Birthday Party for Cory and Stephanie

We had a birthday party at Jaime and Aaron's house last Saturday night to celebrate Steph's 30th and Cory's 40th birthdays. We had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots, pineapple upside down cake and a cinnamon haunted house cake.

I made two cakes and baked a pumpkin pie. I also made a big meatloaf. Everyone was too nice to say it was dry except my husband. Oh, Aaron did comment that ketchup made it a lot better. (??) We drank iced tea and soda.

The karaoke machine was a big hit, especially with Cory and Jill. There was a pretty campfire out back. Jonah was riding his bicycle around and around the big back yard with Brody racing around him and barking and nipping at the tires now and then. It was so cute. Good exercise for both boy and dog. Jill and Jaime did some hooping with the lighted hoop. Jill is getting good at that.

We went inside to continue the party with lots of dancing and karaoke. It has been a long time since I have had my son and daughter just hanging out together, singing, dancing and laughing. Aaron and Stephanie were having a great time, too.

Jaime got Stephanie a very funny talking card with a hunky guy on the front. It said, "I'm going to make all your dreams come true." When you opened it up, a deep, sexy voice said, "Happy Birthday, Baby ... I'm going to ... Mow Your Lawn. And then I'm going to ...Change your oil and ... Rotate your tires... " All the women thought it was very funny.

The pineapple upside down cake was good. Brody liked it, too. He put his front paws on the table when no one was looking and polished it off. Jonah complained that he didn't even get to taste it.

Mia was getting fussy and the party was still going strong, so I popped her in the car and drove around the corner to my house. I tucked her into bed in the kid room and she was asleep in two minutes. What a happy night and happy birthday party.

I heard that Amanda and Daniel stopped by later with Amanda's little pot bellied pig, Harley. Harley is a very smart little pig. He opened Mia's snack cabinet and ate a whole bag of whole wheat, baked Cheetos.

Fateful Girlfriend Meetings

One day three girlfriends left work for a nice lunch at a charming little restaurant. They were full of news. One brought pictures of a recent family wedding. Another, who had gone through a painful divorce, brought pictures of her daughter's graduation and talked of how she and her ex-husband had bought their daughter a car and were spending lots of happy times together as a family. The third had the best news of all. She was leaving her job and her family home with her two children to have a beautiful wedding and move to a brand new house they were building in New Orleans. There was a bit of happy competition in that lunch. A few short weeks later, the first friend lost her son in a tragic death. The second friend discovered her ex had met someone new and was to be remarried. I've always wondered how things turned out for the third friend.

Many years ago, two friends met at the local Dairy Queen. One friend had left college to go to beauty school. She was engaged to a boy in Viet Nam but had fallen madly in love with her neighbor in a guilty summer romance while he was home from college. The other friend was madly in love, too, and was vowing to marry the boy she loved in spite of her parents' disapproval. Those friends met again online after more than 40 years and the thing they both remembered and wondered about was that last meeting at the Dairy Queen.

Three childhood friends got together a year or so ago and compared notes. One was a single mom with two little children and was about to be married to her new love, one was about to have her first baby but was not getting married. The third was in love, too, and living in her adopted country of Chile. She returned to Chile just in time for a terrible earthquake but her worried friends were finally able to find out she was OK through Facebook. Time will determine the fate of the other two friends.

It is fun to get together with friends and talk of your plans, but remember these fateful meetings. Life has a way of surprising us.

Girl with a Hoop

Come on. Push the play button. I know it looks boring because I could not edit the video the way I wanted. But this video is cool. Really. Also, my new favorite song.

Slice of Life - Festive Fall

2011

2010

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

Mia's Pumpkins. The second one is from last year. I know they look like a million other children's drawings but these are Mia's. Maybe they will help her remember when she cut out the shapes and signed her name when she was only 3 and 4 years old. (Notice that the first signature is backwards with an extra little loop thrown in.)