My birthday began on Sunday with my alarm going off at five am. I spent the entire day at the hospital, and got home around eleven that night. When my birthday officially ended at midnight I was on the phone with the state police asking them to help bring a patient in to the hospital. So, the birthday notsomuch. The next morning we packed up the new family car and spent eight hours driving, and I managed to make Josie sicker than she has ever been in her life. (Of note, the car has had three separate puke incidences in the one short week we have owned in. Hmmm. I doubt we’ll be in a Subaru commercial anytime soon.)

And then- we spent a week in a lakehouse in upstate New York, and had a really, really great vacation.

These last few weeks I have been in what Tim calls my "Lieutenant Dan" mode. It’s been hard to keep a handle on the great parts of my life and not get dragged down into the bad, spend your birthday listening to a woman tell you how glad she is to be in the hospital to get a break from her kids and can’t she have just a little more morphine? parts. A vacation was desperately needed. It was our first real vacation as a family, and it was awesome. Hurrah!

While we were in New York two amazing things happened back at home. A Trader Joe’s opened up in Pittsburgh! (I guess my daily writing of letters to the company after living her almost NINE years finally sunk in.) And, even more amazing- my future partner, who has been stationed in Baghdad arrived stateside and is scheduled to start at my office a full two months earlier than I was expecting. It’s a full on Christmas miracle. I am speechless with gratitude.

We’re having a upswing ‘round these parts. It’s about time!