August 22 My Birthday

Saturday:  Today I am officially 40-33, OR you can say 33-40, OR 50-23 ... any number of combinations that make up SEVENTY-THREE. The fact that I am 73 hardly makes sense to me--it's just a bizarre reality that is ... well ... REAL. I'm thankful for very good health. Other than a few increased body aches and pains, I'm in pretty good shape--that is, IF you don't watch me try to get up off the floor. I won't describe it--I will spare you the details. I look completely absurd in the process! Sigh.

Ruthanne and Terry drove to Grand Rapids yesterday to take me out for a birthday lunch. This was super nice of them! We went to our former favorite restaurant, "The Score" and each ordered their delicious fish and chips. We enjoyed our lunch, and they came inside my little house where we visited for awhile in the afternoon before they drove back to their place in Detroit.

My actual birthday began with picking Beverly up for her haircut appointment. I dropped her off and then ran a few errands while her cut was being done. Afterward, Bev treated me to lunch Qdoba's. This was very unnecessary but very kind of her. We had such a nice time together today. We have become good friends and I am very thankful for her.

I'm posting just a few pictures about my birthday--I've shown this in a prior post, but the photo below shows the air conditioner Emma gifted me for my birthday EARLY--but how thoughtful and loving of her!

When I got home from being with Beverly in the early afternoon, I was going up my front deck steps and caught this little rascal under my deck chair eating the peanuts I had placed in a bowl for him. He's getting quite "tame" with me and will even let me get pretty close and have a little friendly chat. I stood on the steps and talked for quite awhile with him before he ran off. I love these little animals. What a nice birthday gift he was today.

Dylan, Kelly, and the children arrived at about 4:30 with pizza and breadsticks in hand, AND this gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Isn't it lovely?

Aren't the colors stunning?!?! I absolutely love it.

We ate our pizza, and I cooked up some corn-on-the-cob for whoever wanted a cob, the kids played for awhile, but then we ALL sat down and played a round of "Apples to Apples." Erin was the winner today! I love to play this game with this bunch. They are so funny when they make their choices. Look at Erin and Aidan laughing! I love them so much.

Look at Cal cracking up (below).

Brendan too! I love these kids to pieces. Their mom and dad too! How nice to spend a few hours of my birthday with them. The perfect gift.

And look at all the cards I received! These came throughout the week. I have cards from Margaret, Bethany, Eva, Julie, Ted and Bev, Ruthanne and Terry, Gail Storey, Pam, and my college roommate, Robbie!

AND here is Erin's card she made for me when she was here on Tuesday. Erin has become quite an artist! I love this card so much, and will keep it always.

Here is Aidan's card from the same day. He drew this up in about two seconds, and it pictures the toy we got over at Deer Tracks--the little dinosaur that blasts off. "There she is!" (meaning ME). The stick figurine in the right corner is me yelling: "Oh NO!" The next page notes that the dinosaur blaster missed me and instead landed in the ACME trash container. Hysterical.

This bottom card is from Gregory. All I can say about it is that it is COLORFUL and that he was very happy while coloring it. I am unsure what exactly it says, and when I asked Greg to interpret, he was totally blank.

After we finished playing our "Apples to Apples" game, we all enjoyed a root beer float--YUM. My birthday "party" ended by about 7:30 and everyone went home. I did a little clean-up and then had the pleasure of talking to my college roommate, ROBBIE, for about an hour and a half afterward. Robbie lives near Tampa in Florida. We have maintained our friendship all throughout these past 55 years! I love her dearly, and she loves me. What a wonderful gift friendship is!

August 16 We celebrate Emma

Sunday:  We had a nice family celebration of Emma's 24th birthday today. Jesse and Kaity, Matt, Chris and Ella, Emma and Dakota all came for dinner, birthday cheesecake, and games! My cooking being what it is, thankfully dinner was not the focus. I made chicken enchiladas, which turned out just fine but I'm not sure was terribly enjoyed by everyone. But I did also have a crock-pot full of French toast (which does NOT go with Mexican food, but ... oh well!), and most of that was eaten. I don't think anyone was hungry afterwards and we took some time out before having dessert. Here are a few photos ...

I sat "the kids" around the main table (Daytona is not pictured, but he was sitting next to Kaity in that empty chair), since six people fit okay at that table.

