Personal Post – Turning 40

Very rarely do I write anything personal on our blog; I like to keep it light, fun and focused on the store.  Today, I could not resist – it’s my 40th birthday.  For a couple of weeks I have been deemphasizing it.  I wasn’t thrilled about turing 40.  Please, don’t get me wrong, I am truly blessed; I am alive, healthy (okay overweight, but no high blood pressure or anything else) and get to do what I love daily.  I have a great and loving family and group of friends who are immensely patient and understanding as I work, work, work and don’t call or visit them enough.  They never criticize or chastise; just the opposite – they encourage and applaud.

But… you know how it is, you have goals and plans for life and when those things are not achieved you get disappointed and sometime lose focus on the good things that happen everyday.  Well, these past few weeks I have lost focus on the good, no, the great things, in my life and I’ve been a little mopey.

This week we were incredibly busy – thank you many times over to our customers! So, my focus was only on work and making sure we not only got things done, but also had a great time – who says work has to be a drag?  Not me!  I had that in corporate America and refuse to have that at my store.

So, I was the last to leave last night and this morning, the first to arrive and SURPRISE, or as I really like to spell it (and say it) SU-PRISE!  The entire store is decorated in my honor.  Some secretive, and super sweet birds came in to make the store look AMAZING!

There are streamers and signs and balloons EVERYWHERE!

When I say everywhere I mean on the printers, on the computers, on the chairs, hanging from the ceiling; everywhere.  Even my screen saver has birdies with party hats!

The ceiling?  Really?  I guess the flew up there and hung those! Amazing…

Instantly, as I was crying tears of joy, I forgot about all of the goals missed and the disappointments and REALLY appreciate how blessed and fortunate I am!

Thanks, Melissa and team for making me feel like the luckiest 40 year old in the world!  Even that trip to Miami could not have topped this!