Love With No Regrets

This time last year I was celebrating my birthday in style... Deep blue sea style.  I snorkeled, played in the sand and soaked in the sweet salt air far away from black balloons and older than dirt jokes. IT-WAS-WONDERFUL.  Today I’m wishin I could rewind the hands of time for an instant replay and to be granted a couple of do-overs that life doesn’t usually afford. I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day. I remember going to the stores in February as a wee one and being mesmerized by the stuffed bears, cards, candy and decorations. My Momma would tell me that the stores brought Valentine stuff in so everyone could celebrate my birthday. There you go! That’s where the “It’s all about me” mentality originated.   People who have birthdays around Christmas and New Year’s feel cheated, but I love having my birthday on Valentine’s Day. Even if I do say so myself, my birthday fits me perfectly. All the romantic sentiments and decorations couldn’t be more Jackie-ish.  The fact that it’s a day of celebrating love, friendship and all things sweet, is just an added bonus. I’d like to scoop all of my friends and family up in a great big stuffed bear hug and wish each and everyone of you a Happy Valentine’s Day. Go out and LOVE with no regrets.

Herding Kittens and the Perfectly Depicted Petulant Persian

It can be a challenge to get all my adult children, their spouses and/or girlfriends/boyfriends all together at the same place and time to celebrate life's little moments. I have found it makes it easier, if we go to them instead of waiting for them to come to us. This weekend the life moment we celebrated was my youngest son's 19th birthday. Since they all work and two of them are in college and work, we were happy we found a time when we could get them all together. My parents got to join us and my son's girlfriends mom got to join us as well. The only two that were

Former squirmy toddler

missing was my brother and his wife. When the kids were growing up, we always carved pumpkins. Well, I say that, but my oldest son says I carved pumpkins while he ran up and down the streets, which sounds a tad more accurate because it was a challenge

The quiet one and his lady

to get him to sit still long enough to do much of anything. Rabbit trail warning, I'm sure if he was running up and down the streets in the fall, he most likely was barefoot as that was his usual attire regardless of how many neighbors called

Some serious tools

to tell me the exact temperature and ask did I know he was playing out in that kind of weather barefoot. What can I say? The boy liked naked feet, maybe it made him feel at one with nature, or the truth of the matter

Very focused work

was, he just couldn't be chased and held down long enough to get them on him and as a parent of mediocre quality, I learned to pick my battle and the shoe battle was one battle I opted out of. Back on track..... We gathered at my daughter's apartment which is pretty dang small when you get that many people in there. My Mother likes to be in the middle of everything, but finally I

Make a wish

convinced her to take a seat, because there was no room for her to be in the middle of. My Dad who has no clue he is severely ADHD, did great. Much like my son, he isn't one for sitting around, but there were too many people in the apartment for him to pace so

So cute

he had no choice but to sit, relax and enjoy the chaos of it all. After a grilled burger dinner and birthday cake, we divvied up the pumpkins, brought out the tools and let our artistic juices flow. My husband went with the tried and true standard happy Jack, my Son and his wife went with a Harry Potter look alike and my Son and his girlfriend did

Daughter-in-law (Love her!)

a Persian Cat without a stencil. She is an amazing artist and did her masterpiece by looking at a picture on her phone. I went with a non- traditional scrolly heart, which I thought was very pretty until my daughter leaned over my shoulder and asked if I was carving a woman's reproductive organs. That's just wrong on so many levels. I worked and worked on it, but every scrolly thingie I carved, did kind of resemble a fallopian tube. Finally, I gave up and brought it home to modify and finish.... I'm still not sure I'm done with it yet, I don't want to sit it out on Halloween night only to be accused of  displaying inappropriate anatomy lessons to the neighborhood 5 year olds. Hands down the winner of the carving party was the Persian Cat. Our family has a soft spot for smushed faces anyway and the pouty pumpkin perfectly depicted a petulant
Persian. We had a great memory making day. When I got home, I felt like I had herded kittens and wrestled walruses, loving every minute of it.

Happy Birth Day Colorado Style

Friday morning, my daughter's birthday, my son's wedding, an emotional day. Unknown to her, I invited the wedding party over for a surprise breakfast birthday party. The girls and I got up and fixed breakfast and set it on the picnic table out front. We sat up a gift table with The Southern Bell cake in the middle (the much more expensive Southern Bell cake when you factor in the speeding ticket). Breakfast and birthday cake... What could be better? The guys and girls began to arrive and we gathered out front for the  birthday song and breakfast. The horses grazed beside the yard and as the sun began to wipe the chill away. In the foothills of Colorado we celebrated the birth of a Sailor. I've always felt birthday should be pronounced... "Birth-Day", because as a mom I

tend to relive the day of my children's birth on their birthday. I remember hers better than the others because I, (for some stupid reason), wanted to do it drug-free and all the other crap you tend to idealize with your first child. I smartened up after her and went for the drug induced haze on the other two,(not really but kind of). Anywho... (rabbit trail) When I held that pink bundle of joy in my arms for the first time, I could only imagine she would turn out to be the fascinating person she is today. To say I admire her strength, courage and tenacity is an understatement. She is someone who has

achieved things I could never dream of, has done more than I could ever hope, and has gone places I would have never believed possible. This was her moment, this was her "Birth Day". Happy Birth Day Sissy. Love you tons and bunches.

