January 12, 2011

This be rather long, but then again, it may be extremely short.

I have been asked, "How did you celebrate your 60th Birthday?"

Oh, man . . what a blow-out . . . . NOT! Now, you need to remember that I am the same girl who celebrated her 21st birthday by going out the morning of . . I'm talking 12:01 am . . . to Dunkin Donuts and having donuts and milk. Now, how many of you remember your 21st birthday . . .I  can probably count the number on one hand. I, on the "other hand" (he he he he he) can remember mine all too well. I was staffing at Ball State, all of my friends were under 21, and, the main reason was, I had no desire to go out and drink. AS Dad always said, "Going out and drinking to celebrate is for beginners or rookies. The real drinkers know to stay at home where you won't injure yourself or others."

My birthday always starts on January 10. I need to "get ready to be born." I have always sad that and EVERY YEAR I get SO TIRED the night before my birthday. I guess my body is actually preparing for the BIG DAY!

The husband and I went out to run some errands and when we got home there was a "door knob hanger thing-y" sticking in our mail box. When I got around to checking it out, a florist  had tried to deliver flowers. I was wondering who it would be, and thought it would be Aunt Ruth, Marilyn and Debbie. They are the only ones I thought would be thoughtful enough to do this. The plant had been left at our neighbors, since we weren't home. Then, when we got home, they were gone. When Nancy came home she called, I went over, she said, "It looks like Happy Birthday is in order."

To which I answered, "Yep . . I'll be 60 tomorrow."

Took the package and went home. This is what was inside of it:

Now tell me . . isn't this just  THE CUTEST
Birthday Cupcake in the world?
And it smells so "carnation-y"
which makes it even better.

I was SO PLEASED that someone had remembered me! I called Marilyn's cell, hoping to get she and Aunt Ruth, but she had to call me back later. Then we talked. I did get hold of Debbie. She makes me laugh so much. Well, actually both of them make me laugh a ton. When we get together it is non-stop laughing. Which is amazing because we only saw each other 3 or 4 times a year growing up . . they lived in Gary and I lived about 90 miles south east . . . yet when we get together it is like we have been together every day of our lives.

Back to Birthday . . .the cake. Oh, my, oh my . . what a surprise ! ! ! ! !

we didn't know if we had any Confetti Angel Food Cakes in the basement (they are hard to find so we buy up three or four when we find them) so we picked one up on Monday afternoon . . it was a plain white one, but you do what you have to do when celebrating.

When we did get  home, Gene found that we had 1 Confetti Angel Food cake left . . .and since I wanted to eat it for breakfast on Tuesday, he needed to bake it Monday night. When he took it out of the oven I could hear the disappointment in his voice when he said he was going to have to bake the new cake. I went out and checked to see what had happened.

You know how an Angel Food Cake is supposed to rise above the top of the pan? Well, ours was about 2" below the rim . . .I just laughed and told him there was no way he was going to make another,. It had to be good  . . maybe just a little "denser" than normal. He still wasn't happy . . so when it cooled, we ran a knife around the edges, and it came out great . . and looked fine . . then did the same to the bottom, and it looked just like it is supposed to look . .again, just 3" tall instead of the normal height.

SO, Birthday Eve comes, and I get to bed. The tears started in my eyes. I so miss Mom and Dad. It's not fair of me to wish either one of them back, but I would so love to see them and tell them how much I love them . . even though I know they know how much it is.

Birthday morning, cake and ice cream for breakfast. No lunch, still full from breakfast.  LOLOL

Birthday evening, it was all you can eat chicken wings at our local K or C. Not only do they have Buffalo Wings (hot,m medium and mild), they have Honey Bar-B-Que,  Hot Bar-B-Que, a new one - Italian which was SO GOOD and my all time favorite Parmesan Garlic Wings. Man, they are SO GOOD . . just like Kentucky Fried Chicken, finger lickin' good. 

Well,, what can I say. After eating them and fresh cut french fries, celery and blue cheese plus 2 glasses of Birch Beer . . . well, let's just say there was no ice cream and cake last  evening. (Oh, for those of you interested, Birch Beer is similar to Root Beer but with a sharper taste. I don't know if it is made anywhere else, but, locally, it is made just a block from our house.)

When I went to bed, again, I got teary eyed thinking about Mom and Dad. I have always wanted to be able to go back and just see them and feel what they felt when I was born. I know I felt nothing but love from them my whole life . . many time, a LOT MORE than I deserved . . . and I am sure it started way before the day I was born.

renHillis that morning. The jist of the appointment was that she was going to have a baby that afternoon. Mom packs her bag and goes and picks up Dad from work . . Yard C, out by Donato Motors. He asked why she was dressed up and she said they were going to have a baby and off to the hospital they went. Dr. Hillis had told Mom he would have to start her. By suppertime, I wasn't there yet so Mom sent Dad home. She felt he should be with Lee since he had never eaten without Mom or dad home . . . Grandma was with him, but Mom felt dad should be there with him too, She said, "I mean, what was he going to do at the hospital anyway?"

At 5:03 pm (+/- . . . Mom always said I was born at suppertime and I think this is the time on the birth certificate), January 11, 1951, I was born. Dr. Hillis goes into Mom's room and said he couldn't find Paul. Mom said she knew that, he was at home with Lee and would be back when supper was over. Pretty cool Mom . . .worried about the child at home and knew Dad belonged with him this one last meal as an only child. From that time on, poor Lee would never have a quiet home again. I'll bet he wondered why he got such a noisy one who became a 24/7 talker once I learned to talk :0}

The birthday is now over and it is January 12, 2011. I finally got my birthday wish . . .S*N*O*W!  I had to go out and take a video of Indy enjoying her 1st fluffy snow of the year. 

So now, without further adieu,  the Paula Tooke produced film "Indy, the Husband and Ivory  Snow snowflakes."

 

Signed, 

60 years Old and Loving It!