Looking back at being 41...

Tomorrow I will be turning 42 years old. Yes, 42!! That's crazy for me to think about, but thankfully I have never had a problem with telling people my age.  It really is just a number to me, and it just means that I've been blessed to have had these many years on this earth to live, love and laugh and everything in between.  I think I'm comfortable enough to own my age, and I truly hope I will always feel this way about getting older.

So that being said- I'm looking forward to my birthday, but before I get to 42, I have to look back on being 41.

In my blogging world, I follow Elise Blaha Cripe , a girl (yes a young girl) wise AND successful beyond her 28 years old. She is the one who has inspired me to do the looking back on this past year as this her yearly birthday tradition, and I just thought what a wonderful idea it would be to do the same.

I've actually done a lot of thinking about this over the last few days. I feel that although Elise looks at her favorite "things" and "moments" of her past b-day year, I will spare you the reality of 2 lists of 41 things each! Let's be real...that's just a lot of "stuff" to go through and I don't know that I'd even have that many of each to tell you about. BUT I feel that I can look back on just a few (or a bit more) of the more so significant moments that made last year memorable for me. I say Significant because some of them weren't all  "good" or all "bad,"  but either way they impacted my life in how I lived, felt or reacted to my surroundings since then.


So here we go..my list of significant moments of being 41

• Taking a cross-fit class and realizing that I could actually get my body to jog...for an extended period of time- I guess you can train an old dog new tricks ;)
• Hitting my year mark with Weight Watchers and realizing how much I had changed physically but more important- mentally 
• Driving home in disbelief and getting confirmation through a radio station announcement that my childhood crush had died
• Sitting in my car in my driveway crying for 1/2 an hour and realizing how much this real yet "sureal" person had meant to my life
• 1 day later getting another terrible message that my Dad,who is thousands of miles away in Colombia, was in the hospital with heart issues too
• Realizing that I had almost lost not just one, but 2 special men in my life in less than 24 hours, and feeling grateful my Dad survived and is doing well

• Signing up officially for my first 5k run- never to late to start at 41, huh?
• Running, training and completing 1 mile without stopping, then 2, then 3, and even 4 miles (not a big deal for some, but for me it was HUGE!
• Running the 5k in the rain, getting soaked and having it no other way
• Crossing that finish line 2nd to last in 44min, but dammit I had done it!

• Getting emails and texts from people telling me that I had inspired them to lose weight- so uplifiting
• Dropping off Christian at CSUN for the a summer program and knowing it was harder for me than for him, but excited to give him the opportunity to do something I didn't get to do
• Buying 2 new swimsuits for the summer in smaller sizes- woohoo!
• Knowing what my dad felt like to be a photographer for a day
• Being inspired by my own baby boy when he opened up his first lemonade stand
• Having my brother ask me to help him look for an engagement ring- Finally!
• Being asked to help them plan their wedding and knowing it may just be my one chance since I may not get to do that with my boys...just saying ;)
• Being told I was going to be an Aunt too!
• Writing my speech for their reception dinner- my chance to think about my brother's journey
• Feeling great and so happy that day

• Looking back at photographs with 3 generations of friends- the older I get the more I cherish my friendships
• Having breakfast with my in laws one morning and being told they're taking our family to Hawaii and then breaking down crying not feeling worthy of such a gift
• Learning that Serg and Casandra were having a baby girl- Barbies here come!
• Hearing Christian play me his new song and telling him he had just written the song that his audience would sing back to him at a concert. 
• Choosing to do a 10k in November
• Finding out that I have arthritis in my back that was affecting my training
• Being told by my chiropractor that the 10k was out of the question- Total disspointment!!
• Deciding that 41 was too young to not be able to run again- Not letting that happen
• Learning to be patient at this age- soooo hard!
• Hitting my 50lbs loss- never thought I'd get there...but I did
• Every single moment spent in Hawaii feeling such gratitude for the experience and a few days of heaven with my family
• Feeling grateful for every moment when my kids still make me feel young next to them
• Realizing that even at 41, there is still room to grow up 

I'm going to stop here because I'm not sure if this list is exactly what I intended this post to be?? I didn't want to rehash things I've already talked about, but its kind of hard not to when these moments have truly impacted me one way or another in this particular year of my life.  And I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but for now this is good.

However, I honestly almost just erased this whole post. Why? Because I'm thinking this isn't what my typical post looks like. There are no pictures, nothing flashy, and who would truly care about all of this, right?

But if anything I have learned, getting a year older and wiser...Is that you just have to try! You just have to put yourself out there, commit and be vulnerable sometimes to get something in return. I may not always do it right, but its not always going to be wrong either.  That there is no rhyme or reason, and that I need to find what works for me, but I just have to do it first to find out. And I think I've done that this year.  I think I can look back and say whatever I've tried or I'm trying to do presently, I've given it my all. So I'm putting this all out there for you and for me!

In the end, being 41 was a good year and I'm looking forward to what new significant moments
being 42 will bring me. I may even have a list of my favorite things of this year by then too.
Let's see how it goes.

From my corner to yours...

Thanks for looking back with me 

and 

 let the birthday festivities begin!!

XOXO