Happy Birthday Mom - here's a surprise for you

                            

Today is my Mom's 61st Birthday, and I wish her health, happiness, and another quarter century of the same.

As a small present to her I'm going to post some pictures of her 60th birthday party. They've asked for copies of these forever, but I'd misfiled them on my computer and only recently discovered them. To prove I put some thought into this, I loaded them a few weeks back in preparation for this post.

A word of warning to family: I'm sure I'll mislabel some of the pictures. If you find a mistake don't be a jerk and make a show of it; just drop me an email and I'll correct them within reason.  And yeah, it was my camera, so there's gonna be a lot of pictures of my family. No apologies for that.

And now, on with the show!

I would imagine the next two need no caption

Note the pony in the picture on the table? Back in the '50's a man came through the neighborhood offering pony rides for a fee and my Mom took him up on the offer. My grandma's in the other shot. She passed away the year prior. Still, 59 years with your Mom - not a bad run.

That's my Mom seated with my Great Aunt Mabel, who's talking to my second/third? cousin Brian. My Dad stands in the background and my niece Stacey is by the door. Not sure who the other folk are.

The hottie on the right is Lisa; to her left my Great Aunt Mamie's daughter Rosie (whew!) and her boyfriend, my cousin Pam Brown, my Mom's god-daughter and her life partner.

This my maternal Grandfather's nephew and his wife. I sat with them for awhile.

You know, come to think of it Lisa was FIVE months pregnant at the party. I'm not sure who this gentleman is.

Let's see who's new in this one . .the priest, obviously. I think he's from St. John Kanty. The man with the coat in his hands is my Godmother's son Brian.  I remember playing Matchbox cars with him in the waiting room when his sister was born 25+ years ago. My niece Caitlin stands with her back to the camera.

An overview of the room at some point. LuLu stands to the right of the foreground, my Mom's friends son Max to the left.

You should know who these two are by now: Aunt Mabel and Brian. My father and Uncle George, the photographer of the Danny pics of 3/19, stands next to him.Note the studmuffin at the table in the left background. Next to me is my cousin Pon, who's a go-to guy in my maintenance department. When something breaks around the house, be it a pipe or one of the kids toy's, they say "maybe Pon can fix it".

The lady who's second to the left is my Grandmother's best friend of 70+ years, Gertie. Not sure of the rest.

Gosh these kids are cute. Whoever bred to make them must be spectactular . . oh, wait. They're mine!

Linda,my Mom's friend/mother of Max, and my sister Chrissy.

Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhh . . no clue.

Gertie and Mabel again . . Gertie's late husband Vern lost an eye to the Japanese in the war, something I always found fascinating. Vern, I'd imagine, found it less entertaining.  

My sister Katie with my Dad's side of the family. R-L Katie, Great Aunt Diane, her daughter Doris, and one of my Dad's cousins.

Same table, better light. My mother-in-law sits on the right.

Two shots of my Mom with all her godchildren. That's Linda's kid Anna on her lap, my cousin Becky, Pon's wife, to the left. You've met the rest.

My Mom opening her gifts.

Some random hot pregnant chick.

After the party we tore down the tables and chairs and chatted for awhile. The kids practiced gymnastics, and with some prompting Lisa completed a pregnancy ritual: as with all her pregnancies, she did some cartwheels. I think I tried/did? get some video of the act, but no still pictures.

This next one isn't even from the party, but I had thought it was, until I recognized the background. It's still cute.

I hate to end of a sour note, but before it was over we had an infamous accident. LuLu somehow gouged the back of her heel and it bled profusely and consistently. She nearly required stiches and soaked through bandages for a few days. She still remembers it too, referencing it out of the blue whenever injured.

Still a fun party and well deserved.

Bouncing back to the present - Happy 61st birthday Mom and many more! I love you!

 

Tags: Mom

Buddies - 2007 Version

That long winded 2007 Easter weekend also features some great pics of the kids posing with friends, and I think I'll post them here for posterity.

Here's Lu with her cousin:

Lisa's longtime friend Chris and her (then) new baby:

Chris' oldest with Smiley

and in my basement w/ her own cousin (such love from him, eh?)

Here's Chris' oldest with my niece. Apparently they are demonstrating the proper way to use invisible scissors.

Here's YaYa and my godchild/her cousin, taken in YaYa's room

Here's Lu and her cousin. It's a shame about the goofy face, because Lu looks so loving in the photo.