Jesse and I sat at the round table and had a nice conversation during dinner. I am always so glad to have him come over, especially when it isn't for "maintenance" issues ... although I did have him sit at my computer and test the speakers that had been "buzzing" the last few weeks. They were not making any unusual noises today (naturally).

We sang "Happy Birthday" to our birthday girl ... HOW CAN EMMA BE TWENTY-FOUR?!?!?!?! She requested no candles this year due to the fact that they melt all over the cheesecake, AND she is not a little girl anymore either.

We opened gifts -- the family's gift to her was "showing up" for her celebration! I checked Emma's "Wish list" on Amazon and cleaned it out for her! I neglected to photo the gifts inside the box, but there was a cool cupcake/pie holder, a dressy purse, and a jewelry case. And I made her card too, which is always a labor of love from me, something personal and hopefully beautiful too.

We played a game of "Apples to Apples" and I totally forgot who won. But then the REAL game was played--PACHESI! Watching these four play this game is pure entertainment. I'm not even kidding! It's hilarious. They are all SO competitive!

Ella won the game, even though she had been "sent home" more times than I could count. When four people play this game, it's a series of getting SENT home and SENDING someone home, back and forth! But the game isn't totally the roll of the dice--you do have to strategize with your four pawns and position them in the best places in order to stay ahead.

Chris was completely out of control (I'm joking) ... but look at his expression (below)!! 

I hope Emma had a good time with her siblings tonight. She loves her family so much. They've been through a lot together, and family is important!

Our time together actually began with quite a surprise for ME--but I'll do a separate post on that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear granddaughter. You mean the world to me.

June 29 Kaitlynn is FOURTEEN

Monday:  Kaity was born fourteen years ago today in El Paso, Texas. I was actually there when she was born! Not in the birthing room--NO! But I did meet her on her first day. Jesse brought all of us to the hospital in the early afternoon to meet this little squeaker.

Look how little Kaity was!

Emma, Chris, and Matt (and Jesse) were thrilled with her! Look at Emma gazing at this tiny sister.

Emma was still technically NINE when Kaity was born, but she turned TEN just about 7-8 weeks later.

Emma was immediately mothering her little sister from the first day of her life. I love these pictures so much.

I had to leave El Paso the next day and fly back to Grand Rapids. Kaity was my SIXTH grandchild born, and just my SECOND granddaughter.

When the family moved back to Michigan in 2013, Kaity was just a year. I had the honor of having these four grandchildren once again be close enough to spend time with almost every week. Once Kaity was about two years old, she and I began having one-on-one time, once per week, during the school year when the older kiddos were gone from 8-4:00 Monday through Friday.

But this year ... I didn't get to spend time with Kaity very much, and rarely one-on-one. She stopped coming over to my house every Thursday afternoon after school, and oftentimes on Saturday afternoons too for many years. I have missed spending time with her. But I came to realize that I cannot force anyone to come over to my house! I do stop by Jesse's place almost every Thursday and Sunday afternoons to deliver at Kit-Kat bar to Kaity and have a little "chat" time with both Kaity and her dad. 

BUT ... you can't just burst in upon people and start flashing your camera (or phone) in their faces to take pictures, can you?!!! Consequently, I really had to search hard for pictures of Kaitlynn this year. I did find a few that I used to design her card though.

 

So ... dear Kaity ... I pray God's BEST for you, sweet granddaughter. Trust me, no person on this earth will love you like JESUS does. I'm asking that you will give Him your heart every day, and learn to love and follow Him as He alone deserves.

June 18 Erin's Card

This is the card I designed for dear Erin ...

This the cover of Erin's 8-page birthday card. This is the second sock puppet she made at my house at one of her overnights.

These are the inside pages 2 - 7:

Page 2   Things we did over at Erin's house after school on Tuesday afternoons.

Page 3  Pictures from "Altitude" and the Grand Rapids Public Museum 

Page 4 and 5 are from some of the sleepovers Erin had at my house

Page 6 is from Deer Tracks Junction (these were difficult to narrow down to just one page!)

Page 7 is from Schwallier's Country Basket, our favorite autumn place to visit, as well as some miscellaneous pictures ... the bottom right is from Holy Trinity's Christmas Pageant where Erin was ANGEL of the year ...

BACK of the card are three random pictures of Erin and I together.

I had hundreds of pictures to choose from to make this card, and I surely had fun making it for this little granddaughter!

June 18 EIGHT?????

Thursday:  Today is Erin's 8th birthday!!! She has been anticipating it since Christmas! I was invited to come and celebrate with her this evening. I came bearing gifts ...

