Celebrating Milestones

I made it y’all! I am so blessed to see the BIG 5-0! This post will be very personal to me, because it will recap some of my greatest accomplishments and events that have given me so much pride and wisdom over the years. Let’s start by what an accomplishment it was to survive the 70s. We didn’t have seat belts in cars, lots of people casually smoking cigarettes in closed spaces like it was good for everyone's health to breathe in all that nasty smoke, and we even drank water from the rusty watering hoses when we were outside playing. And like car seats, did those things even exist!? I probably rode on my momma's lap or in the bed of a truck more than a car seat quite honestly! We were all pretty fearless back then, right? We lathered our bodies in baby oil instead of sunscreen and so far we have lived to tell about all the sun damage. We had no boundaries and just found ourselves doing whatever we felt was right, and I think we all turned out pretty well! Back then, things just seemed to move at a slower pace, and we seemed more thankful for what we had. I miss those days.

Us Gen X folks truly have experienced lots of changes. We also survived a lot of harder times, and I like to think that we have lived in two of the greatest decades we have ever had. We had School House Rock and after school specials to always look forward to, and we got to have all the Cabbage Patch Kids and Chia Pets. You might find us reading “Archie” comic books, which my girls (23 and 17) would refer to as Riverdale. Who would not want to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , Footloose or Dirty Dancing and Grease on the big screen in a movie theatre or a drive-in movie theater? All of these things make me understand why my kids wish so badly that they were alive in the 80s, and it makes me prouder to have been able to witness it all. If you can’t tell yet, turning 50 has gotten me all into my nostalgic feelings!

Turning 50 has me looking back with pride on the goals I sat for myself that I went on to accomplish. I graduated from high school, and then went on to graduate with my two college degrees. I married my high school sweetheart and we brought my two little perfect humans into the world. We built our dream house together, and survived some very turbulent times in a town that was always our home. For all the evil and corruption that was supposed to work against us in that small town that we called home, God used the situations to work it all out for good and sit us right down in a new town. In the new little town not too far away, we are surrounded by people who have become like family. I survived the loss of some very dear people in my life, and some scary health crises in between that strengthened my faith more than ever. As I plan to celebrate with my loved ones this year, I am absolutely overwhelmed with gratitude in looking back at how God has worked all of the things out for my good. Looking at all the setbacks being turned into setups for me and my family, it has been such a “God wink” on so many occasions that I can not count them all.

I have so many things to be thankful for. First, is for Judy being my momma and Ida Mae being my grandma. Those two women shaped me into who I am today. Secondly, my hilarious and incredibly strong aunts who always were a part of my everyday life and loved me like their own, Jean and Sue. Thirdly, my brother, Keith and my Uncle Jackie who have always been such big blessings in my life. God dropped a few amazing angels in my life that would become the sisters that I never had. God blessed me with some precious family by marriage that would walk with us and see us through the worst and the best days of our life. I could never have made it this far without my sweetheart and my girls. I count them as my biggest accomplishments of my first fifty years.

Looking back, I see God's plan for my life so clearly now, but I really struggled for years with trusting God with my future. I am so happy and grateful that He saw fit to save me from so many things that I believed were my destiny. I am so excited to turn 50, and hope my next fifty years prove to be filled with an abundance of growth and accomplished goals for me. I hope you find encouragement, hope and happiness as you reach your milestones in your life! Feel free to share some of your favorite personal accomplishments down below!