Creepy Dolls @ Affair of the Heart

What a great time I had Saturday with my family! Saturday my husband and I went to the City to meet up with our kids; sadly our youngest had to stay behind to work. When we got to the City we split up, boys left to do boy things, like look at wood, girls went to do girl things like ooh and awe over blingy stuff at Affair of the Heart. I love going to Affair of the Heart because it's just so girlie. It looks like someone just vomited glitter and rhinestone on anything that could possibly be glued, stapled or blasted with sparkles. There are 7 building full of blinged out anything you can imagine, all in high definition. It can be a little overwhelming, even to those who don't suffer from sensory overload. Toward the 6th building you could tell that the three of us were winding down. As we were walking out of one of the buildings we saw a woman with two babies in her arms. They were the real looking babies. I saw a news program about 40 something women getting these life like dolls and pretending they are real newborns to the point of changing the diapers on a regular basis and putting them in a stroller when they go shopping. I told the girls, that would be me if I didn't get grandchildren soon. My daughter said she would start looking for a home to put me in. In the next building we were standing looking at the hair on the wall... Seriously when you're really tired and are seeing dots because you've looked at too much bling for one day you just have a tendency to stop and stare trying to

comprehend what the heck this booth represents... or at least we did. It was a hair piece booth with a wall of hair, which at that point in the day if you stared at it long enough was kind of creepy. Then I saw two dolls at sitting at the end of the booth on a shelf. They were those real life dolls. I picked the dolls up and insisted on the girls holding them because their bodies are filled with sand or something and they feel so real. The owner of the booth had kind of wondered over and was listening to us when my daughter said... "They are so creepy!" The lady stepped up behind her, jerked the doll out of her arms, cradled it in her arms and replied... "They are not creepy! I looked at my daughter and told her that she had totally just offended the lady. The lady said... "Yes I am offended. I make them myself, I hand paint them and each and every hair on their head is put there by me with a pin. I even painted little veins on her hands." I just couldn't help myself... "Eww, that makes it even more creepy." to which the crazy baby lady had to agree... "Yea, it kind of does." We stepped away from the life like creepy dolls as she soothed their hurt feelers and wrapped them back in their baby blankets. Yea, we didn't make friends with anyone at that booth, she was a little sensitive. As we were wrapping up the last building, trying to maneuver though a land mine of strollers with very upset real life babies who weren't creepy at all, one of them pointed a gun right at me as an explosion of bubbles blasted me in the face... "Oh!!! That is so cool" I told the kid, then I asked the mom where she got it. We went to the bubble gun booth and I told the lady I wanted a bubble gun, in fact just give us three! She wanted to know how old the kids we were buying them were, I looked at her totally hurt and offended and informed her we were buying them for ourselves. She seemed a little shocked, although I'm not sure why bubble blowing adults would be shocking, but she determined we were age appropriate and let us buy three bubble guns with laser lights... When we felt like we couldn't take one step more, we called the guys and had them come pick us up. We told them our creepy baby stories, shot them with bubbles and then went to fix dinner. They wanted to know what we had bought besides three bubble guns. We told them we got ponytail holders that you have to have an engineering technical degree to use, a dog bone place mat for Aja's messy cat, a electric cord cover and Kathleen bought a dress. We made out like bandits. It was a wonderful day and not just in a creepy doll kind of way.

We Celebrate!!!

Today I celebrate Barb! The one with a million dollar megawatt smile, the giggle of a Playboy Playmate and the enthusiasm of a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. She is my workout partner, confidant, sounding board and my accountability partner. She is my friend because frankly she knows too much about me for me to allow otherwise. Most importantly today she is ANOTHER year older, therefore we celebrate! Happy Birthday Girlfriend!

Happy Birthday Caleb

There is no greater joy in life than being a Mother. There is no greater joy in life than carrying a life inside of you, protecting it, nurturing it and then giving birth. The first moment you hear that little cry it's hard to describe the complete devotion that overwhelms you. 10 perfect fingers, 10 perfect toes, little button nose and wrinkles in all the right places, perfection from the flawed; a miracle of miracles. 15 years ago today I experienced this for the last time. I remember cuddling Caleb up close to me and sleeping with him in the hospital, soaking in every precious second. In the blink of an eye it seems like the years have passed. I miss the cuddles but it's exciting to see the young man he is growing into. Happy birthday to my quiet one.... Love Momma