Happy Birthday, Zach!

I have so much to post, but I have to edit some pictures first.  Today, I am stopping to wish my Zach a happy birthday. Fifteen years ago (really just the blink of an eye), I held my firstborn for the first time.  Now, he won't even let me hug him, but I did get a slight hug today.  He weighed 7.5 pounds at birth, but now he can bench press his mom and then some.  He is all teenage boy as his birthday gifts included a much desired leather jacket (thanks to the grandparents, aunts and uncles who pooled their resources for that), a pair of jeans, and an amp for his bass guitar.  He loves his jacket and jeans and has not taken them off...so cute!

This weekend has been insane.  Mom was admitted to the hospital on Friday and is still there. They will be removing the fluid from her lungs tomorrow. Baby Regan was dedicated at church on Friday night, and after the service, we took our little people and Savannah to a Halloween celebration at the zoo.  Today, we took a much anticipated trip to the local pumpkin patch.  That proved to be a disappointment as it was too hot and too crowded to really enjoy what we had hoped would be a quality day with the family. We then gathered as much of the family as we could at our house to celebrate Zach's birthday.  Unfortunately, EMS transported my brother to the hospital just before our celebration started.  He has type 1 diabetes, and his blood sugar dropped too low for him to swallow. The paramedics were not satisfied when they got his blood sugar up to 200, and he was still unresponsive. I hope he is okay but must admit that the slow response is not unusual for him.  I think he will be fine. Whew!  What a whirlwind!

Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

My mom turns 60 on Tuesday, October 5th.  In less than one week's time, we managed to pull off coordinating a party to celebrate on Friday, October 1st.  We told her on Thursday that we would be celebrating her birthday at my house on Friday, but we did not mention that we were inviting friends and extended family members.  Unfortunately, my dad, the worry wart, spilled the beans when they were on their way to the party.  He apparently worried all week about whether we would have enough food for everyone and what we would do about seating, as very few people have homes where they can seat 40 people.  After he made Mom mad by ruining the surprise, he had a good time himself and told her the next morning that she should not have been so worried. UGH!  Yes, she should receive sainthood just for putting up with him for 41+ years.  Despite her anger with Dad, she loved the party. 

We served barbecue (courtesy of Jonathan and Danielle) with sides of hash brown casserole (courtesy of Tara), green beans, baked beans, California Cole slaw and chips.  Cupcakes and ice cream were on hand for dessert.  YUMMY!  We did have plenty of food.  Tessa took care of more details than I can count. 

We kicked off the night with prayer and singing "Happy Birthday."

This is a former neighbor.  Barbara's daughter, Stacey, and I grew up together, and her son Patrick grew up with Jonathan. 

These are mom's nurse friends.

my Uncle Jack (mom's brother) and Aunt Janie

                                                 Mom and Tiffany

Dad and Pat (former neighbor - Barbara's husband)

Patrick, Nicole, Jacob, and Kaleigh

Karlee and Stacey

Scott (Stacey's husband)

Tara

Andy (Julia took most of the pictures, so the perspective is mostly looking up)

Jonathan

Kaleigh, Jacob, Jordan, Savannah, Wyatt, and Julia

Zach

Mom's best friend, Kim

Eric is married to my cousin, Susie

Lesley is Eric's and Susie's daughter and the same age as Julia.  She and Savannah had a good time again.

Susie and Tiffany

Joshua has been sick, and it shows in this picture.

Mom and Uncle Jack

Regan

I am so grateful that all worked out and that Mom had a great time and felt good enough to enjoy it.  Of course, I am most grateful for such a great mom!

The Big 4-0 is the new 30, or so I hope

Today marks the day that I enter a new decade in life.  Yes, I have reached the forties.  I spent the day looking for a reasonably priced cell phone service for Zach and Savannah and shopping for clothes for Savannah.  We then met two other families at the pool tonight.  The weather was perfect and the company very good.  I did not tell any of them that today is my birthday.

Savannah baked me a cheesecake, and it is quite yummy.  Julia played photographer and insisted on posing us for the pictures.  She loved doing it and told us that she might be a camera girl when she grows up.

After I posted on Facebook last night that yesterday was the last day of my thirties and asked if I should eat some chocolate or something, Andy made sure I had chocolate today with some yummy chocolate covered macadamia nuts.

A Spot of Tea

We enjoyed another grown-up princess party today...the occasion..ahem, a celebration for Mother's day with my mother in law.  You might remember that we took my mom out for Mother's day tea on the day before Father's day.  We run a bit behind here.  In our defense on this one, my mother-in-law lives three hours away.  Today also happens to be her birthday, so we combined the celebration.

Julia actually agreed to wear a hat.  Of course it required beads and feathers in abundance for the glam girl.

Along with the scrumptious goodies you see here, we each enjoyed a bottomless pot of flavored tea.  Everyone at the table chose a different tea, and we sampled each other's.  I found a couple that I liked. I really enjoyed my own chocolate turtle tea.