Erin is very into AXOLOTLs, so a few months ago (at one of her sleepovers), we were looking online (most likely Amazon) and Erin picked out all of these items! The only non-Axolotl items is the little camera she ordered that has a cool blue dinosaur case (the whole thing was only $29). Anyway, before I wrapped them up the other night, I snapped this picture of everything laid out on my bed. Inbetween the legs of this stuffed animal is a bad full of axolotl "charms" that Erin was crazy about. It's difficult to see them in this photo. 

When I arrived over at their house, Erin and Kelly were out on a birthday shopping spree over at the mall. Erin loves shopping sprees with her mom! They have so much fun picking out things for Erin. While we waited for them to return, Aidan and Cal got wrestling around ... they reminded me of rascally kittens!

Soon, Erin arrived home with her stash of mall items. Erin's close friend, Emmy (who lives down the street) knocked on the door, and was invited to come in and watch the gift opening. Look at these two!

They are completely darling!

The gift she is opening (below) is a bath toy that brags this Axolotl will swim five different directions!

Erin's anticipation is so delightful ...

Brendan, watching the birthday girl opening her grandma presents ...

I bought a colorful little "bag" in which to keep the clothing that comes with the stuffed Axolotl ... I figured it was worth a try to at least have a place to keep all the small items that came with this gift instead of having them "lost in the sauce" of regular everyday life with four children, etc.

Erin really loved her gifts -- YAY!! And I LOVE HER so much. 

For each child's birthday, they are treated to dinner out. Erin chose "Fuji Buffet" and everyone coaxed me to come along. I surely hope they didn't feel obligated to have me come -- I couldn't say "no" to these guys, could I? Anyway, for the record, if I lived this close to a Chinese buffet, I would be in big FAT trouble (B I G  F A T). Yummy food. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR ERIN LUCIA!

May 17 Jesse's Birthday

Sunday:  As "the boys" have gotten older, I've spent extra time and care to design a birthday card for them. It takes me awhile to decide which pictures to use--but also what exactly to say to each of them that adequately expresses my love to them.

This is the card I made for Jesse this year:

Front--These lyrics are from "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan. I used these lyrics a few years ago on Dylan's card too. I always liked the lyrics to this song. Their dad, Jim, was a big "fan" (if he actually was ever what you could designate in one word) of Bob Dylan. Jesse, too, shares a love for music of all kinds. I love this particular picture of Jesse because it looks like he is stretching his arms out to lead a full orchestra of instruments--notice behind him the hundreds of albums AND the stereo and receiver (which is actually IN Jesse's front room presently, restored and in working order!).

Inside Top: These are just various pictures from when Jesse was very young--most of them under age two. Jesse was very tall for his age, even then, and people often had odd expectations for him--probably because he always looked older than his actual age. He didn't actually walk until he was 13 months--just a few weeks before his brother was born; so I was carrying Jesse in my arms while I was 8-9 months pregnant. My obstetrician told me that I should NOT be lifting Jesse (he was 25 pounds), but what were my options? Drag him by the arms?!? Doctors can be so impractical, can't they?

Inside bottom:  This has been a very rough year in Jesse's life. Watching him suffer through a very difficult loss has been painful as his mom--more painful for him. This "note" inside his card was written in light of what he has struggled with.

 

Back:  The photo on the back of his card is from some time in high school. I just thought it was cool that he has a remote in each hand, headphones, wires everywhere ... he's still the same today!

Sunday was Jesse's 46th birthday. I offered to take him out for lunch. What we ended up doing, however, was ordering "out" from Olive Garden so that Jesse could get a meal of shrimp Alfredo that he really likes. It comes with gnocchi soup and breadsticks! I ordered just the soup and breadsticks because I still had leftover pasta in my refrigerator that needs eating before it spoils. We went over to Olive Garden and picked up the food and then brought it back to Jesse's to eat.

After lunch, we picked Kaity up for a few hours. Jesse announced that we were going to watch the movie, "The Last Samurai", which I have never seen--so I was up for it. Kaity was too. The movie was really interesting. Tom Cruise should have had an Oscar for his role in it; I'm not sure if it received any awards back in 2003 when it was in the theaters. Anyway, it was an enjoyable time. What an INTENSE story!! One of those stories where you really love so many of the characters ... and despise others!

I am thankful I was able to spend time with Jesse on his birthday. I love him so much.