Tomorrow...

So. Tomorrow is a big day of sorts.

The big 3-0, as they say.

I don't put a lot of stock in numbers, so no, I'm not "freaked out" by turning 30, and I don't feel old. Well, maybe I did for a minute when, this morning, Jeff's boss reminded me that I was halfway to 60...but here are a lot of people who are still older than me. When I am the oldest person I know, maybe then I'll feel old. And I have always loved birthdays.

But, a "milestone" such as this does cause one to reflect. Each new decade presents another "milestone" birthday, so today, I will reflect on the past 10 years - my 20's.



I turned 20 in the year 2000...I was in University. I don't really remember my 20th birthday...maybe that's why. Jeff's sister got married on the home farm in 2000...grown up life officially began.


So much has happened in the last 10 years - this was the decade in which I grew up. Jeff and I became engaged in October 2001, after his brother got married in June, my grandpa Jack died that July, and the World Trade Towers came down on Sept. 11. My grandpa's Cancer and death devastated my family and I wish, more than anything, that he could have been at my wedding. When September 11 happened, it was one of those moments in life where you remember exactly where you were...Jeff and I were living in a tiny apartment in Centralia, south of Exeter. I was getting ready for the first day of my third year of University. I watched it happen live, on Regis and Kelly, just before driving into London for my first class. Not a lot of people had heard yet, but as the day went on, classes were cancelled and Western's UCC was filled with people, glued to the TVs. I couldn't help but wonder what my grandpa would've thought about it all.


I graduated with distinction from King's College, University of Western Ontario in June 2002, and Jeff and I moved into the front half of a duplex in Goderich that July. A few weeks later my first neice entered the world. I can still remember getting that phone call from Jeff's brother in law Glenn, announcing that Miss Lauren Elizabeth Simmons had arrived.

2003 was the year of weddings. We had our own, and were invited to 8 others. We only missed one, and only because it was in Labrador. We were married in August, and went on a cruise for our honeymoon in December. On Christmas Eve, we discovered that we were expecting our first child.

I spent the majority of 2004 pregnant, puking and fainting. I stopped working 16 weeks into my pregnancy due to the excessive fainiting. I had a lot of time on my hands so I scrapbooked our wedding album. I'm glad I did, because I never would have had the time otherwise. Our second neice, Rylin Hayley, was born in April and our own Makenna Robyn joined this world on Sept 5 2004. It was a long, slow labour but she looked absolutely perfect. Life as we knew it would never be the same. Some things never change though, as my brother came to the hospital to meet her in his baseball uniform. Before she was a month old, he moved out west, something I really struggled with. The post partum hormones didn't help. It felt like I had lost my right arm...thankfully he came back after only 2 months.


Makenna and I got to know eachother while I was on maternity leave throughout part of 2005. My very best friend in the world was less than 2 feet tall and weighed under 30 lbs. In August I began a new job as a server in the Benmiller Inn Dining Room. It didn't take long to be promoted to Day Manager, a job that I loved. I worked with some really wonderful people who have become life long friends. My shift started at 6:30 am and I worked almost every weekend. But I had so much fun there. Another positive result that came from my time at Benmiller, and working almost every weekend, was that it forced Jeff to develop a strong relationship with Makenna. Through the week when I started at 6:30 am, it was Jeff that got our little one year old up, dressed, fed and to daycare each and every morning. He spend a lot of one on one time with her each weekend, and I believe it was from that experience that they built the strong bond that they enjoy today.



It was also at this point, when my maternity leave ended, that we met Jodi. It was quite by accident that Makenna ended up in Jodi's daycare, and I am so beyond grateful that life worked out the way it did. Jodi has become a very close friend of mine, someone I have seen and talked to almost every single day for the past 4 1/2 years. I trust her with my children's lives and she is a wonderful, trusted friend to both Jeff and I. You learn alot about a person when you see them every single day and we have both learned a lot about eachother. She is so much more than my daycare provider. I have cried to her, I have confided in her, I have vented to her, I have shared my troubles with her. And she with me. When I met Jodi, life changed again, and I am so grateful for the unexpected way that Makenna entered her home.

There was finally a boy for the Wormington grandparents when Logan Roger Simmons arrived on September 9 2005, almost exactly a year after Makenna was born.




We bought our current home on Park Street in the fall of 2005 and have been renovating it ever since. Some projects have been bigger than others, and we enjoy making this house our home. I don't think we'll ever really be done.


