Birthday Extravaganza

The month of March is full of birthdays. If you count back nine months, what is that?  June?  You automatically think June weddings.  A lot of them are not the first-born, though. Perhaps people attending weddings are reminded of their wedding/honeymoons? Eh?

Some fall color

I have been doing very little. This is the month for festivals and I canceled on every single one of them. Above photo is courtesy of sister 1956 (her grand daughter). I love how the pink clashes with the orange.

Sister 1956 is not doing well. She had pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital. She has now been diagnosed with C.O.P.D.  Yeah. I figured it was just a matter of time. She is on oxygen. She said she will need it all the time.

I don't know how this will affect her watching the above little one. She watches her about three times a week.

I have a birthday party today I am not going to cancel. The boy turns three. Ahh...where's my Advil?

Cake

I think most people like cake. Some are either a cake person or an icing person. I am an icing person. I eat the icing and leave the cake.

I went to a party yesterday for a one year old. The parents did the traditional act where they give the little baby an entire little cake to devour or smash or throw or wear as they wish.

Then they clean her up and finish the party. Me? I'd save the cake smashing/wearing for last.

The icing was MUCH too sweet even for my taste. Whew!

I watched the movie "The Railway Man". It was hard to get into it at first. So boring. I am NOT a fan of Kidman or Firth. Both fine actors but YUCK! Something about them makes me cringe. Fortunately, a lot of the film was set "back in time" when Firth's character was young and a prisoner of war.

Based on a true story, the tale depicts how this man survived (barely) the torturous beatings and actions of the Japanese army only to meet his enemy forty-some years later. His life was full of misery as he re-lived his beatings almost daily and suffered severely what is now known as post traumatic stress syndrome. He discovered that the Japanese officer was giving tours at the place he was held captive - now a museum of sorts. He sets out to confront the man.

Nobody knows what they would do given the same circumstances. Do you torture them? Do you kill them? Do you forgive them?

This and That

Saturday we had two birthday parties to attend. The above little girl turned one, is my sister 1956's only grandchild. My sister is staying with me, now.

The other birthday was for a four year old boy - sister 1944's second grandchild. She has three boy grandchildren. They dressed him as a minion from Despicable Me 2. I did not get a photo of him in full costume (goggles) and all. To get an idea you only need to search for the word "minion" in Google, and then click images. He was adorable. We watched the movie while waiting for another nephew from out of town to arrive with his family. They showed me all the little extra things that go on in the background that are just as funny as the movie. Things only somebody who has had to watch a show dozens of times would see.

Twisted my neck (slept wrong, I guess) on Saturday night and still feeling the after effects.

I hate changing time - my inside clock gets all messed up. Was up at 2:30 yesterday and 2:00 a.m. today. Starting to feel groggy. After two cups of coffee I will crash in my TV chair until the alarm rings (cell phone) and probably re-twist my neck.

Work is going to get crazy.

Been reading. Missing planes, shooting through bathroom doors, quakes in CA, quakes in OH, airplane hitting a skydiver, mamas driving into the ocean, and landmines. My head spins.

I have to sign off now because soon I won't be making any sense at all. Must sleep.

Happy you know what

My grand/great nephew posing with a Mylar heart balloon.

I am still here. I am sharing my computer with my sister (1956) who is living with me at this time. You may see a lot of deleted comments on your posts. Well, that is me forgetting that my sister is logged into Google and it comments under her name. LOL!

Adjustment.  Heh.

Been super busy at work, too.

Been running almost every evening after work. Came down with a migraine last night. My body just quit. It said "Enough!"

I am going to try to sleep all day Sunday.

Have to work on Monday because so many schools are using this as a make-up day. I can work from  home, though.

Lots of happenings in family this month and next. SO many birthdays. So many dinners and cakes.

A big seven-oh for my oldest sister (1944) the other night. She held up well with the crazy get together of fifteen people.

Here she is with her husband and one of their three grandsons this past summer. He is the little tyke in the Mylar heart pictured above.

8th Birthday party

This one (a new big brother) had his 8th birthday party yesterday. He is diagnosed with @sberg3r $yndr0me. I typically have fun with children by teasing them. I had to be careful with this one. When I told him I got him a pink tutu and pink fingernail polish he became quite upset. Then he looked at me and said "Are you joking with me?"  I smiled and said "Yes."

He is high maintenance but he is adorable. His mom looked exhausted. She had "baby brain".  The article I linked to speaks of controversy of baby brain. Well, I think it exists, if only because of sleep deprivation and stress. Day after day, night after night and a high maintenance sibling to cope with. She was stressed.

