Celebrating 40...

...well, I guess it's inevitable...we all age (much more quickly than we ever think we will when we are 21) and reach milestone birthdays many of us wish we could skip. That's what happened to me on the 23rd. I am now officially the big 4-0! For some reason I am having a hard time with it, especially when I say it out loud...forty....forty....FORTY!! How did I get here so quickly? When I was a kid 40 seemed so old...now it seems pretty young to me! lol! I know I will get over this little funk about being 40 but in the meantime I just need some time to process the fact that this is my age now:-) No more twenties...no more thirties...but now forties!

I must say that the celebration of my birthday itself this year was a nice one. I have so many great friends who turned out to help me celebrate on Friday night. We started off with a movie (New In Town) and ended up at an Italian place for dinner. And if it weren't for turning 40, it would have been a perfect night:-0

On Saturday Greg and I went camera shopping. I had been researching DSLR cameras online for a few months and decided I would like one for my birthday. We checked out several different places and in the end bought a totally different camera than the one I had made up my mind I wanted!! I hope I am not sorry I did that! The camera I ended up with is not a true DSLR but what they call a semi-SLR (the lense does not come off and can't be changed). It has HD video capabilities, which the other one didn't have. It also has live view on the LCD screen, which the other one did not have.

Apparently this camera is just coming to US stores this month so it's a pretty new model. Here are some of the specifics on it taken from Digital Camera Resource :

PowerShot SX1 IS
10 Megapixel CMOS sensor
F2.8-5.7, 20X optical zoom lens, equivalent to 28 - 560 mm
Optical image stabilization
2.8" widescreen LCD display (230k pixels) that can flip to the side and rotate; also features an electronic viewfinder
DIGIC 4 image processor
Full manual controls
RAW image format supported; those of you who already own the camera will be able to add this feature via a firmware update
Continuous shooting as fast as 4 frames/second
Can record video at 1920 x 1080 -- that's 1080p, aka Full HD -- at 30 frames/second, with stereo sound
Records until 4GB file size limit is reached, which takes about 12 minutes at 1080p
Uses efficient H.264 codec
Dedicated movie recording button
Face detection with auto redeye correction
Hot shoe for external flash
Wireless remote control included
HDMI port for connecting to an HDTV
SD/SDHC/MMC/MMCplus/HC MMCplus slot (no card included)
Uses four AA batteries; 420 shots per charge using NiMH rechargeables

So far I am still learning how to do even the basics with it, but hopefully will be able to take some nice pictures when I finally get it all figured out...

Sunday after church we went out to eat at Chili's for our family celebration of my birthday. We haven't done that for a long time but it's quite expensive for our family to eat there given that the kids no longer like to order off the kids menu (except the girls). We at WAY more than we needed to, of course, starting off the meal with the bottomless basket of chips and salsa! Yummy!

On Monday (my actual birthday), my good (but crazy) friend, Akiko (the Japanese girl pictured in the above photos) decided to write "Happy Birthday, Tara" in sidewalk chalk all the way from my front gate to the school. I was enjoying it until I came to one that said "happy 40th!" ha! At the front gate of the school I was met with a sign announcing my birthday and then again with another happy birthday on an even bigger sign (on the outdoor chalkboard) at the preschool room where I drop KJ. Needless to say, many people, who were unaware of my birthday before, had to stop and wish me a happy day. Then that night after ladies indoor soccer was over she brought out a cheesecake she had picked up for my birthday. Fortunately not many ladies were in attendance that night so the rest of the family had the chance to share the leftovers when I got home. All in all, it was a very nice day, thanks to the efforts of such a wonderful friend.

In loving memory...

On Sunday, February 8th, we received word that Greg's sister-in-law, Leslie, (his brother's wife) had passed away. She was 45 years old and had been living with cystic fibrosis (if you don't know anything about the disease you can read a simple explanation here) her entire life. She had been on a lung transplant list for the past two years, but she did not have the opportunity to receive new lungs during that time. Although she had to live with the dailyness of the disease (which included daily treatments and medications and often hospital stays of multiple days), I never once heard her complain about her illness. She was a faith-filled, soft-spoken, beautiful women who lived life to the fullest...and while we are happy she no longer has to struggle to breathe, we will miss her greatly. Greg was able to fly back to MN using frequent flier miles to spend five days with his parents, brother and family. Although we all wish we could have gone with him, we are thankful for the blessing of him being able to go at a moment's notice and be there for his brother and family. He returned home on the 17th (today) and quickly returned to his teaching responsiblities. This whole situation has been occupying much of our thoughts and lives over the past few weeks and is one of the major reasons I have had a hard time updating this blog lately.

I do hope to do more updates soon.