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Yesterday was my birthday.  I am not really big on celebrating my birthdays.  It is just another day.  I don't have high expectations, and therefore am not often disappointed.  However, I do often wish and pray that for my birthday and Mother's Day ( and for the record, it does kind of stink that they are so close together) the children will actually get along.  Two days of the year without screeching would be beautiful.  Anyway- I woke up knowing that my grandma was with me.  That was a gift in itself.  I want her to live with me, and although I have not convinced her of that yet,  she is at least staying with me for the time being.  I walked down the stairs and saw that the recycling had been taken out, but not one bag of garbage had made it to the street!  Seriously!?!  It's my birthday!! It was not the way I wanted to start my day.  I was angry.  One of our daughters was told to empty the trash, and hadn't, but that didn't mean Jim didn't have to take out any of the garbage.  I was fuming.  I marched right into the victim role. Granted, this was on top of some other things that had been said and done recently, and it just added fuel to the fire.  The morning flew by and soon it was time to head to school.  As soon as I got there, the day morphed.  Child after child ran up to me with birthday greetings.  If I didn't acknowledge the greeting immediately, or with enough enthusiasm, the child would say it again, "Mrs. Woell, Mrs. Woell, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!" It was quite cute.  I forget how important birthdays are to kids.  When we got upstairs from recess, the whole third grade told me Happy Birthday even though many of them already had told me individually.  We went down to the computer lab and did our thing there. Near the end of lab time, the teacher had to step out to speak to the principal about something so I was having the kids finish up, log off and wrap up the head phones.  As the kids lined up, they sang Happy Birthday to me.  It was the never ending celebration.  As I walked the halls of ILS, I was inundated with well wishes.  It was amazing.  I don't know how so many people knew it was my birthday, but they did.  It was touching.  It changed my whole outlook.  It softened my heart.  I got  home and went on the computer and found message after message wishing me well.  I also    received  text after text.   Facebook is good for some things-  automatic reminders about birthdays!  It truly touched my heart- people taking the time from their day to let me know they were thinking about me.  I am blessed.  It brings a smile to my face even now.  I love that my children's friends even took the time to write messages.  It made what started as just another day and made it a celebration.  It turned anger into joy and made me realize how truly loved I am.  God is so good.  Life is a celebration and birthdays are indeed fun.