For some reason I have a lot of luck with their new little pink bundle of joy and I sat with her while the Mom was able to enjoy the party. Their sweet new baby would fuss (she wanted fed and this was something I was unable to do - wink, wink) so I let her suck on my finger. Yuck! Thank God I don't smoke. She won't take a Binky (not sure the parents want her to) and she is not on any bottle feeding at this time.

She is a sweet baby - but wait. This post is about the big brother, darn it. He loves gadgets. He was focused on his presents (as most 8 year old children would be) and he tore through them and opened them as fast as he could. Then after the party, he went through all of them again. I got him a bag of "stuff".  I believe at that age they like quantity over quality. He already got big gifts from parents, grandparents etc... I went for the fun stuff.

I got him a spy set and a bag of little things. I did tease him about getting him rings. He said "I hate rings!"  I told him you will love these rings. He said "Are you joking with me?"  I shook my head and said "No, I really got you rings."  He groaned. I actually got him "ring pops." Of course, he loved them.

There was a cook out, cake and a piñata. I missed the piñata because I was holding little sister. I did not mind one iota. She is the kind of baby who will stretch, make a face, fuss, cry a wee bit and then smile and go back to sleep.

Ack! Here I am talking about the wee baby again! I am enchanted with her.

Good thing she is over a two hours drive away or I would be there every day wanting to hold her. Sheesh!

To get the "ñ" for the word piñata, hold the Alt key down (Windows machines only) and ensure your Num Lock is on. Using the keypad, (and still holding the Alt key down), type 164.

Atl + 164  =   ñ

For a list of all Ascii characters, go to:  http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/.

A new Grandma

Sister 1956 with her darling first grandchild.

My sister has waited a long time for a little girl. She always was ready to watch my daughter for me when she was little and now she has a baby girl of her own. She had her son in 1978 and he has become a father for the first time. To say she is ecstatic would be an  understatement. She deserves every nanosecond of this bliss.

More than 20 family members are gathering for dinner tomorrow night. (Not counting wee ones). Sadly the wee one pictured above will not be able to make it - she is also a "first" grandchild on the Mommy's side and has relatives coming in from out of state to meet her.

I gave the restaurant warning. I asked, but they are not going to open up the back dining room for us, so we will be placed out in the middle of the regular dining area. The poor people around us - because we are a loud group. I will take cake. Maybe balloons. We have 8 (or is it 9) birthdays in March. I need to charge the camera battery.

Number eight

Yesterday was this blog's eighth birthday. Whew. What a bunch of words. I still like to do it...blather on, that is. So, here's to another eight years!

Death by chocolate

On the tenth of March I was at a birthday party for a two year old. In some areas or families it is traditional to give a baby their own cake on their first birthday. This little one got an entire chocolate cake with vanilla pudding just under the surface of all that chocolate icing on his second birthday. You can see a little of the pudding peeking out at the bottom left. What he ate was at the bottom right. He was not impressed. He ate a little. Then pushed it aside. 

Towards me. Very close to me. He soon went into another room to open gifts. All eyes were on him. I myself, was very interested in the cake. Let's just say by the time all the gifts were opened a big dent had been created on the other side of that cake. Mmmmm.

Then and now

Perhaps as a young teen? Here is my oldest brother hamming for the camera in some younger by-gone days.

And here is a more recent photo. I guess I will find out today if he still has the beard and long hair. Sometimes he just shaves it all off and starts over.

He turns 70 today. He was born on St. Patrick's day and his name is Patrick. But that is not why. He is named after his great grandfather on our Mother's side. My Mom was raised by her grandparents.

I'll get back to the sauces maybe tomorrow. Or, I may have some shots from our big party today. Hoo Rah!

Two decades

Two decades ago I spawned this Monstrosity.

It's a food day

Frying bacon in  a pan this morning. I got very little sleep last night again. As usual. I have a big day today. I am making calico beans and stuffed shells and taking them to a double birthday party.

That bacon smells wonderful! And, I don't care much for bacon. The pets are going insane with the smell. I wish I had lettuce and tomato.

The camera battery is charged. I will take pictures unless I get strapped for time and forget.

I did end up going to dinner Friday night. That makes an appt. Wednesday, dinner out with the girls from work on Thursday. Dinner with sisters on Friday, b'day party with my previous work place friends on Saturday. And a big double birthday party out of town today.

Linux? -  I'll catch ya later!

From the same cloth

Whoops. I must have created this photo in a biggie size. Oh, well. The two above are brothers. Four years apart. Yesterday was the first birthday of the one on the left. We are celebrating on Sunday with a big family get together.

