Miss You, Mom

 

Happy Birthday!



Happy Birthday Jeremy

We love you!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Happy Birthday, Danielle!

A sensitive mind sees outside the box;

An artistic spirit guides creative hands.

Attuned to giving, seeking peace;

A kind heart thoughtfully understands.

Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

An eye for the future and hands that bring care,

A mind that solves puzzles with creative flare;

A sensitive spirit, a determined soul,

A willing heart keeping family whole.

97 Years Young

Ninety-seven. It's a number that is hard to wrap one's head around in regards to age. Even with her frailty Mom's age surprises people. I think it is because her spirit is still young.

Family and friends were all good about remembering her with flowers, cards, calls, and emails. I am touched by the people in this community who took the trouble to send her good wishes.

Coletta and Bob came up for a few days. Here Coletta is giving Mom a wild ride on her walker (or go cart, as she prefers to call it) into the dining room for a lasagna supper. Steering seemed to be a problem.

SKYPE calls and phone calls came in all day. Mom loved it, but sometimes got confused when too many people talked at once. Here someone called in time to help us sing "Happy Birthday."

Three amaryllis plants will bloom by Christmas.

Happy 97th Birthday, Mom. We love you. You have touched all of us with your gentle, determined spirit of love.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

A contagious wit, a social nature;

A creative eye and a generous role.

A sensitive heart, an analytical mind;

Measured risks and a patient soul.

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

A quick mind, a determined spirit;

A sensitive soul and an accepting heart.

A lover of numbers, an eye for style;

An understated wit and a work of art.

 

We love you!

Celebrating Danielle

We love you! (Slide show here)

Happy Birthday, Jennifer

Since I am having trouble posting the slideshow, please click on the link below to view it:

We love you, Jen!

Not Your Typical Ninety-Six Year Old

Wow! Mom hit paydirt this birthday. I am so happy for her! It started at the end of Mass on Sunday, when the organist, Dolores, asked her to tell everyone how old she was going to be. After Mom announced that she would be 96, there were audible gasps of surprise and then everyone broke into applause before singing Happy Birthday to her. She was pleased at the attention and I was thankful that they all responded so warmly.

Today she was inundated throughout the day with more nice surprises. Cards, phone calls, flowers, and emails came from many family members, including grands and great grands. Two ladies from church, Helen and Della, also sent handmade cards, and Dorothy stopped in with a card and a loaf of bread still hot from her oven. It is so nice that the people here have embraced Mom. I know sometimes she feels left out because she can't do things to help and has trouble hearing in a crowd, but this effort by everyone reassures her that she is still cherished.

For our part, we catered her dinner wishes of meat loaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, Dorothy's bread, corn, and cheesecake for dessert with a later dish of homemade ice cream on the side. I broke my new red glazed stoneware dish in the process and served a slightly dry meatloaf, but she forgave me as she always does. Thanks to everyone for sending her your love and thanks be to God for her kind heart, good health, sharp mind, and young spirit.

Here's Mom with a new bathrobe and an Amarylis Don picked out for her. They are fun to watch grow and so beautiful when they flower. Happy Birthday, Mom. We all love you!

Sarah Sunshine

Have a happy birthday week. We love you!

At My Leisure

Today culminated about three weeks of self-prescribed “taking care of myself time.” After committing to the not-so-terrible, but less-than-fun physical exam, tetanus shot, blood test, mammogram, eye exam, and vision field test during this time, I gleefully celebrated my birthday today by going in for a deep-tissue body massage. It was only the second one I have ever had in my life.

Our company left early this morning, bound for their northern home, and Don stayed home with Mom so I could escape, carefree, for a few hours. I went to town early enough to grab a shrimp lunch at DQ, buy some oil paints at Pontarola’s, browse through Macy’s, and do a quick hit and run at the scrapbook store before heading to my appointment. Two hours later I was laying between soft covers in the dimly lit room, inhaling eucalyptus fumes and melting under the slow, purposeful, circular pressure of the masseuse’s warm, oiled fingers against my forehead, temples, and jaw. All I could think was why had I waited eight months to experience this again?

After I floated home, stopping only to rent three movies (one of which was free because it was my birthday), I napped on the sofa while Don barbecued dinner. (Okay, okay, okay...and I also stopped for a small BR Raspberry Cheese Louise milkshake! Geez.) Orange cake and homemade ice cream topped the good meal and then happy birthday phone calls from our kids finished a perfect day!

All day I thought about all that I am thankful for, but realized there is too much to enumerate here. Suffice it to say, it all comes down to the love, forgiveness, friendship, hope, and joy that have been shared with me by those touching my life. Thank you.

Care For Dessert?

Here's the last of Don's birthday cobbler topped with some homemade raspberry ice cream. M-m-m-m-m.

Happy Birthday

3rd Grade

We are celebrating Don's birthday today, on perhaps one of the hottest days of the year for our area. He is taking half a day off so that he can properly relax and I have already prepared from scratch two of the most important elements of his birthday dinner: marionberry cobbler and raspberry ice cream. And, since the raspberries came from a neighbor, I have saved some of the ice cream to share with her. So, here's to a nice afternoon and evening. Put your feet up, lay back and enjoy getting another year closer to retirement.