Day 15 (9/27): ?
Day 16 (9/28): When I got home this afternoon, there was a vase of beautiful fall flowers and a card from Tracey Ho (my Moms In Touch group)

Janelle McQuarrie, aka Misty, aka JLo, aka BFF, sent me a gift card to Athleta catalog--another one of my favorites.

OK, maybe that was my bra size from my nursing days but it currently stands for something different: "Forty Days of Dana." Before you wonder what an egocentric person I really am, it wasn't my idea but the brainchild of my two dear friends, Lacey & Laurie.
On the morning of September 12th they kidnapped me and we arrived at a beautiful botanical garden. It was only the three of us there and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast in this breathtaking setting. I kept asking questions only to be told I couldn't do that. I couldn't figure out what the occasion was but I knew they were up to something big. After our meal, they presented me with a card explaining that the following day was the beginning of 40 days until my 40th birthday. It went on to say how they had arranged for 40 people who loved me to be assigned a day to bless me. I was truly blown away.
So the next day the blessings began. Many have asked me what people have been doing for me. So I thought I'd post it daily for all to see. However, I'm a little late in the game because I think today is Day 14. This is what I've experienced thus far..................
Day 1 (9/13): Amber gave me a "Hope" pewter ornament
Day 2 (9/14) : Rochelle Dahlberg stopped by at 8 a.m. to bring me my favorite Starbucks coffee drink and a Diet Pepsi for the afternoon.
Day 3 (9/15): My mom gave me two cookbooks she had saved from my childhood. One being "Buffy's cookbook". She also wrote me a really sweet note sharing how she felt about me. It was priceless.
Day 4 (9/16): I came in the house that evening only to find my neighbor Joanne had "broken in" and left me Gerber daisies, truffles and a sweet card.
Day 5 (9/17): Linda Hegeberg stopped by with chocolates, a Cruisin Coffee card and a sweet note about friendship.
Day 6 (9/18): Sheri Joy and I spent the morning together in downtown Bellingham having coffee and browsing through some new shops. She also gave me a really cute beanie and matching scarf from my favorite store Lucy.
Day 7 (9/19): Maria DeVries stopped by with a balloon, my favorite Luna bar and a pumpkin spice Frappucino. YUM!
Day 8 (9/20): Nan Mullen sent me the cutest card with a sweet, sweet note about our friendship.
Day 9 (9/21): Kathy Settem wanted to take me to lunch but got sick. She dropped off a Starbucks card and a homemade card filled with sweet sentiments.
Day 10: (9/22): My sister, Brian & Parker sent me gorgeous earrings from Anthropologie (another one of my favorite stores) packaged in her signature wrap.
Day 11: (9/23): Rachael Jewel Meidal left a gift bag on my doorstep. (Ben found it) She had filled it with 3 gifts to open. One for morning, noon and night. The morning one was apricot preserves; afternon was a box of cute notecards and evening was a dish filled with Lindt truffles. Each box had a note attached with a Scripture verse with the respective words of morning , day and evening in them.
Day 12: (9/24): Katherine Davis sent me a precious ecard. Her words always make me cry.
Day 13: (9/25): Kim Powell sent me a card earlier telling me she'd pick me up this day and we'd go get manicures. We stopped at Starbucks and got matching colors at the nail salon. (so girly) We left and she told me we had one more stop. She was looking for a travel agency that was open and instead we ended up at a stationery store. She told me to look around and she went the other way. A minute later she held something behind her back and told me how she wasn't going to be here for my actual birthday but wanted to celebrate. She pulled out a New Yorker calendar and told me she was giving me a ticket to New York and we were going to see "Grease" on Broadway. OMG!!! Apparently there are more details to come but I will find them out on an "as needed basis." Right now I feel like I'm in my "happy place" and no wine or liquor is involved. :)

It's official. Our elementary school will never be the same. All three of my boys are now roaming the halls together for only this year. My baby started Kindergarten last Friday and it was truly bittersweet.
On the one hand I am thrilled to have four hours a day at my disposal. For the first time in nine years I don't have to drive anyone to preschool or pay tuition. This newfound freedom is an exciting prospect. But then I also get nostalgic and wander down the path of " If I knew it was going to pass so quickly, I wouldn't have wished those days away." Six years ago, when my oldest child entered school, I was told by a dad, "Watch. You blink and 12 years will go by." I also remember saying "When all my children are in school, I'll be 40" That seemed so far away and yet here we are. YIKES!