Both different. Both adorable. Their poor Mother. My nephew's wife. She had a son from a previous relationship. He is just starting his troublesome teen years. And my nephew (her husband). All those boys in the house with no other female companionship. It would drive me nuts!

Sister 1949 has stayed at their house before due to inclement weather because she works close to where they live. She is not my nephew's mother. Well  not THIS nephew. She said she is so impressed with how he really  helps out around the house and with the boys. Washing clothes, bathing the boys. I can only imagine the amount of work that needs to be done in that household.

My dinner plans are canceled for this evening. Outside it looks as if we only got about 3 inches of a very wet snow. So far. We are due to get more. No schools have canceled,  yet. I have been awake since 2 a.m. I must stop the late afternoon caffeine fixes I have been treating myself with. Sigh.

I have a birthday party on Saturday and one on Sunday. I was hoping for a calamity day today so I could really sink myself into learning and developing my presentation. What will be, will be. I feel the headache starting. Maybe I can get back to sleep. I've already been drinking coffee. Nuts.

Celebration

I have been very busy this week-end. Lots of family came into town Friday night to celebrate sister 1956's birthday. The staff at the restaurant put these silly hats on my sister her husband and one of my brothers. I can only guess they were not entirely certain what guy she was with. Some family are still here and I have been very busy with them. No time to post. My cheeks hurt from laughing so much.

I realize how very blessed I am. I am taking full advantage and am enjoying it. I'm not wasting a precious minute.

Waiting

Sable says, "I'll just wait here until you are finished taking pictures. Let me know when you are ready to go for a walk." She is content to rest and watch the world go by. Like me, she has mellowed with age. She has been acting very lethargic the past week or so. Me, too. I have been in a lot of pain (mostly my hands) and she seems to be very sore when she tries to get up. I blame it on the weather. Rainy and wet. Brings out the aches and pains.

Am off and running today. A birthday party. Not really my crowd but sister 1956 is having the party for her son. He turned 32. They drink and play guitar. It looks like rain. I am fixing some food. Cheese ball/tray, buffalo chicken dip (my first time), and my famous macaroni salad. I say famous because it is fast becoming one of the most requested food items that I bring to a get together now (used to be cheese ball, then calico beans).

I put bread & butter pickles in mine along with the juice. I also add sliced green olives to mine. Hey, I like it and other folks like it. I also discovered that I like to use generic salad dressing instead of Miracle Whip or Hellmann's mayonnaise. The generic salad dressing has the right consistency and flavor to make it work.

Daughter's new boyfriend has left for Va Beach with family and she is going through withdrawal. She does have a job interview today. He text messages her every five minutes (I swear!). He is 20 and she is 19. He works full time, goes to school (although he said he hates it) - one more thing they have in common. It is a different set up than the boyfriend before who is 18 and will be starting his 11th year at high school. (Home schooling can really mess some kids up if they or their parents are not disciplined.) They had been dating (with two major breaks) since June of 2005.

Prior boyfriend was a vegetarian and always had his male buddies around and was constantly going off and riding bikes or mud riding with friends leaving daughter behind. Current boyfriend hunts and has deer head hanging on the walls of his home (oh, goody! - that's sarcasm, folks). Two strikes. They actually eat the deer meat and he smokes. Daughter said he has quit smoking before so perhaps he can quit again. I have nothing against folks who eat deer meat, it just is not our cup of tea. Current beau attempts to spend every waking minute with daughter. Older Mom understands that is the nature of the beast when relationships are in their honeymoon phase. Daughter hates Mom's cynicism.

Relationships end and relationships change. We are moving on. Me? I'm just trying to keep up with all my critters, pay the bills and mowing the grass on a regular basis. I am exhausted most of the time. The nice thing about my job is during the summer we cut back a bit on our hours. That helps.

I always feel like.....

...somebody's watching me.

LOL! Can you see him? The song "Somebody's Watching Me" was a hit for Rockwell in 1984. While taking the dogs on a walk this morning I grabbed my camera. This is the field where I used to let the dogs run. Now there is a "NO TRESPASSING" sign near the entry way into the field. They caught onto me and no more free range for us.

I've seen this critter perched here before. I was not aware he was there when I snapped this photo of him, but I have many more pics where I just focused on him once I saw that he was watching us.

I have a busy day today. I have to make 3 cheese trays and 3 cheese balls, wrap the gifts and take them to the party tonight. It starts at 4 and is an hour's drive away for me. I am the official picture taker tonight. I wanted to warm up a little with the camera. The dogs chewed my wrist strap. I am missing that.

I helped to decorate last evening at the hall. It is very nice and I'll have pics to show you. It was so humid and hot, though. Somebody finally turned the air on before we left. I am thinking even though it will be chilly tonight we are going to need that A/C.

