40 years old!

Well, today I turn 40 years old. A few years ago I would have told you that was pretty old. For sure middle aged, no doubt about it. Now that I'm 40 I don't think 40 is that old. What's that saying, 40 is the new 30? Something like that. With Eli running around the house I sure don't feel old.

One of the traditions that we have had in our family is that when each sibling turns 40 the family rounds up 40 of something to send them or give them on their 40th birthday. I'm the youngest of 11, so it is a tradition that has been around for almost 20 years now. I've been wondering for a while what they would get me because I don't really collect anything and my hobbies are pretty diverse.

They ended up deciding on 40 different poker chips. My brother Frank sent me some on his own (and made it sound like he was doing it on his own and everyone else was doing something else) and I mixed them up with the others, so I ended up with 69 different poker chips.

Here is a picture of them all together.

They made some custom ones with Eli on them.

And these had some nice religious messages on them and some state flags. I'm thinking of making up some type of frame that I could hang in my office and those will provide some good conversations.

They even had some black ballons and some banners up for me when I got to my office this morning so I've got plenty of well wishes and flak at turning 40 from my co-workers too!

We did spend some time this weekend planting tomatoes and peppers. We put down some weed barrier fabric and mulch so hopefully we won't have to deal with weeds and stuff down the road. I'm going to try to get some pumpkins and watermelons planted this week too.


Pretty eventful weekend for me. I really don't feel that much older!

Nathan