50 IS Pretty Nifty

Best Birthday Ever

Well I have not posted in a while, been pretty tough around here. Zoe is holding her own and yesterday was a good day for her. But MY yesterday is a whole other story. I turned 50...yes that is right the big 5-0. And you know what? It was wonderful. Having a birthday party was/is a BIG deal to me. I have only had one birthday party in my life and that is when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. However, yesterday was filled with so many good things.

We started the day very early and went to Stillwater to watch my grandson be a boll weevil in the school play "Bugs". I didn't take my camera, I wanted to just be grandma and enjoy the program. Their school is small on space and large on students and parents so you can't see very well at all, can't hear very well at all, and Caleb was there and then gone. Then came back later to sing and dance the Army Any song. It was about 30 minutes but it was well worth the drive there and back. We took Caleb to lunch, he wanted to go to Pizza Hut and we went. Taking him back to school, dropping him off, he said, I miss you grandma, when can I come stay with you? I didn't know what to say, told him to ask him mom and dad and he can come when ever they will let him. I hugged him, kissed him on the head and he did what he ALWAYS does.....he takes his little hand and he rubs in the kiss so it will stay. He has done that long as I can remember and it is so sweet. He smiled at me with that big boy smile, walked into the hall and walked away. He turned back around and gave me a little wave and went off to class. I walked out of the school and a tear slipped down my cheek. In ONE YEAR he will be gone....In ONE YEAR he will be moving to the east coast if his mom and dad are still in the Navy then and still together. Nobody knows the future, who knows what next year will bring, but in ONE YEAR, my world is going to be turned completely upside down. There is no way to explain to "some" people what a grandchild means. How you so look forward to a phone call from them, or an overnight visit. Those cards on Mother's Day, or your Birthday, or Grandparents Day. A drawing from their little hands to be placed on the refrigerator with pride. Yes, grandchildren are special in ways that only some people can understand.

I came home from the program and checked the mail. I hoped that maybe I would get a birthday card. I can pretty well count on one hand who I might get a card from on my special day. It is Aunt Peggy =), or Linda J =), and then maybe .....nope, that's pretty much it! But yesterday I opened the mailbox and oh my gosh.....I had several cards. I could not believe it. One card I didn't even know the return address.....wait, it was from someone in L.A. I thought about it, I looked a little closer and the name was Bern, OH MY GOSH......that is a blogger friend that I have enjoyed getting to know, how in the world? And then I look a little closer and there are other cards with address that I did not recognize. My heart leaped with joy. This was super weird though. I get on the computer and check my facebook (tons!!!!! of birthday wishes there), then I remembered something, I was signed out of facebook one day and I had NOT done that. I was seeing all these clues but could not put it together. I went into my message center on facebook and checked the sent box .....nothing there. This was just too stinkin weird. My daughter called and I told her I had cards in the mail today, a bunch of them. And from addresses I didn't recognize. She made some comment, I don't remember what, life went on. I took me quite a while to figure out she had something to do with this. She hacked into my facebook account and sent messages to all my friends and asked for them to send me cards. She sent so many messages that she got blocked from facebook for two days for she was considered to be spamming. She said it was terrible to get blocked from facebook! I laughed at her! I think that was really really sweet of her to go to that trouble to send messages to my friends to send me a card. She said she hoped I really am friends with every one on my facebook for they all have my address now!!!! I told her I was, I don't just friend everyone that asks me to on facebook, I have to know them or won't accept them. I kept my cards and waited till dinner to open them.

Dinner....oh yes, Dinner. Beth asked me what I would like to do for my birthday dinner. I usually have liver and onions with mashed potatoes and then strawberry shortcake for dessert. but I don't have a kitchen right now due to the remodel job taking place AND I don't think Beth likes liver and onions. (don't remember her ever eating it before). So I said I wanted to go to the Melting Pot. Never have been there and I have always wanted to try it. We head over there (Beth and her boyfriend Matt, Scott and myself) to dinner and realize, I don't know where it is. Thank goodness Beth has Internet on her phone and she located the address. I thought I knew where it was and come to find out, I was right. We got there only a couple minutes late. Walked in and there sat my cousin Jill who is like my sister, her husband Toby and their grown married daughter Courtney. Three of my favorite people showed up too. I was shocked, surprised and pleased!. Jill is not a birthday person. She does not "do"birthdays but she is so thoughtful knowing that I DO, DO birthdays. And here they were at one of the most expensive places to do dinner and they did not even bat an eye. I feel so special. A gift on the table and more cards. So while we waited on food and waited for the "process" or "experience" or whatever you want to call it, I opened my cards. I read each one and savored how EACH card truly fitted the person sending it, and how it fitted me....perfectly. I loved it. It was truly such a special event. And I can tell you this.....if you decide to go to the Melting Pot, just cut to the chase and go for the dessert. Oh my gosh, strawberries, marshmallows, rice crispy treats, cheesecake, pound cake, brownies, all that to be dipped into a luscious chocolate melted to perfection. The cheese with veggies was good. The broth and meats were delicious. The lettuce wrap was .....awful...but the dessert.....was WONDERFUL. Worth every single penny we spent....and there were quite a few pennies!!!!

Now Saturday, we are having a PARTY. I am so excited. Poor Beth started out just planning a simple gathering of my brothers and their families and us. I wanted more than that. I love my family, there is a lot of stress and tension in my family right now that I am NOT going to write about. But sometimes I NEED my friends. I have some really good friends that are new to me here in Sand Springs. I have some really good friends left behind in Enid, and I wanted some of my friends to be invited. Well my mom didn't want outsiders so Beth said she would have it at her house. After my list got longer, I told her we needed to check at the community center and get a room there. So we did. Today she went and got the decorations, I am making a list of the foods I want to fix, keeping it very simple of course, and I need to find a punch (an easy one!) and then tomorrow, TOMORROW, I shall celebrate my second birthday party. At the age of Fifty I feel so giddy. I feel special, I feel......I don't know, it is a really good feeling. My feelings have been hurt by some that forgot me on mothers day, and some one else forgot my birthday that really has no excuse. but I can't control that. Family is something extra special and important to me....But I have to remember my values can not be imposed on everyone else's value system. That is very hurtful... this tough ole cop, tough as nails, can a soft side. And that is my family. Not too many things really can get to me... I can shut myself down very easily to activate a self defense mode. But tomorrow, I will feel loved, I will feel validated, I will feel special. I think two times in fifty years is not too much to ask for. I do not feel selfish by expecting this. I don't expect everyone else to understand it either. It just is what it is and it is me.....turning/celebrating 50 !!!!!

Thank you friends for making it such a special one for me!

Love to you all,

Lisa