Below is a description from an Ebay auction written by a mom of 6 kids. After the description of her auction item she goes on to describe a shopping experience with her 6 kids in tow. She is hilarious. It is a bit long but a worthy read and you will LOL. Her blog address is: www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com. Her blog's title is "Because I Said So". Enjoy.

"I'm selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn't notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.
You haven’t lived until you’ve gone grocery shopping with six kids in tow. I would rather swim, covered in bait, through the English Channel, be a contestant on Fear Factor when they’re having pig brains for lunch, or do fourth grade math than to take my six kids to the grocery store. Because I absolutely detest grocery shopping, I tend to put it off as long as possible. There comes a time, however, when you’re peering into your fridge and thinking, ‘Hmmm, what can I make with ketchup, Italian dressing, and half an onion,’ that you decide you cannot avoid going to the grocery store any longer. Before beginning this most treacherous mission, I gather all the kids together and give them “The Lecture“.
“The Lecture“ goes like this…
MOM: “We have to go to the grocery store.”
KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“
MOM: “Hey, I don’t want to go either, but it’s either that or we’re eating cream of onion-ketchup soup and drinking Italian dressing for dinner tonight.”
KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“
MOM: “Now here are the rules: do not ask me for anything, do not poke the packages of meat in the butcher section, do not test the laws of physics and try to take out the bottom can in the pyramid shaped display, do not play baseball with oranges in the produce section, and most importantly, do not try to leave your brother at the store. Again.”
OK, the kids have been briefed. Time to go.
Once at the store, we grab not one, but two shopping carts. I wear the baby in a sling and the two little children sit in the carts while I push one cart and my oldest son pushes the other one. My oldest daughter is not allowed to push a cart. Ever. Why? Because the last time I let her push the cart, she smashed into my ankles so many times, my feet had to be amputated by the end of our shopping trip. This is not a good thing. You try running after a toddler with no feet sometime.
At this point, a woman looks at our two carts and asks me, “Are they all yours?” I answer good naturedly, “Yep!
“Oh my, you have your hands full.”
“Yes, I do, but it‘s fun!” I say smiling. I’ve heard all this before. In fact, I hear it every time I go anywhere with my brood.
We begin in the produce section where all these wonderfully, artistically arranged pyramids of fruit stand. There is something so irresistibly appealing about the apple on the bottom of the pile, that a child cannot help but try to touch it. Much like a bug to a zapper, the child is drawn to this piece of fruit. I turn around to the sounds of apples cascading down the display and onto the floor. Like Indiana Jones, there stands my son holding the all-consuming treasure that he just HAD to get and gazing at me with this dumbfounded look as if to say, “Did you see that??? Wow! I never thought that would happen!”
I give the offending child an exasperated sigh and say, “Didn’t I tell you, before we left, that I didn’t want you taking stuff from the bottom of the pile???”
“No. You said that you didn’t want us to take a can from the bottom of the pile. You didn’t say anything about apples.”
With superhuman effort, I resist the urge to send my child to the moon and instead focus on the positive - my child actually listened to me and remembered what I said!!! I make a mental note to be a little more specific the next time I give the kids The Grocery Store Lecture.
A little old man looks at all of us and says, “Are all of those your kids?”
Thinking about the apple incident, I reply, “Nope. They just started following me. I’ve never seen them before in my life.”
OK, now onto the bakery section where everything smells so good, I’m tempted to fill my cart with cookies and call it a day. Being on a perpetual diet, I try to hurry past the assortment of pies, cakes, breads, and pastries that have my children drooling. At this point the chorus of “Can we gets” begins.
“Can we get donuts?”
“No.”
“Can we get cupcakes?”
“No.”
“Can we get muffins?”
“No.”
“Can we get pie?”
“No.”
You’d think they’d catch on by this point, but no, they’re just getting started.
In the bakery, they’re giving away free samples of coffee cake and of course, my kids all take one. The toddler decides he doesn’t like it and proceeds to spit it out in my hand. (That’s what moms do. We put our hands in front of our children’s mouths so they can spit stuff into them. We’d rather carry around a handful of chewed up coffee cake, than to have the child spit it out onto the floor. I’m not sure why this is, but ask any mom and she’ll tell you the same.) Of course, there’s no garbage can around, so I continue shopping one-handed while searching for someplace to dispose of the regurgitated mess in my hand.
