricity! It is oh so hot (111 degrees outside) but my apartment is nice and cool. Thanks electricity. I hope today is wonderful for you

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  13. Happy Birthday! Tonight I am grateful for quite time and pretty painted finger nails. :)

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  14. I am grateful for God's tender mercies and how somehow every time I read your posts it helps me savor the good, let go of the bad and learn from all of life's experiences. You, my friend, are one of those precious jewels and am so thankful I've come across you and your blog!

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  15. your niece looks just like you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! happy birthday!

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  16. Happy Birthday! I am totally one of those lurkers... I am thankful for your blog and the honesty and humor that you write with. Also, I am thankful for sunshine, because no matter how crappy the day a little bit of sunshine can make anything a whole lot better!

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  17. Happy Bday Bon !!!! I am grateful for.... so much. How do I pick just one?! How bout this one, I am grateful for the post you wrote months ago called "The Good Old Days" because it's almost become a joke to Chris and I how many times I use that phrase when we are living in the moment and enjoying it, I say "these are the good old days happening right now."

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  18. Happy Birthday from one of your "lurkers" :)

    I am thankful for my family and my two little girls :)

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  19. I'm grateful for this week I've had to be with family. The one thing I didn't realize about being a stay at home mom is how lonely it can be (I have two kids, but they don't usually get my jokes)

    Happy birthday!! 27 is the age I too felt like a grown up. Maybe because it's more the "late twenties" than the "mid twenties".

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  20. Anonymous10:17 PM

    I'm grateful to have a birthday that I share with my two best friends-- my sisters. Our birthday is July 2nd, so you and I are almost birthday buddies! Happy birthday, Bon!!!

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  21. I am thankful for my wonderful husband and sweet children.
    Happy birthday, Bonnie!

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  22. Happy birthday!! I am thankful for a God who made it possible to move back home to be closer to my family.
    I'm also thankful for Diet Coke because, well, ADDICTIONS.

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  23. Yay happy birthday!!!

    Carly
    www.lipglossandcrayons.com

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  24. Happy birthday, I'm grateful for all the love and support I have great post!
    leyla xx
    mythoughtsandboredom.blogspot.co.uk

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  25. Happy happy birthday!!!
    http://johced-ourjourneytoeverywhere.blogspot.com/
    xxx

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  26. I love this post! Happy Birthday!

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  27. Happy Birthday! My list for things I'm grateful about is so long... I'm grateful for the life I have with the man I love and for our one month long vacation to our home-country, Greece, that is so close, in August!

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  28. How neat to put together a post about what you're grateful for. Instead of 'Its my birthday and I want stuff'....or 'OMG Three more years til THIRTY!' Lol

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  29. Happy birthday, Bon! Of all the things I am grateful for today, my health has to be smack dab near the top. Of course, I'm also grateful for my freedom, my family, ice cream, and my sense of humor but none of those would be as enjoyable if I didn't have my health. :) Enjoy YOUR day!

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  30. Happy birthday love! Reading your bloggy makes me pretty happy...lotsa lauughs :D

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  31. Bon!! It's MY Birthday TOO!! But I'm 28... so I'm older. You'll enjoy 27, I promise. I am grateful for no traffic this morning. I know, what the?? But hey, it's the little things in life amiright??

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  32. So grateful my daughter and son will be able to see each other at the MTC as their missions overlap - by one day - next week. That my children love the Lord and put Him and His will first in their lives. That He put LDS friends in my life when I was a teenager. What a beautiful world we live in full of beautiful, loving, people.

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  33. Your list made me realize that I don't even know how to pick which blessing I want to comment with. My number one blessing though is most definitely salvation through Christ. It's beyond what I deserve (as are all of my blessings), and I sure don't want to ever forget it. Happy birthday!

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  34. Happy Birthday! I am grateful for the freedom to make the decisions that make me happy!

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  35. Happy Birthday! I'm thankful for super short work weeks, super long weekends and fireworks and sparklers and watermelon and pools and hot dogs and jalapeno poppers and towels that have been left out in the sun and sunscreen and sunburns and napping toddlers and Miller High Life and fireworks.

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  36. I'm grateful for summers off---it will give me just enough time to go crazy so that I'll actually be excited to get back to teaching in the fall (it helps that I just completed my first, and very difficult, year of teaching!) :)

    Feliz cumple, y que cumples mucho mas!

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  37. Happy Birthday Bon!!!!

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  38. Happy Birthday!

    Today, I'm grateful to be able to take the time I need.

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  39. Happy Birthday!!

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  40. Happy Birthday!! Hope it's a great day for you!

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  41. Happy Birthday Bonnie! We are only one week apart! Hope your 27th year is all you want it to be!
    Im thankful for vacation days and airplanes! Going to see my husband after almost two months apart soon!

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  42. Lurker says PEEP - and, happy birthday!

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  43. Happy happy birthday! I hope 27 is even better than 26 :)

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  44. Happy birthday bonbon.

    I loved reading your 27 gratitude filled points.

    I am grateful right now to be living in a zone where mother earth is not violent and away from crime...amen!

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  45. Happy Birthday!!!! I'm grateful for all the little things that make life LIFE. I'm extremely thankful that I learned about gratitude and it's importance to my happiness and that I found a way to share it every day.

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  46. happy belated birthday! i know you're having an amazing time over there in beautiful hawaii!

    today i am grateful for lunch with a friend in town from australia, whom i've not seen in two decades (TWO DECADES! wow!), my car (phineas boba fett), texas a&m university, college station, the hill country, my howdy dammit t-shirt, hard rock cafe, chocolate martinis, coca cola, water, tums and benadryl. all in all it was a pretty good day, and i'm mostly grateful for that.

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  47. Happy birthday to you................be it late................but anyway still happy belated birthday to you.........27 damn you are young........lol

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  48. Happy 27th birthday! Your niece is a mini-Bonnie!!

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  49. Happy belated birthday!!!!! My birthday was on Friday and I'm 27 too! Although you're handling it WAY better than I am! I feel so old. :(

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  50. Anonymous2:02 PM

    I'm thankful for this wonderful blogging world that I have recently discovered!

    Happy Birthday! I hope you had a wonderful day! I am also 27 and feel like everything seems to just be falling in to place this year :-)

    sending wonderful wishes from across the pond!

    Ash :-)

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