Karin's Birthday 2011

Karin and Alan

Jaime and sangria. Aaron was there but I can't seem to catch them together with the camera.

A great picture of Mary and Bruce

Roger and me, blurry but smiling

Wood Fired Pizza for Karin's birthday. Another milestone in our lives. For at least the last 4 or 5 years we have gotten together to celebrate our birthdays since Karin and Alan moved nearby to be our neighbors and become part of our family. This time we went to Word Fired Pizza which turned out to be near the old Cody's restaurant where we celebrated last year. Now Cody's has a new reincarnation as an Irish Pub. I'm sure we will be back there again since Alan loves Irish Pubs. They remind him of his UK homeland. Once again, I forgot to take pictures of the food. Ever since my days working at Florida Trend Magazine, I have dreamed of being a roving food critic. Ha! Can't do that without food pictures. We got crusty wood fired pizza with sausage, pepperoni, grilled onions and mushrooms. It was yummy. Click on the restaurant name to see the menu.

Slice of Life - Games

Mom and Rick playing Trivial Pursuit

Cory's Pac Man cake

Cory - 11th birthday party. That is Jaime in front of the cake.

Slice of Life is a weekly prompt to encourage writers to tell personal history stories. Click on the link to participate.

I am not a game person. I lose interest almost immediately, but my mother loved games. Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Poker, Uno - she loved them all. My brother used to come over on Sundays when my mother stayed with me. I would make a big supper and they would play Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit for hours. My grandchildren made me save the old Scrabble board because it reminded them of their grandmother. In fact, Jaime called Mrs. White her book grandma and my mother her game grandma. (I once caught my mother studying the Trivial Pursuit cards in preparation for playing with my brother who was the king of Trivial Pursuit.) I also included pictures of Cory's 11th birthday in 1982 because he had a Pac Man cake. It's kind of interesting to me to look at Cory's 11th and then at Jonah's 11th just a few posts back. Life goes on and the cycles repeat.

Brave Girls

Two brave girls, my daughter and my granddaughter. Mia's drawings are always so happy. She drew several of herself and her mother the other day. Dressed in look-alike outfits and looking like two teenage friends in one drawing. The captions say 'Mia Loves Mom' and 'Mom sevoL aiM' but the mean the same thing.

When Mia started having seizures again, her mother stayed by her side, as she has in the past, for every moment. Even when Mia was hooked up to a machine and could only walk a little bit around the hospital room for several days and got so frustrated, Jaime kept her occupied.

Now Mia is home and the seizures are under control, but there have been difficulties with the doctor, the day care and the pharmacy. Jaime has researched Mia's diet, tried to decipher her MRI and been her advocate in every way possible. Aaron and I and all of Jaime's family and friends have tried to help, but when it comes right down to it, Jaime does what she has to do. She is a great mom.

Jaime is committed to trying the Keto diet which is helpful in controlling seizures. I eliminated the ice cream, cookies and ice pops from my house. We started trying to figure out what Mia could eat. I pretended I was just out of ice cream, but one day she said, "I can't have any sugar" and she asked me, "If I have another (special) cookie, will I get the shakes?" I can't even stick to a diet long enough to lose 5 pounds but this little girl is following the rules and taking the nasty medicine twice a day mostly without complaint.

Jaime called me the other day to borrow a potato masher. I said, "Are you making mashed potatoes? Mia can't have that." I brought the masher to her house and she started busily mashing cauliflower to look like mashed potatoes. I liked them, but my daughter has never liked vegetables besides potatoes, green beans and an occasional roasted carrot. The whole family ate cauliflower that night. Jaime said she had to put meat and gravy with every bite, but Mia ate it. She didn't have as much luck with cauliflower "mac and cheese." Mia said she wante Kraft. I love my brave girls.