I don’t normally post on Sundays, some throwback to my Southern Baptist childhood, but today I am 39.

This is one of those gushing I am so thankful posts (for the most part…I will get to the mama biting portion soon) so be forewarned. Also, I thought about completely ignoring the fact that I am 39 today on my blog but I AM 39 TODAY! Yahoo! Also, I am going to ramble.

I have to say this has been one of the nicest birthday weekends ever. Nothing extravagant, just lots of nice little gestures. My mother treated me to lunch and dessert at PF Changs Friday and brought over a beautiful lemon icebox pie and homemade banana bread after church today. My sister treated me at Starbucks this morning and I have gift cards to my favorite stores waiting to be swiped thanks to the hubby and my mother-in-law.

The girls went shopping with the hubby yesterday (after they got my car washed…heck yeah) and brought home chocolate and pine bark mulch, per my request. The pine bark mulch, that is. The chocolate was a nice surprise.

We took the girls to their first minor league baseball game, and although I thought Miss A would get us kicked out, what with all over her hyperactive squirming, we made it through the first game of the double header and then got the heck out of dodge while the girls were in that exhausted, guaranteed to crash in the car on the way home zone. And then I had some red wine. Tonight we’re going to a Japanese steak place where the girls will probably be slack-jawed over the culinary performance. I just hope they don’t ask for chicken nuggets.

My sweet big girl is turning into a fabulous personal shopper. She and I went shopping Friday and I bought her a cute fall outfit. I briefly looked at purses and found a red purse I really liked, but I did not buy it. Well guess what she did yesterday? She told the hubby I had seen a purse at TJ Maxx. Poor Miss A, having watched one too many commercials along with Miss C this summer, asked if that was the place that took your car away, to which Miss C replied, “No, that’s Title Max!” But I digress. At least it’s not another Billy Mays’ infomercial my girls are obsessed with.

Here’s my pretty new red purse (the lining is pink):

Here’s me and the girls last weekend on my mother’s back porch just because I have so few pictures of me with the girls it seems and it’s my birthday so indulge me a little will you, OK?:

The 30s have been quite a decade. I won’t lie to you, sometimes they were really stressful. If you are a single young thing in your 20s or don’t yet have kids, go do some things you might not get around to once you have babies, like joining the Peace Corps or wearing skinny jeans in public.

Now I have absolutely no regrets about my 30s, but the mid-30s did tend to kick me in the booty. Between having two babies (and I know some of you with more than two kids are laughing at me and my wimpy self) and the hubby having his baby (his business) it was quite a ride at times. I feel like the 40s are going to be our “hey we have finally figured this life thing out” decade and I still have one more year of the 30s left to close it out in style and kick 40’s ass.

Right now I have a sleeping naked 3-year-old on the couch, also known as She Who Bit Me Friday On The Shoulder During A Seriously Impressive Temper Tantrum At Bedtime. I never dealt with The Biting with Miss C. It’s just a barrel of laughs, let me tell you. See? Those of you with no children? Remember. The Biting. It can happen. Start fine tuning your taste in wine and it also doesn’t hurt if you can develop a business relationship with a local liquor store owner, so you get a 20 percent discount. I’m just sayin’.

Any way, most of the time I feel the same as I did a decade ago and I’m amazed I am actually responsible for two young human beings. As Jimmy Buffett says, I’m “growing older but not up.”

The sleeping naked 3-year-old is now awake and is summoning me to get her something to eat.

Yeah. 39? It’s pretty damn good so far.