54 Years Old!

 

Yesterday Paul turned 54 years old. We met and started dating shortly after he turned 27, so that means we've been together for half of his life. Since I was 24 (almost 25) when we met and started dating, I had already hit that milestone of having been with Paul for half of my life a couple of years ago. WVIA usually has the free ski day at Elk Mountain in the Poconos the week of his birthday, and sometimes (like this year) it lands on his actual birthday. Because he had a trade show in early January in Baltimore each year, he often wasn't able to go to Elk Mountain. The last time that I skied was in January 2021 at Elk Mountain. I haven't skied since I had a plate and screws inserted in my ankle. In January 2022 I took four kids skiing. Nadia's friend, Jill, joined us that day. Last year, the WVIA day at Elk Mountain had to be rescheduled due to the weather. This meant that Paul was able to go skiing because it didn't interfere with the trade show. Since he sold the company, he is DONE attending trade shows. Woohoo! He feels like that's a Christmas gift to not be going to Baltimore next week. I asked Paul if he would rather ski or rather hang out with me in the ski lodge. He opted to hang out with me, so we invited Julianna to use our fourth pass from WVIA. Julianna had never gone skiing before. Paul and I played a game of Scrabble and a game of Rummikub while we were at the ski lodge. The six of us packed lunches, and we stopped at Red Robin for dinner on the way home. Because it was the first Wednesday of the month, we got two free kids' meals and two free ice cream sundaes. 

I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner on Tuesday night because it's one of Paul's favorite things to eat. I had bought him a cheesecake, and we ate some of that tonight. I got him a big box of Middleswarth chips and a few candy bars for his birthday. The kids chipped in together to buy him a jigsaw puzzle featuring WW2 tanks. My dad gave him some money and a book. Paul recently ordered a new desk and a REALLY big computer monitor that he plans to use as his new home office in our bedroom. I got pizza for dinner tonight which is another of his favorite foods. I had won a prize pack from our local Christian radio station last week, and one of the prizes I received was a gift certificate for a free large pizza. I used that today. I'm planning to make him Heath bar cookies on Saturday, which are one of his favorite types of cookies. Hopefully he's had a good birthday week! 

WVIA used to have two days we could ski for free each year. The last time that happened was in 2020. It seems that WVIA days at Ski Sawmill are now a thing of the past. Ski Sawmill is much closer to our house. They have three homeschool days where they give a 50% discount for the lift ticket and rental. We're accustomed to skiing for free, but we'd like the kids to be able to go skiing twice this year so we're planning to pay for them to go skiing on a homeschool day on January 19 at Ski Sawmill. Knowing that our niece, Susie, tore her ACL when she went skiing a little over a year ago, we're very thankful that we all came home without any injuries yesterday.