Andy's sisters also made the three hour drive to be there, and Alicia came as well.  Alicia used to run with Andy's dad. They trained for marathons together, and she was there the day of the accident that sent him running straight to his eternal home in the arms of Jesus.

I would say this catches us up, but I have yet to give my dad his birthday gift.  I'm only a month overdue on that and have no excuse.  My own birthday is coming up on Friday.  I sure hope 40 is indeed the new 30.

Birthday Dim Sum

After I sent my last post, a friend invited me to Dim Sum.  He took a picture of me with the spread…bbq buns, shrimp dumplings, some kind of custard like filled bun, yam dumplings, fried white carrot/radish things…..i'm going to be weebly wobbling through work tonight!

Tamara writes:  "Happy Birthday, Andy!  We love you and miss you!"

Chinese Birthday

I got some early birthday wishes earlier today, but even as I write this, I still have four minutes before being a year older in the US Eastern Time Zone.  But I'm not in the Eastern time zone yet…I'm celebrating my birthday Cantonese style in Shenzhen, China.  It's been an incredible trip, though work is a bit stressful because I was sent due to the challenges and complexities and wow, it is very challenging and complex here in China with moving packages within Customs regulations while satisfying the customer at the same time.

Enough with work though, for now.  Shenzhen is in between Guangzhou and Hong Kong and this time of the year, it feels like southern Florida which is good for getting ready for vacation when I get home!  Here's some pictures from the hotel that is my birthday home away from home.

Regardless of the beauty of this hotel, of the palm trees or the great food, I am most thankful for the Word of God as I'm away from home and remembering the bride of my youth… (yes I know the pictures are not actually of lilies)

"Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens"  Song of Songs 2:2

Whirlwind Weekend

With Julia's birthday taking place on Friday, we had much to do.  She was allowed her first friend party for this birthday (we only do those every other year), so we had the family gathering and the friend party for which we needed to prepare. Julia chose a trip to the pool on Friday, so I took half the day off so that most of us could go, and then she had a two hour gymnastics class on Friday night.  Saturday found us doing our usual rounds of baseball and wrestling, followed by baking, cleaning, and working in the church nursery. Finally, 7:00 rolled around, and the family showed up to celebrate.

Note to self, buy the canned icing for decorating - working with the tubes is not so easy.

 

If I recall correctly, my pictures of Julia with family from previous years lack quality, so I tried to make up for it this year, but I got lots of silliness.

Julia with her Aunt Tara

Aunt Tessa

Savannah wanted to show everyone her art desk, so everyone discovered that Savannah and Julia are sleeping in a crooked bed because of a bad bed frame...yes, we do live with some things that are broken, but some kids don't have beds at all!  Tessa ordered a new bed frame for the girls today.  Thanks Tessa!  In my defense, I did not realize it was broken.  I thought it was simply crooked because the box frame was not properly set, and because of the way it fell through, I knew that I could not fix it myself and was awaiting Andy or Zach to take care of it.  After the guys (ahem, I do think Jonathan led that effort- not Zach or Andy) tried a couple of times to fix it last night, and Julia jumped on the bed sending it right back to the crooked position, I realized this was a bigger problem than I thought.

I have five siblings, who along with my parents, buy a group gift for the kids on their birthdays.  Julia received a Nintendo DS this year, and here she is waiting for it to be fully charged.  I was concerned that it would be useless without any games, but Savannah has one as well, and she has let Julia borrow some games. However, they have had much more fun playing with each other on their individual machines.

Julia with Aunt Tiffany, Uncle Tony, Austin, and Logan

Getting Julia to smile for her picture with Grandma and Grandpa required some help from Uncle Jonathan - a very funny guy.
Uncle Joshua
Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Danielle (baby Regan is safely tucked in her mommy's tummy)



Today we had a 2:00-6:00 skating session and birthday party.  Church ran long because we had a meeting to attend about transitioning Zach to high school programming, so I felt rushed getting ready for the party, but it all worked out.  I am so proud of how much Wyatt and Julia have improved with their skating, and this was a plain ole fun party!
Julia was able to choose one song for the rink to play, so she chose Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry.  A song that I actually heard for the first time when Julia started running around singing it a couple of years ago.  Wyatt campaigned hard for a Michael Jackson song, but Julia only had one choice.

Of course Zach had no interest in the popular music played at the rink, so he kept himself plugged in to heavy metal.

Julia's guests - Ian, Christopher, Lauren, and Nate.  Yes, the party was heavy on boys, but Julia seems to have connected more with the boys this year - not surprising as Julia is pretty much a tomboy except in the area of clothes and make-up.  We did actually invite the whole class, but birthday parties outside of the school year are not usually well-attended.

One of the kids had never skated before, and his mom was unsure about whether she would be able to hold him up, so I decided to skate.  I went one round with him, and he was finished, but since I had skates, I kept on skating. 

I think we can call this birthday a success, and I am just one half day of work away from my own summer break!