In the meat department, a mother with one small baby asks me, “Wow! Are all six yours?”
I answer her, “Yes, but I’m thinking of selling a couple of them.”
(Still searching for a garbage can at this point.)
Ok, after the meat department, my kids’ attention spans are spent. They’re done shopping at this point, but we aren’t even halfway through the store. This is about the time they like to start having shopping cart races. And who may I thank for teaching them this fun pastime? My seventh “child”, also known as my husband. While I’m picking out loaves of bread, the kids are running down the aisle behind the carts in an effort to get us kicked out of the store. I put to stop to that just as my son is about to crash head on into a giant cardboard cut-out of a Keebler elf stacked with packages of cookies.
Ah! Yes! I find a small trash can by the coffee machine in the cereal aisle and finally dump out the squishy contents of my hand. After standing in the cereal aisle for an hour and a half while the kids perused the various cereals, comparing the marshmallow and cheap, plastic toy content of each box, I broke down and let them each pick out a box. At any given time, we have twenty open boxes of cereal in my house.
As this is going on, my toddler is playing Houdini and maneuvering his little body out of the seat belt in an attempt to stand up in the cart. I’m amazed the kid made it to his second birthday without suffering a brain damaging head injury. In between trying to flip himself out of the cart, he sucks on the metal bars of the shopping cart. Mmmm, can you say “influenza”?
The shopping trip continues much like this. I break up fights between the kids now and then and stoop down to pick up items that the toddler has flung out of the cart. I desperately try to get everything on my list without adding too many other goodies to the carts.
Somehow I manage to complete my shopping in under four hours and head for the check-outs where my kids start in on a chorus of, “Can we have candy?” What evil minded person decided it would be a good idea to put a display of candy in the check-out lanes, right at a child’s eye level? Obviously someone who has never been shopping with children.
As I unload the carts, I notice many extra items that my kids have sneaked in the carts unbeknownst to me. I remove a box of Twinkies, a package of cupcakes, a bag of candy, and a can of cat food (we don’t even have a cat!). I somehow missed the box of Pokemon cards however and ended up purchasing them unbeknownst to me. As I pay for my purchases, the clerk looks at me, indicates my kids, and asks, “Are they all yours?”
Frustrated, exhausted from my trip, sick to my stomach from writing out a check for $289.53, dreading unloading all the groceries and putting them away and tired of hearing that question, I look at the clerk and answer her in my most sarcastic voice, “No. They’re not mine. I just go around the neighborhood gathering up kids to take to the grocery store because it’s so much more fun that way.”
So, up for auction is an opened (they ripped open the box on the way home from the store) package of Pokemon cards. There are 44 cards total. They're in perfect condition, as I took them away from the kiddos as soon as we got home from the store. Many of them say "Energy". I tried carrying them around with me, but they didn't work. I definitely didn't have any more energy than usual. One of them is shiny. There are a few creature-like things on many of them. One is called Pupitar. Hee hee hee Pupitar! (Oh no! My kids' sense of humor is rubbing off on me!) Anyway, I don't there's anything special about any of these cards, but I'm very much not an authority on Pokemon cards. I just know that I'm not letting my kids keep these as a reward for their sneakiness.
Shipping is FREE on this item. Insurance is optional, but once I drop the package at the post office, it is no longer my responsibility. For example, if my son decides to pour a bottle of glue into the envelope, or my daughter spills a glass of juice on the package, that’s my responsibility and I will fully refund your money. If, however, I take the envelope to the post office and a disgruntled mail carrier sets fire to it, a pack of wild dogs rip into it, or a mail sorting machine shreds it, it’s out of my hands, so you may want to add insurance. I will leave feedback for you as soon as I’ve received your payment. I will be happy to combine shipping on multiple items won within three days. This comes from a smoke-free, pet-free, child-filled home. Please ask me any questions before placing your bid. Happy bidding! :)"