And one of the trios, again with that silly face AND closed eyes. I am not, if you haven't guessed, a fan of that stage where kids refuse to do anything but the silly face, because they think it's 'cool'.

Tags: Easter 2007, Buddies

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JLand Photo Shoot #130 - Photographer's Choice

The subject this week over at Sometimes I Think's J-Land Photo Shoot is "Photographer's Choice", meaning you're free to choose any current or old photo of yours as the weeks entry.

I spent a good deal of time looking through old digital photos to find something appropriate, and I had a blast. It's great reliving some of the memories of the last few years. I only wish digital cameras had been around for more than just the last decade - no way anyone took as many pictures in the ol' film era.

I still had trouble finding something that would thrill a viewer, but I kept coming back to this one.

It's a pic of YaYa taken on Cinco De Mayo of '05, one of a series of shots of her and Lu I took  as they enjoyed the playset that day. And, I guess, as they enjoyed climbing the porch too. :)

To me it's startling how different YaYa looks in just three years. You can still tell undeniably that it's her, but the face is so much rounder, the distance from elbow to wrist so short, and the hands so pudgy.

You see the kids everyday and you don't notice how they change. Then you look at an old photo and  . . .wow. 

Tags: YaYa, JLand Photo Shoot

Just a nice photo, looking out my 2nd floor hallway window

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On how I'm nothing more than a means of transportation and amusement for the kids

At my house there are two inescapable truths:

A) there is nothing so irresistible for use as a trampoline/jungle gym as a Daddy lying on the floor and B) I am nothing but a mule designed to transport the kids from one floor to another.

Here are some examples from Smiley's party of this second point. Please disregard my increasingly bothersome baldspot, which continues to bother me to an insane degree.

In these shots I was ambushed by a bushel of 'em, and proceeded to do some squats, tossing them about to their amusement.

I don't know why, but when I flipped this next pic 'right side up' it looked odd, so here's the sideways version.

This is what they refer to as being my 'necklace'.

And a final shot (I wasn't glum - 'twas just the moment) of a typical 'carry me upstairs to bed pose'. For some reason they like to be carried to bed like a sack of wheat.

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Hey, Pictures are working again!

 

Ok, after a quick request to the journals editor, my pictures can now be uploaded. They said there was no problem to begin with, but maybe they just released some of that 'magic smoke' without realizing it.

Not the Valentines graphic I had planned btw, but I'm nowhere near that file.

Here's the pics of the girls from this morning. A little darker than I hoped, but beggars can't be choosers given the difficulty loading them today.

Hey - in that top pic, the one with the straight arms - is YaYa flipping the camera the bird? Naw, but it sure looks like it doesn't it?

The kids got small bathsets and a dress up animal face as gifts  (Smiley got a Spiderman set with a bath toy that looks just like an electric razor). Lu made Lisa a card at the library yesterday, making a really articulated flower out of glitter glue (and mushing it to nothingness on the way home) while YaYa made her one at  her Brownie meeting.

Meanwhile the Mrs. and I aren't doing anything for Valentines this year, not even exchanging cards. The anniversary of our first date is Feb 22nd and we usually make a big deal out of that, so Valentines plays second fiddle even in the best of years. This year, with full schedules, no money, and the pair of us exhausted, we'll save our energy for that day.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday!

* * *

One bit of crud news today. AT&T, who I haven't had as a phone provider in a year or more, called me AT WORK to ask for a past due $103 amount. I've never even seen a bill as it's probably still going to my old address; really, at first I thought we were discussing a balance for the business. I never imagined I still owed those bums anything.

I said to fax me a copy of the bill and that I'd pay it out of my tax return. She abruptly upped the ante and said that her 'next option' was garnishment. This is a blow by blow accurate transcription of what came next.

"Ooo, well I'm sure that ONE CHECK garnishment period will really hurt," I said, annoyed at how quickly she'd resorted to threats. What the heck? Am I 18 years old and unaware of how ridiculous and non-cost effective the  pursuit of a lousy $100 would be? C'mon!

"Well, it will affect your credit rating. You'll never qualify for a car, or a house. .. " she said.

I cut her off. "I already own a home," I said.

"Hmm. Well, I guess that's all people like you ever aspire to," she said. WTF?

At this point, at work but dangerously close to exploding, I called her [redacted] and hung up on her.

She was way out of line, but I think my ending salvo would fail to sway many sympathies with the powers that be. I'll pay the dang bill (provided I ever SEE one) but man . . I'm glad I'm no longer with those buggers.

