As We Always Say, "Next Year in Michigan..."

On Guppy Lake for my birthday.

Three weeks from tomorrow, I am going to age again.  Assuming I make it, of course, which is always the hope.

I mention this because some proportion of my family has asked me what I want.  Unfortunately, I've had a hell of a time coming up with anything that isn't actually for my kids.

It's amazing.  My birthday used to be a week-long event.  It was the heralding of REAL spring, when it actually got warm and sunny.  I would take a car full of my friends up to Guppy Lake and we'd spend the whole week, or at least a long weekend depending on the scheduling, soaking in a hot tub, walking through the freshly budding forest, cooking out at bonfires by night, climbing trees, paddling around in a kayak...

It was the best week of the year.

How many people in the tree?

Of course, being in a school where the closest break to my birthday is at the end of the semester two weeks later, you'd think I'd just postpone the trip, pack up, and head to Guppy Lake with my semester over.

Oh, but you'd be wrong.  You see, this is going to be The Summer of Insanity at Casa SuperMommy.  I can't tell you how desperately I'd love to take a break at my childhood home, but it's not possible.  This summer, M and I are cramming as many classes as possible into the short term,

Yeah, you read that right.  I will be taking one class in four weeks, and two classes in the following eight weeks.  That means that my first class will start... the Monday after my current classes end.  And it's not just me.  M's taking one class during each of those terms as well.

So what on earth would cause us to do something this insane?  If we do this, we each only have to take one class during the last semester of next year.

One class apiece before we graduate.

Imagine the time we would have to do our work!  To see each other!  To look for jobs!  It just makes too much sense.

Yeah, that's me in the boyscout hat

You think I miss my husband now?  When I get to see him on weekends and after the kids go to bed at night?  Just imagine how much worse it's going to get when those weekends we're both studying our asses off because we've given ourselves the summer course-load from Hell.

I'll miss my kids, too.  For at least that four week term, I don't think I'm hardly going to see them at all either.  It might just make me lose my mind.

So that, dear readers, is what SuperMommy is getting herself for her birthday.  A canceled birthday tradition, a stack of summer textbooks, and a whole summer of preemptive stress.

Oh, and that pair of Fluevog boots I've been lusting after for the past two years.  They went on sale, and NOTHING could stop me!

Birthday shoes!

If, for some reason, you would like to get me a birthday present, I am in need of a new multi-station baby monitor (apparently all handsets for our current monitor had a 15month lifespan, and are no longer functional- despite months of jerry-rigging internal battery-bits), a new faucet for the kitchen sink (gift cards to Home Depot would suffice), a couple 5"x7" picture frames for some ADORABLE prints I picked up for the kitchen, or a coupon for a massage.

If you want to send stuff I want for my kids, we have an Amazon baby registry still up, full of DVDs and books we'd love for them to have.  After all, it's their half-birthday on Friday.

So, what AM I doing for my birthday, really?  I'm having a crazy two night stay with my family for Passover (that's two days before), I'm going out to dinner with some friends on one night, and I'm going out to dinner with M one night.  And really, that's all I need- a little grown-up time, Ethiopian food, and cheesecake.

My personal heaven

Pretty much in that order.

Still, each time I look out the window, all I can think about is loading up the car and heading north.  I'd love to watch my kids running around the "back forty" where the old playhouse was, I'd love to bundle them up in life jackets and take them out in the paddle boat, I'd love to smell the pines and hear the frogs, and gaze up in wonder at the uncountable stars...

Maybe next year.  Maybe next year...