29 and All Is Well

Once upon a time I was awesome.
Halloween 2004: dressed as the golden bond girl from 'Goldfinger'

This is my last year of my twenties. It's been a good decade. Tomorrow is my 29th Birthday (my last birthday ever!)

Decade Reflection:

2001: 20 years old. Living in Los Angeles, going to school at SMC. Dating like a crazy woman. Met my best friend Alex.

2002: 21 yrs. Had great group of LDS friends in LA who threw me a surprise party (despite the fact that I hate surprises). Transferred to UCLA. Dated a guy 10 years older than me. Went to London for Shakespeare study abroad with UCLA. Met celebrities on a weekly basis, just hanging out in Hollywood. Went to clubs and lived it up. Glory days.

2003: 22 yrs. Had bad reputation in LA 1st ward. Graduated from UCLA, got job teaching right away at Audubon Middle School in South Central LA. Started dating non-member guy who almost converted. Got my own apartment in West Hollywood.

2004: 23 yrs. Met Dx at LA 1st in June, after my first year of teaching and his last year of law school. Had the summer of love where we went out all night and met for breakfast every day at noon. Greatest summer of my life. Engaged in October, married on New Year's. Still teaching. Moved to Hollywood.

2005: 24 yrs. Applied and then went to grad school in London at King's College, University of London to study Shakespeare. Quit job teaching. Spent summer in Dville, liquidated everything we had and then moved. Dx landed a job at a prestigious law firm. Dx and I hit 14 countries or so that year. Christmas in Rome. We were in a play together at King's.

2006: 25 yrs. Got really really baby hungry. And sad. Missed my family, it was really cold in London. We traveled all over Europe. I wrote my master's thesis and a self-help book called Good Girl's Guide to Life After High School. In May we found out we were expecting and moved back to Dville. Dx got a good job, we moved to WC.

2007: 26 yrs. Had Mimi. Life changed forever. Could not believe I had accomplished childbirth, and not only that but I was good at it! Greatest baby in the whole wide world. Got job as a professor in PH. Pregnant with baby 2 in November. Dx started his own law practice.

2008: 27 yrs. Moved to house in Dville. Had baby Jude in August. Taught choreography and English writing. Raised 2 babies.

2009: 28 yrs. Taught, raised 2 babies. Dx travelled a lot. Had live-in nanny and housekeeper! Went to Tokyo in May. Found out about baby #3 in June. Phil got married. Moved in with parents in September, had baby Silas after Christmas. Three babies in less than three years. Woot.

At the beginning of my twenties I evaluated myself by how much of the world I'd seen and what I was able to accomplish. I was really motivated by hard things: getting into UCLA, teaching somewhere really challenging, going to a great grad school, publishing a book, going to exotic lands. The transition into being a stay-at-home mother has been a shock to my psyche. My accomplishments now feel so much more mundane: I got everybody out the door on time, I spent one on one time with Mimi, I understood what Jude was trying to communicate, I helped Silas' diaper rash improve. As busy as I am with three and the challenges they present, I still feel a little less like myself when someone asks me, "What did you do today?" And I reply "Tended my kids." It feels good to slow down, to not worry that I didn't leave the house at all for two days and have nothing to do but swing my arms on Saturdays. I've become a homebody and I like it. Mine is a simple life right now.