Happy Birthday!

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy birthday!!!!

In honor of the occasion, I thought I would blog about my mom. I dont remember every having one of those days in school where you bring your parents to school & brag on them to your class...career day? i think that was it...anywho...here's what i would say if i had a career day now. :) (i'm a dork...it's ok, you can say it...)


Looking back on my relationship with my mom over the years, the thing that stands out to me the most is how close we are, and have been. Sure, you know those teenage years were rough...I remember asking mom how she ever got through it, b/c i know i was a real pain, and she jokingly said "Prozac"...hehe...at least, i hope she was joking...in her shoes i think i would have needed something much stronger...like Jack Daniels maybe. But I digress...even through all of that we still had a better relationship i think than many of my friends and their mothers did. I remember feeling sorry for girls who just resented their moms & everything they did...my mom was my friend too, and i thought they were really missing out on having such a close confidant, someone they could always always count on to be there for them. I think that has been the biggest gift my mom has given me, her friendship and support over the years. Sure, putting me through school, roof over my head, food in my stomach...all important things...but through all the challenges she has been there for me. That is a huge thing...something everyone should be so lucky to have. Thanks mom! I hope you have a wonderful day!!


Today mom is driving to kc to spend a couple of days with me in celebration of her bday...it's kindof an annual thing, every year she comes to kc & we spend her bday together. On the agenda: shopping, pedicures, good food. I am really looking forward to it!


Here are a couple of pictures of my beautiful, amazing mom.

new version of an old song

As you can tell from the subject on this entry, I am in a very creative mood this evening. :) Today was a very busy day...around 4:00 or so I started to feel very tired, and realized that it was b/c i had been basically holding my breath since like 10:30. I just felt mentally drained, like i could go to bed at 5:00 and sleep straight through till tomorrow. (Funny thing is...we all know I probably could do that...) It was SUCH a busy day & it looks like the remainder of the week will be more of the same. Still...nothing majorly bad happened so it wasnt exactly a bad day. I mean, it's not like i tried to break another fingernail or anything. :)

Tonight I talked to my brother Tony on the phone. Yesterday was his birthday (#25...dang he's old!) and I had called his house around 7pm or so to wish him a happy birthday & see how his day went. Unfortunately all I got was his answering machine, so I decided to sing him The Birthday Song...i'm not the performing type, but it's my brother & I knew it would make him smile so i was willing to do it. As kids we'd sing "happy birthday to you, you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey & smell like one too!" This time, I was about 1/2 way through the second line (of the nice, oldfashioned version, sans monkey & zoo lyrics) when i decided to revert to our childhood version. Except I got confused & mixed it all up. The message ended up being: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you live in a monkey and smell....um...yeah, like a zoo...hehe...yeah, happy birthday tony! I hope you got a laugh out of this...apparently i dont know the lyrics to the birthday song. love ya! call me..."

Nice, huh? :)

So anyways, when I talked to him on the phone tonight, I apologized for not calling earlier in the day, but said that I hope I made up for it with comic relief. He said it was all good, that mom & dad didnt call at all...he talked to dad earlier in the evening, but nothing was said. Ouch! I told tony that he shouldnt have let dad off so easily...maybe ending the conversation with something like, "Hey, isnt there something else you wanted to tell me? No? Nothing at all? Nothing about something that maybe happened 25 years ago? No? You sure? Ok then...talk to you later!" I guess that means we're getting old....I know that as you get older, birthdays dont tend to be the big deal they were when we were little. I know the world gradually stops caring that yes, you made it another year, at least until you hit something like 90. HOWEVER....shouldnt your parents of all people be celebrating this? I mean, after 25 years being a parent should be part of their identity, shouldn't it? It's not exactly something easily forgotten...i mean, actually being there when he was born...I know it pales in comparison to when his older sister was born (wink, wink), but we'd like to think it was at least vaguely memorable.... ;) Anywho...Happy birthday little brother! :) ~hugs!~

Old As the Hills

So guess who is old as the hills now? You got it--yours truly--today I turned the big 2-7. YIKES! I absolutely don't remember signing anything saying I was okay with being anything older than 21...seems like I spent the first 20 or so years of my life always wanting to be older or looking forward to that next milestone. At this point i find the next milestone to be 30...to be honest, I can't say i'm looking forward to that with the same level of excitement i was about approaching 16 or 21! I figure the key is to have something planned for this milestone that makes me excited about getting there, right? The plan we've come up with (we being me) :) is to celebrate that milestone somewhere in Germany during Oktoberfest. Not a bad idea eh? Visit the homeland of my ancestors while partying it up appropriately with good friends. So far Hannah's the only one i've heard as excited about this trip as me, so it may be just me & hannah boozin it up with our German homies...but...the trip is open to anyone with the want to go, so if this is you--start saving! You have EXACTLY 3 years (minus a month or so). :)

Speaking of celebrating birthdays, several of us met up saturday night to celebrate mine & chet's turning 27 since our bday's are only a week apart...and it was so much fun! We played pool & spent the evening catching up, since those of us that went dont really get to see all that much of each other (hoping for that to change in the near future here...). Chet & I also spent the night proving we could still hang like the old days...or attempting to prove this. With the 2 of us taking turns buying each round, and a shot for each of us at each turn, I think we each ended up having between 6 and 10 shots in between the bud lights for him & coronas for me. My chosen shots were all sissy girly shots, easy to take & easy on the hangover the next morning...not so for chet's choice! OUCH!! I forgot how much he loves Jim Beam! :) When I went to bed at the end of the night, whoa nellie...i had to hold on to the wall to convince my body that the room was not spinning...what a night!

This morning i woke up cursing the day Jim Beam was invented....and wondering what in the heck i was thinking taking all those shots ...and hoping that Chet was as miserable as i was since he was half responsible for my condition--after all, he did buy half those drinks & shots! lol (i think it went "ugghhhh ... mmfffhatejimbeam ... ugghh ... imustbecrazy ... uggghhhh ... damnyouchet .... uugghhhh") Really though, I had a fabulous time & after a few ibuprofen & a bunch of water I was back on track. Definitely worth it for the amount of fun had by all. It was a great way to ring in my 27th year...I hope the remainder of the year goes as well as it started off! (this is not to say I want the rest of the year to go like a 5star hangover...want to be clear on that...) :)