Pink Lemonade

Very watered down pink lemonade at that.

Sister '54 called this evening. They just got back from Sin City. Six days out there in the desert. She was ready to come back. First time flying for both she and her husband. He was very nervous, she did okay.

Sister '49 is very sick. She lost her voice and is coughing a lot. I go to a birthday dinner tomorrow evening out of town. Golden Corral. (Not my pick - birthday boy's pick). Humph.

Dogs in snow

Who let the dogs out?! Without their harness and leashes? Me! That's who. With this much snow, they didn't go far. I did have one little scare when Slade (the brown one) took the pups for a run down the alley way. Sable was either too lazy, too sore, too tired or too smart to follow. I walked to the edge of my driveway and called them back and they came a-runnin'. Whew.

They had a blast in the snow. I uploaded the videos on Youtube. I think a search for Cheech Chong snow dogs might get you to the videos. I don't know. Yep, it sure does. Four videos taken just this morning. Sorry about the throat clearing in the one video, I had to keep reminding myself to stay quiet. You can also hear the wind howling.

I slept in! I slept in! My daughter woke me up by calling me. She wanted to know if I had taken the pups outside yet. It was 7:45. She wanted me to take videos so she could see them in the snow. The alarm went off at 5:30 since I had forgotten to turn it off for the week-end. I turned that sucker off and said "Aw, hell no!" and went back to sleep. I cannot believe I slept that long.

Then I have had anti-virus problems for a couple of days. I am hoping it is because I installed that new back-up hard drive and Norton just can't figure it out. I hope that is all it is. I ran the auto-fix a few times and it seems to be working for now. I do not look forward to working with tech support on the telephone for hours.

And, I discovered that I DO NOT have a cake mix in my cupboard as I thought. Well, there is no getting my car out and going to the store today. I don't feel like shovelling all that snow this morning. It may take me all day to get the sidewalks and the driveway cleared anyway. I'd hate to call my nephew and ask him to stop at the store and pick up his own birthday cake mix. Good grief!

I can't believe that I am going to attempt to make a cake from scratch! Me! This should be vewy, vewy interesting. If I retain my sense of humor through the ordeal, I'll take pictures and share them. Fat chance, though. I am not a baker. Cook? Definitely! Baker? No.

And by the way, I read his friend's facebook post that tells about them driving in the snow all evening last night playing. My nephew has his new all wheel drive Subaru and they said it goes everywhere! They passed dozens of cars that slid off the road but they had no problems at all. That and my nephew is a very good driver. He has driven all over the country. He loves to just take off and drive and drive and drive.

The snow we have is a very wet and heavy one. While taking the dogs out last night it was eerily quiet. I heard a loud pop and snap and a tree branch fell from my neighbor's tree. The wires going into my house were covered with ice. I think the worst one was my old POTS line, though - so I didn't care.

Turning 5 today

My blog turns 5 today. Summer solstice.

You can see the imprint of the sumo wrestling mat in my back yard in the photo above. The mat started out farther to the right (where you can see a faint imprint) and steadily moved left as more and more sumo wrestlers jumped on it. I was a bit concerned about them hitting the wires up above, but they didn't.

The mat rested more on the circle at the left before the company came back and picked it up so that left a more definitive imprint.

This photo also shows some of the rain we had last week. It came down in buckets. I did get my gutters cleaned except for that pesky one on the front end of my house. I don't like the way they designed my gutters. I think I am going to have that changed. They are supposed to drain away from the front and all drain at the back. That doesn't work. I end up with a mess at the front corners of my house.

I saw that both vehicles were gone from my neighbor's house yesterday morning and I ran and got the ladder. It is only a 6 ft. and I was able to clean most of my gutters. The one at the front of the house is just too tall for me. Blast it! I am seriously considering buying a taller ladder. Can I get it home in my little car?

Far be it from me to ask somebody with a truck to bring it home for me. LOL! You should know that answer by now.

Why am I like this? I don't know. I just hear a little voice in my head (maybe my Mom's, I don't know) that says "You made your bed, now lie in it!" In other words if I decide to live my life, purchase a house and raise a daughter all on my own, then I should be able to take care of all my house needs and daughter needs ON MY OWN!

Too independent? Maybe. I've been in therapy (mostly in an effort to communicate better with my daughter) and I am even more independent now than ever. The therapist tries with me, really she does, but I am not budging. Not in that area. She gave up asking me about dating. Poor lady. I told her "it isn't for everybody." I am not sure she buys that but I could care less. I just plain ain't interested.

