39 to 40

In general, I'm not a big birthday person.  I get embarrassed by any fuss made about my birthday.  Here's proof:

 That's me at age 3, upset shy about people singing Happy Birthday to me.  Sucks that I was that uptight even back then.  Anyway...

I'd rather be the party thrower than the party recipient.  I'd rather be the gift giver than the gift recipient.  I'd rather be the cake baker than the cake eater -- no, scratch that, I LOVE birthday cake.  Anyway, this year I'll be turning 39.  Yes, the big 4-0 is on the other side of the fence.  It's hard to believe.   You'd think this would be the perfect year to bury my head in the sand when June XX comes around but -- surprise , surprise -- I have a different take on my 2010 birthday.  I decided a few weeks ago that I should really mark this year.  The 30s were a great decade and I want to send them off with a bang lovely Bon Voyage wave.   I want to do things -- things that would help me grow as person, things that would be educational, things that would be just plain fun.   A "39 things to do in my 39th year" list is apparently quite popular among bloggers and while I find the idea intriguing and I have a love/hate relationship with lists, it sounds a little daunting (and too over-exposed, in my humble opinion).  So I jotted down some notes in a "birthday" journal and I'm starting to get excited.  Because I'm a pretty private person (ironic words for a blog), I won't really be publishing my birthday bucket list but I wanted to give you a little insight as to what I'm thinking.  And then, perhaps, you'll be inspired to create your own bucket list -- and it doesn't have to be for a birthday.  I think it's just nice to learn new things and celebrate our lives, don't you?

Item #1
I've always wanted to make cinnamon rolls from scratch.  The kind with yeast.  And, yes, they  have to be fabulously gooey.  I've been saving a cinnamon roll recipe from one of my favorite books (Peace Like a River by Leif Enger) and this year I'm going to get around to making them.  My mouth is watering now just thinking about it.

Item #2
This one will make my family roll their eyes laugh -- yes, I'm finally going to finish the Christmas cross-stitch project I started about 12 years ago.  It's a large counted cross-stitch that has seen me through many things -- death, marriage, sickness, a baby.  Blood, sweat and tears.  But I'm getting closer by the day because I try and commit to 1-2 hours of work on it a week.  This will definitely be completed, stretched, and framed before I turn 40 (honestly, I'm hoping to finish it by this Christmas but no promises).  I jokingly told Lee that my kids will probably sell it for 5 bucks at an estate sale after I'm gone but I won't know about it so that's okay.

Item #3
I want to complete a family tree for Nathan.  This is the organizer in me -- I want to use ancestry.com or some software to gather all of the family names and dates in one place.  As a kid, I watched my mom and grandma work on a family tree and I found it very intriguing.  I like history so why not learn about my/Nate's history.

So those are 3 things I plan to do.  There will hopefully be others.  Now it's your turn to share....