{counting thoughts and thoughts that count}

s.mac's birthday is a big deal this year. you know the one where your haunches pucker a month before you reach the milestone of turning 30. like, we're totally, completely decrepit. i am hanging on to my few months of peace, still able to declare passage and rights to the 20's. yes, h.mac s.mac 20 somsing......tho, sadly, not after monday. at least one of the two mac's will be joining the ranks of investing in preparation H, colon research and knee replacements. wrinkles an ugly reality and grey is the new black. or red in his case.

this weekend was to be the best {welcome to thirty} party you have ever seen. it entailed researched restaurants, cozy get away rooms, a viewing of music and the spoken word and some new house accessory browsing. we were going away for {drumroll puh-lease} 2 blissful, glorious nights. us, together. we haven't spent a night away, hmmmm. how old is bud"e", well, you get the picture. a vacay? s.mac and i? well, does the honeymoon still sound pathetic almost 9 years later? yes, darn.

then. taking all of these lovely activities into account. and please take them into account. IKEA was involved, a discount denim store, white sauce for grilled chicken, walks in the city and so on and and so forth. now, i divulge to you what we like to call s.mac birthday luck. never ever have we had an uncursed birthday of his. atrocities have included:

*a child falling from a high chair and smacking their head right before the scheduled departure
*flu, flu, flu
*fevers and pukies within seconds of consuming a very expensive brazillian meal it took me a month to save for
* a fridge breaking down and all the birthday dinner supplies getting spoiled (it was sunday too, no hitting the store)
and this year, in true s.mac birthday luck fashion the spoiler is:
{gasp, surprise and ahhh} sick babies and ear aches.

last night i was getting ready for bed, patting myself on the back for all of my secretive detective skills in figuring out what church duties of his needed to be taken care of, which job skills need to be covered, where the children will go and what measures we need to take to make sure none join us on this trip {hehe couldn't help that one} and so on, when lo and behold:

hella, burning up with fever before bedtime. burning up, eyes watering and nose: drippy. at 2 o'clock in the morning as we were still awake waiting to go to sleep, bud "e" came in declaring his ear was "killing him bad mom". at 5 AM the children decided to hit the sack all while my lofty birthday surprises crumbled around me. deflated and crumbled. i don't leave if my kids are sick. i hate the thought of leaving and having them sick. that's why god made moms, to heal the sick and afflicted, to wipe a burning head with a wet cloth, to administer tylenol, to blow on little foreheads, to use soft tissue on noses and to watch cartoons at 3 AM. like, no one else could do that. and certainly. if someone besides the mother had to, the trip would be ruined.

the thoughts i accumulated on our birthday curse had to do something with that fine red head i have. he's never complained about it. always been bend over backwards happy for the well intended thoughts and always happy. he is a rare man. always, always happy. i wonder if he's human sometimes as i tend to show him the range of emotions that imperfect humans go thru regularly.

love him, marinating in age, i soak him up everyday.....