Baby sister's birthday

What makes for a successful birthday party for a four year old? Throw together a mixture of a large space decorated for a unicorn party, then add in around 15-20 little kids (and their parents), lots of noise and excitement, decorations, an inflated swimming pool filled with lots of balloons, helium-filled balloons floating everywhere, finger foods, cake, crafts, lots and lots of presents, and a pair of sleep-deprived parents and other assorted relatives. And, what do you get? Two hours of unadulterated F.U.N.

Balloons in a pool

A play castle

Crafts

A rainbow cake

Lots of presents

A grammy having fun with the kids

Little brother in awe of it all

Getting ready to open presents

The birthday girl opening presents

Happy fourth birthday, little sister.

Everyone enjoyed themselves at the party, so thank you, daughter and son-in-law, for inviting us. A good time was had by all.

Happy 12th Anniversay

March 9, 1996

The occasion of our daughter's wedding was truly joyous. We were blessed with the company of family and friends, many of whom traveled all across the country to share in our happiness. This date will remain as one of the highlights of our lives, not only because we were able to be part of this union, but because of the presence of those we love most.

Over the years, daughter and son-in-law have given us much joy. And, they have further blessed us with three beautiful grandchildren who we love with all our hearts and soul.

We hope your anniversary is filled with love and joy, and we wish you many more happy years together.

Feeling sorry for myself

Last Saturday I was feeling completely down in the mouth. I had wanted to get out of the house, do something, go someplace, see others, anything other than sit looking at each other. Husband, on the other hand, didn't want to budge because he thought he would have to spend some money (he knows me too well).

So here I was, sitting in my van alone outside my pharmacy while I waited for a prescription to be filled, feeling completely sorry for myself. While I waited, I decided to call my daughter Alipurr to see what she was doing. During the conversation, she kept asking the most inane questions, such as "where exactly are you" and "what are you fixing for dinner." I told her I was thinking of driving out of town to run an errand, but she kept saying that this errand could wait and that I didn't need to travel by myself.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed a green van pull in next to me. My, I thought, that looks just like daughter's van. As I was just about to say that very thing to daughter,

Surprise, surprise, surprise

There she was sitting grinning down at me. With my mouth dragging on the ground from total shock and surprise, I approached her window. I could barely speak -- all I could do was cry, for what could be better when feeling sorry for one's self than have daughter come visit with the grandkids.

And, boy, did we visit! We ate, we played games, we ate, we worked puzzles, we ate, we watched DVDs, we ate, we chased after the baby, and finally, we ate. Those children were bottomless pits. It seems that every 15 minutes I was fixing something for the munchkins to nosh on. (In between, we washed a lot of dishes.)

Baby brother, eating

Little sister, eating

Dancer girl, eating

Baby brother, following in his father's footsteps

After two days, we were all pleasantly exhausted. It was a great visit and we so enjoyed having daughter and her three young'uns come see us.

Do I still feel sorry for myself? No. What a great surprise. I could use more of these unannounced visits. It's great for chasing the blues away.

Thinking of you

The popular idiom "absence makes the heart grow fonder" will hopefully make you feel kindly toward me because I have not been blogging on a regular basis lately. As you can tell, I have been absent not only in spirit, but my heart just hasn't been in the mood to blog. I'm not depressed and I'm not tired of blogging. I just find myself wanting to keep my thoughts to myself.

That's what I've been doing quite a bit lately. Thinking.

It's an awful thing to have your mind always racing, always going, night and day. Some of the things I have been thinking of are:

• Life and death -- How tenuous and fragile are our lives? My blogging friend Susie just lost her dear grandpa who was almost 100 years old. She loved him dearly and I am so sad for her. I, too, miss my dearly departed loved ones and would give anything to spend just one day with them again and to tell them how much I love them.
• Politics -- How can we, the people, stand the rest of the year listening to the endless politicking? This campaigning process began with an unusual excitement not seen since the 1960s and with some of the candidates inspiring us to get involved. When I see what has come down to the wire, I am more turned off than turned on with all the dirty politics and endless rhetoric. Do they think we are idiots? Do they think we will buy into their lies and false promises? We were told change is in the air but all I can smell is the same old crap coming down the pike. Poor U.S.
  
• Economy -- Are we, the people, headed for a depression the likes of which this country hasn't seen since the 1930s? I thought that when husband and I retired we would continue to live our lives as we had done for years. When we both worked, we had enough discretionary funds to purchase whatever we wanted, to go where we wanted, and to do what we wanted. We didn't live like the high and mighty, or our rich relatives, but we weren't doing too badly either. Now, thanks to our current lame duck, we are all in a terrible mess economically. And, it isn't comical in the least. Husband and I now find ourselves living month to month and our fingers are crossed that catastrophe isn't lurking around the nearest corner. We were almost on the brink with our recent ice storm and loss of power for a week, but fortunately we bounced back with no major problems, thank you very much. We now appreciate the usefulness of candlepower.
  
• The price of eggs -- How much more can our food budgets stand? This is the richest nation in the world but we almost can't afford to buy groceries anymore. There are only two of us in the house, and we don't eat steak very often, but we now find that you can't walk into the grocery store anymore without spending $250.00 or more on a week's worth of food. The economists are predicting $4.00 per gallon gasoline by this summer and our lame duck says that he didn't know that. How stupid can an oil man from Texas get?
• Chop suey -- What has happened to goods Made In America? My dishwasher, which was purchased less than a year ago and is still under warranty, started making a funny noise in the last two weeks or so. I called the repairman and he promptly determined that I not only needed a new pump, but also a new spray arm. When asked where the parts to my fabulous, relatively new stainless steel G.E. dishwasher came from, the answer was CHINA (of course). Is anything manufactured in America anymore? I don't dare purchase toys for my grandkids because they may be contaminated. I don't dare take heparin because it may be contaminated. I don't dare feed my kitties canned cat food anymore because it may be contaminated. I suspect all my medicines are counterfeit and contaminated. Why? Because greedy American businesses have sold out, because of trade agreements, and have sent all our manufacturing plants to China, or India, or Mexico, or any place other than in the good, old U.S.A. There is no government oversight anymore for the products we purchase. There is no control over anything coming into our ports. There is no control over any ingredients that are put into our food. We are doomed.
• Our enemies --

Politics is war without bloodshed,
while war is politics with bloodshed.
Mao Tse-Tung

I really must stop thinking or I will get a headache.