The Wormingtons welcomed another baby when Quinn Brianna was born in February 2006. That summer I traded in my early mornings, weekend work and awesome tip money that paid for daycare on its own, for a regular 9-5 job, weekends off, in the field I went to school for as a Family Support and Education Worker at Rural Response for Healthy Children, a not for profit organization serving Huron County families. Life changed again. Now we felt like a regular family. We could make plans on the weekends and go to bed and get up at regular times.


2007 was spent planning for my own brother's big day. He and Nicole were married in September. I was four months pregnant at the time, once again puking a lot, really tired, but not fainting. It was a wonderful, beautiful day, their wedding day was. As I walked down the aisle I was unexpectedly overcome with emotion and sobbed...really sobbed...all the way to the front of the church. I felt like an idiot, and my own husband, who was also standing up, couldn't help but laugh at me. Makenna, days away from her third birthday, was a perfect flower girl. One of my favourite moments was when, at the front of the full church, Makenna announced in a loud, clear voice that she needed to go to the bathroom. Right Now.

Well, that and the Dukes of Hazard Horn on one of the cars. That was awesome.



With the help of a wonderful midwife and her team, we welcomed Jack Jeffrey into the world in the middle of a snowstorm that closed most local roads, on Feb 10 2008. We felt so blessed to now have a boy and a girl and were glad to fufill Jeff's grandpa's wish for a little boy that would carry on the family name. Out of his 13 great grandchildren, Jack was the first "Wormington Boy". We got off to a rocky start with Jack, but that boy has again, changed our lives. For the better. Most moms hold new babies and wish they could go back to the days when their babies were babies. I love holding new babies, but I can honestly say that I don't wish to go back to the days when Jack was a young baby, and I know my husband doesn't either. I don't feel bad saying that, because I know what it was like, and what I was like. I don't miss those days. But, things got better, we got better and everything turned out fine. We love love love the age he is at now. It's only been two years, but it's hard to remember what life was like before Jack was born.



2009 was another year of weddings. In May, my best friend Adam got married. I made a speech at the reception, 1o minutes after finding out I was slated to. It was a kick ass speech, if I do say so myself. 2 weeks later I made another speech, as Matron of Honour for another one of my most favourite people, my Heather. We left the church in a manure spreader, and then a black mustang convertible. I had so much fun, and it was great at both of these weddings to hang out and catch up with friends from "back in the day" that we don't see nearly as often anymore as we wish we could.

Makenna was lucky enough to wear another pretty dress and feel like a princess again, when she was a flowergirl at Jodi's wedding in August. This time she was old enough to understand and really enjoy it. One of my favourite moments was when, at the front of the hall, in a loud, clear voice, she recited a little speech to Jodi and Matt. She was a month away from her fifth birthday. At the reception, she and a friend crashed in a corner, amongst a pile of blankets and pillows, and when we finally brought her home after midnight, she insisted on eating one of the wedding cupcakes before going to bed.


The fall of 2009, and beginning of 2010 have not been easy on me. There has been a lot of loss, a lot of grief and a lot of heartache. Some I have made reference to here, some I have not. Some of the most difficult times I have experienced in the last ten years, have happened in the last ten months, and have signified to me, more than anything else, that I have grown up...that I'm an adult now. Times and events that have, once again, without a doubt, changed me.


Tomorrow I will turn 30.

The last 10 years have been the most eventful 10 years I may ever have throughout my entire life. I got married and had kids. My friends and family got married and had kids.My friends and family suffered through family breakups, and so did I. I gained family and I lost family, many times and in many ways. Last year the Wormingtons welcomed another boy, Jackson, and his mommy, Christine, who has been a life long friend of mine, into our family My heart has felt like it was bursting with love, pride and happiness, and it has felt like it was breaking with sadness, worry and heartache. My eyes have been opened to how wonderful, and how cruel, life can be. It's been the best of times, and the worst of times. It really has. I have figured a lot out about who I am and where I want to be going with my life. I am a completely different person than I was on my 20th birthday. And I'm glad.



I couldn't have predicted any of the major events that have happened in my life in the last ten years, and the effect they would have on me. So I won't even try to predict what will happen in the next ten years. Ten years from now I will have a teenage daughter and a preteen son. There is so much in store for me...and so much more I will learn about my family, my friends and myself.



30 isn't old. Life is just getting underway.

But, for the record, I'm not 30 until tomorrow at 2:46 pm.



;)