UPDATE: The pics are WAY darker than they should appear. I'll try to find time to tweak them later. ..Done!

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Tags: AT&T, Valentines Day

JLand Phot Shoot #128 - Pets

I'm getting in just under the wire, but this week's contest's subject was/is 'Pets'.

Now I could do the standard shot of my cats or turtle, and I have at times, but that really kind of bores me. Besides, Angelcakes was only recently featured, so I figure we're good on that stuff.

Instead, let me introduce you to her 'pet' Princess and tell you her story.

                   

Last Saturday Lisa and I took the two oldest kids roller skating, the first time we actually managed to skate through an entire 2 hour session. The rink is located right next door to a busy Goodwill Store, and I had a hankering to look around. I asked my wife if she wanted to go check it out.

"What's my budget?" she said.

"I don't know," I said. "I just want to loitter for awhile. . .say . . 10 -12 bucks?"

"Deal!" she said.

The total wound up at $23.00.

Sometime during this excursion YaYa saw the Ty brand cat pictured above, literally from across the room, and asked  her Mom if she could have it. The price? A mere 49 cents. Sold!

[Irrelevant detail: She also picked out a huge overstuffed cat for Lu. She's becoming a pretty good shopper, a truly useful skill in this civilization.]

We took the purchases home and the kids were eager to take the animals to bed with them.

This is when my Mom's DNA kicked in. Irrationally worried about lice, chiggers, roaches, termite eggs, ticks, and all manner of germs, I denied the request until I had a chance to throw them in the wash.

"No Daddy!" YaYa begged. "Don't put it in thewash! Please!"

I shrugged her off without hesitation. To be honest, I don't even remember what the dang animals looked like. It was grab 'em from the bag, toss 'em in the washer, fughetaboutit.

So come bedtime, with Lisa at work, I cheerfully took the animals to the girls . . and YaYa screamed.

This is what Princess looked like:

Maybe this one show's it in a better light . .

Oh. Uh, yeah, no, I guess it looks bad no matter what.

"She had long hair!," she said."Now she looks like a lamb!"

"No, she doesn't," I argued, alarmed that I'd somehow managed to screw this up, "She looks like a very pretty little shee- er, cat"

Ugh. Even my unconscious betrayed me.

But the pics don't show the worst of it, because  I spent a good half an hour combing and blowdrying and combing it again and again until the curls were loosened to some extent.

After all this work I called YaYa downstairs and proudly presented her the cat. Remember, I didn't remember what the stuffed animal looked like. I thought YaYa was being overly dramatic and that my efforts had more than solved the problem.

She came down and took the cat in her arms. She wiped away her tears with her forearm and smiled at me with a big gap-toothed grin.

"Thanks Daddy," she said. "Now I think I'm going to change her name, from Princess ..",

At this point her eyes filled with rage and her face twisted up and began to shake. 

" . . to Looks-horrible-and-is-going-in-the-trash!"

And she threw it down.

Oh man was I ticked. "You don't appreciate anything I do for you!  I took you skating, I strapped on roller skates, I bought you the cat and I just wasted half my evening combing that thing, and for what? So you can call me a bad Dad?"

"You're not a bad Dad" she said, not at all impressed by myanger. "But you screwed it up. She was special and you ruined her. I told you not to put her in the wash, I told you! I told you!"

"Excuse me for not taking laundry advice from my six year old!" I replied.

At that point some physical seperation was needed and I sent her upstairs. I calmed down, pretty wracked with guilt, and combed it out some more, to the point it appears above.

I took it upstairs, we both apologized - me willingly, YaYa after being coerced - and she tied a ribbon around its head.

"It's kind of pretty," she said, and contemplated it for a minute. "Yeah, I think she still looks like a princess".

And sure enough, when I recapped the story for Lisa after work and went to show her the cat, it was tucked snuggly into her sleeping arms.

"Told you you shouldn't have washed it," Lisa said.

*&@#&

* * * * * * * *

Here's some pics of YaYa with Princess. The makeup is from a (authorized) raid into her Mom's old stash, not prep for a beauty pageant.

Here are my two oldest with their new 'pets'.

And LuLu alone with hers. Please note that despite appearances she wasn't the least bit angry/annoyed/tired. She's just got this odd 'supermodel sulk' idea stuck in her head.

Tags: JLand Photo Shoot, YaYa, LuLu, pets