Half a Century (Fiddy Cen)

Honestly, turning fifty…. FIFTY! wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. I still feel the same as I did yesterday. It’s going to be okay. Five-Oh sounds really old to me, I mean, I was just turning 40 a few weeks ago. Seriously. That was the fastest ten years ever!

I declined having a party. I requested a dinner with my husband and in-state children, albeit, it has to be postponed for three days to get all the kids available on the same night. Glad I turned fifty so I could still plan my life around my kids.

My baby son, who is 17, brought me flowers this morning. Ahhhhh. My eldest son, who is 19, called from California and sang a bday song for me. My baby girl, who is 12, made  a giant card for me. For reals. It’s four feet by two-and-a-half feet. My married daughter, who is 22 and in Oklahoma, sent me texts and called and wrote the sweetest words on facebook. My husband, who acts like he’s 14 sometimes, took me out to dinner and told me he was ordering a salad at a Mexican restaurant so I could be proud of him. Then his chimichanga showed up. He makes me laugh.

My family asked what gifts I might like this year… the monumental year when I turn fifty. I mentioned that a backyard swing would be nice. We used to have one, but years and years in the Arizona sunshine fried it to pieces, literally. Nora told her daddy that I wanted a swing set for my birthday. Just trying to be young again!

We picked out the swing tonight. The selling feature, even though it is brown with a red striped canopy (I don’t do red.), was that it lies flat into a bed. SOLD! So now I’m trying to find cute pillows on Amazon that bring cute colors into the red/brown non-cute theme. Currently the swing is in a big box in the middle of the dead winter grass in the backyard. I would be out there assembling it, but it’s dark and I need help getting the piece out of the box. No one will help me at 10:44 p.m., even though it’s my birthday and I am old enough to apply for AARP now. Sheesh!

Happy day of my birth to all of you! I hope you feel as loved as I did today!

 

Rock On, Rickey!

Last night in the dark of the master bedroom way past midnight I apologized to my sweet husband for not doing anything for his 49th birthday. The special day when he entered our world is Feb. 3rd, but he was in Kansas City learning how to use the new glass cockpit on the King Air 250. Flight training trumps birthdays, obviously. And truthfully, I don’t think I could have come up with something to beat his enjoyment level of time in the flight simulator.

The nice people at Flight Safety realized it was Rick’s birthday when they copied his passport for identification. They gave him a Flight Safety polo shirt, a mug and a basket of goodies! See? He wasn’t entirely forgotten. Sheesh.

We couldn’t celebrate early because I was visiting my sister for 13 days, then Rick and I saw each other for two hours before he left for five days in KC. I have no excuse that I can remember for when he got home, but I know we were really busy. REALLY busy.

As our son, Austin, knows from experience, if you travel and are gone on your birthday it is forgotten. Period. He did ask me two months later if I would buy him a new Bible for his two-months-ago special day. I did. I’m the nice mom, remember?

After my apology, Rick replied, “Don’t worry about it, Honey. It’s okay.” My response surprised him as I said, “Okay. Thank you. … … … Don’t EVER forget my birthday!”

We shared a belly laugh and he summarized the comments, “And THAT is the difference between us!”

Happy belated birthday, Rickey! I love you!

Happy Birthday, Rickey!

Frontier Airlines was having a screaming deal on plane tickets from Phoenix to San Francisco as 2015 approached. A friend of mine alerted me to the $20.15 tickets and I immediately checked the dates they were available. Then I checked the Edmonton Oilers schedule and the stars aligned for my die-hard-Oiler-fan husband. The cheap ticket and the Oilers playing the Sharks in San Jose all landed the day before his 48th birthday! (Yes, the return ticket was a bit more, but STILL!)

Rick was swimming in a sea of turquoise in the Shark tank for sure!  But, seeing it was Rickey’s birthday and he flew in to watch his team, the Oilers pulled out a win in a shootout…. just for Rick.  It was picture perfect. (In case you are not familiar with the Edmonton Oilers, they are a come back team. Rick has told me this for years. We are still waiting for them to come back. How many first round draft picks will they get before they come back? We don’t know. Jesus may come back first.)

Lasagna and black forest cake were awaiting Rick’s return on his actual birthday. He told me this was the best birthday gift I have ever given him…….  (to send him away from me for his birthday)…. hmmmmm. I think there is oil in his blood.

Happy 48th birthday, Rick!  I love you!

All I Want For My Birthday Is……..

Our Colombiana princessa turned nine this week.  Here she is with her new Mermaid beach towel.