Five years. FIVE years. So what is it all about? I blog for me. I purge the feelings out of me onto this blog. I can go back in time and re-read what I was feeling or doing at any given year, month, week or day. It is very therapeutic. I do write less in my personal journal that I have kept on and off since 1986.

I don't see any end in sight. I love to blog. I'm just trying to keep family and work out of it, but work is really trying at times. I should make a rule to write my feelings about work in my personal journal before writing in my blog.

In Memorium

Circa 1999

I think this photo was my Mom's last Christmas. We were surprised that she actually wore a silky blouse that my sister(1954) got for her. My Mom was always cold and this material is not much for warmth.

She would have been 89 today. Her last birthday she turned 80. It was a wonderful day. We put a sign up out in front of her house telling the cars to honk to wish her a happy 80th. Oh, she didn't like that one bit. It never occurred to me that she would be offended. She left it out there, but I kind of felt like maybe she was upset. We just got a kick out of all the horn beeping, though.

I cannot look at a 3 axle truck without shivering. My sister (1956) was driving. She was not a seat belt advocate like the rest of us. She still becomes gripped with guilt. We do not fault her at all. Heck, one time I caught my Mom holding her seat belt in my car instead of clicking it locked. I guess she was having trouble getting it to snap so she just decided to hold it. I caught her and made her fasten it. She was like a little kid sometimes.

A coal truck bounced through a stop sign. My sister (1956) laid rubber trying to stop. We really thought my Mom would be okay because she was talking and joking with the EMT's at the accident. "Ruth, how do you feel?" "With my fingers!" my Mom quipped. Does that sound like she would be dead in 28 hours? Blunt trauma to the head.

A 30 minute ambulance ride to the nearest hospital. A 20 minute wait in the life flight on top of the hospital. (I would guess they were waiting for a paramedic). A 20 minute ride to Pittsburgh in the helicopter.

It was a two hour drive for me. All of us got to talk to her except for sister (1954) who was (as usual) in prison. My Mom was not happy. She did not like doctors or hospitals. She only went to the hospital to have a baby. I was her last baby and I was 40 years old. She went in the hospital for a week once in 1972 for dehydration. That was it. She wanted nothing to do with doctors. They wanted her to quit smoking and she just snapped at them that she would rather die than quit smoking. They just shook their heads. She would go for eye cataracts and stuff, but that didn't really count. She took only aspirin for medication.

They would give her morphine for the pain. Her heart would begin to stop beating. They would give her medicine to bring her out of the morphine, then she was in pain. It was a long cycle. Round and round they went until her poor old heart gave up in the middle of the night so they put her on life support. I realized later what they were doing. They were keeping her alive for 24 hours. Any time a victim of an accident lives for longer than 24 hours they have to do an autopsy and an investigation.

She burned coal in her fireplace. She rolled her own cigarettes with bugler tobacco. She was born in a log cabin. She had all her teeth pulled sometime in her 30's. She only wore her false teeth on vacation. Her gums hardened enough to even let her eat peanuts.

She bore 8 children. Her husband became an alcoholic and did not work steady after 1950. She refused to go on welfare. She came close to losing her children many times. She moved many times.

She was raised by her maternal grandparents. Her Mother did not marry the father. When my Mom was 8 her mother married and she was told to call her Mother "Mary." That wasn't even her name. My grandmother's new father-in-law didn't think Lydia was a proper name for a woman so she was to be called Mary. WTF?

Her Mother died when she was 10 giving birth to her half brother. He is still living and resides in Florida. Her father did not know her but tried to kiss her in a car one time. She really got her revenge when she told him "Sure you can kiss me, since I am your daughter." What a riot that must have been. She said he just beat his fists on the steering wheel calling her mother's name over and over again.

What a life. And that ain't even the half of it. This is definitely a book worth writing. I must be careful, though. With 8 children, some are still sensitive about it all. They are talking more about it as the years go by. Sister (1944) just recently told me the story about how she and brother (1942) had to beat our father in the head with a high heel shoe so he would stop beating our Mom. I wasn't even born yet. My father used to tell sister (1944) that he would beat their Mom more when my she tried to go to the neighbor's house for help or to call the police.

They never had a telephone until 1966 because he would get drunk and call relatives in West Virginia and run the phone bill up. I got to see the least because by the time I came along the older siblings were able to stop our dad.

My Mom used to go to the bars with my dad. She left the younger children in the care of sister (1944). She said if she didn't go with our dad he would spend all his money. He always was buying drinks for everybody. At least with my Mom there, she could stop him or the bartender would not do it if he saw my Mom and her look. The other patrons wouldn't accept the drinks either, if my Mom was there to give them a look.

I really have to stop, now.