Several weeks ago, Nora and I were eating lunch and I mentioned that she should make a list of ideas for birthday gifts that she may like to receive.  At first she replied, “I can’t really think of anything,”  but I got a pad of paper and a pen and sat ready to transcribe her hopes for her upcoming ninth birthday.  I knew the family members would ask what she would like… and the kids always seem to come up with gift ideas that I never would dream of… so I sat…. ready.  It seems with a bit of prodding and suggesting, she actually DID have some ideas that I found amusing and HIGHLY particular.  Here is a short list from the long list:

• Pink girl Lego’s
• The DVD of Parent Trap
• Dive sticks for the swimming pool FOR GIRLS
• Purple piggy bank
• Sleeping bag for a girl
• Liquid paint: gold, light green, light pink, lavender, turquoise and black
• Ruffly socks for her dolly
• Turquoise church dress with sparkles that is tight on the top and goes big on the bottom, size 7
• Mermaid beach towel
• White high heels with 1 flower or 1 bow on each shoe, size 1
• “N” necklace with blue sparkles

See?!?  She knows what she likes!  So cute!  And my sister-in-law FOUND the exact dress that Nora explained from her visions of beautifulness!

FORTY-FIVE!

No, that’s not 45 more days of school!!!  (There’s only 33!)  Today I embarked upon this milestone in my life…. half of 90 years old.  It’s not that bad.  Other than not being able to read some of the tiny print on my birthday cards and the plant ID tags that I received.  Okay, or the free movie popcorn tickets.  Thankfully the numbers on currency are really big and always in the corner!  Yes, it’s my birthday!

How did I spend my day?  Oh, not exactly as planned, let me tell you!  Sleeping in was a wonderful pleasure.  After all these years, it still rates right up there with reading novels and gardening! After sauntering down stairs, I discovered my daughter cooking up my yum yum yummy breakfast… homemade apples and cinnamon oatmeal and special scrambled eggs!  Thank you, Larisa!  BUT, half way through my breakfast, I realized it was 10:30 am and I was going out to lunch with some friends at 11:15!!  So I put my birthday breakfast in the fridge for tomorrow!

Birthday lunch was fun with seven sweet friends!  Lots of laughs and turtles.  (Remember, my un-wanted turtle collection?  It is continuing!… potholders, garden kneeling pad, RING, etc. etc.) Thanks, Friends!

Upon returning to the castle, my son tells me that he wants to take a short cut over the canal to his friend’s house.  He tells me that he balances on this little pipe over the water WHILE carrying his bike.  I say NO!  He said it’s perfectly safe, as would any 14-year-old lad whose brain is saturated with testosterone.  I say NO!  So he drags me out to the canal to see the balancing pipe.  Well, it IS perfectly safe.  It is over the canal, but the canal goes under a HUGE cement overpass at that point.  There is a pipe…. but it is next to a wall that he leans on for balance.  And the water it is over is a puddle… only 12 inches below him… and eight inches deep.  So I let him go.  All is well, ….. but no. 

Nora was with us on the dangerous pipe exploration trip and went down on her hands on the ground in some cactus.  OUCH!  The spikes are as thin as hairs and my 45-year-old eyes can’t see them.  We arrive home and I google how to remove cactus thorns.  Lo, and behold!  I love google!  I spent the next hour smearing Elmer’s school glue on her hands in two layers and waiting for it to dry.  I peeled it off like sunburned skin and the ouchy was no more!  I love google.  Did I mention that?

Off to a birthday party at my parents and VOILA!  I survived my 45th birthday without scars.

Happy B-day, Rickey!

Today is my husband’s 43rd birthday so I thought I’d share some photos of him at what he does best.  This first example is “Being Cool.”  See how he’s instructing his fine young men to be cool too.  It’s an important trait to master.  Being cool.  It’s also all about crossing your arms and pushing your muscles to look bigger than they actually are.  Being cool.  And sunglasses.  Not just any sunglasses… cool sunglasses, like the ones Rick is sporting here.  He purchased them in a women’s boutique in Sedona when the supremely awesome sales lady told him that men from Scottsdale buy her glasses all the time…. and, get this…. that he looks like Elvis.  She could have sold him bedazzled capri jeans for himself!!!  Being cool!

Here, we have Rick protecting his most valuable asset, his beautiful 16 year old daughter. Being scary, that’s what this is called.  It’s important when you have a 16 year old daughter.  Being scary.  Rick looks kind of teddy-bear-ish in this picture, but that’s because you can’t see his concealed weapon that he only shows to teenage boys. Being scary.  He has given his daughter a stack of his business cards to hand out in case any teenage boys want to talk to her.  It’s an easy out for her, “Here’s my dad’s number.  You can talk to him first…”  It hasn’t actually happened, probably because the truth about the concealed weapon has been leaked. Being scary. He’s good at it, if need be.

This is what he does best, here in this last picture of the photo tribute for his 43rd birthday… Being fun. The untranied eye may not be able to decipher it, but let me help you. See how his mouth is? He has either just said something funny, or is in the middle of saying something funny.  Being fun.  This may not seem like an all-encomposing-highly-important trait, but it is.  Being fun.  It was actually a requirement to marry into our family.  Being fun.

Happy Birthday, Rickey!  We all love you!