Birthday Cake for Breakfast

Hey, I'm 50 today. I can have birthday cake for breakfast if I want to and I wanted to. In fact, I've decided -- now that I'm 50 I can do whatever I want to, when I want to. I don't have to live by no stinkin' rules. Why wait until I'm an old lady to do those things that I've always wanted to do? I know what my niece is thinking right now. She's thinking that I'm already old. Well, she can be a tacky butt and she's wrong, but I love her.

The carrot cake is very good, but I was wishing for more cake and less icing. Something to keep in mind if I ever order another one.

It's really cold here today. I'm not fond of cold. Thankfully, we're stocked up and we don't have to go anywhere. I'm trying to get my hubby to go check the mail, but that may not happen. I plan to do whatever I end up wanting to do. And I plan to enjoy it. I hope you have a great day too!

Almost There

I'll be having one of those decade birthdays in a couple of days. The ones we were taught to dread or maybe it is some kind of ingrained thing that we're born with. I don't know, but I do know that I'm not dreading this birthday at all. I'll be 50 on Thursday and I tell you what, it sure as hell beats the alternative. Maybe it was the high school reunion I went to a while back where I learned of the early deaths of so many of my classmates that did it, but I'm just glad to be here!

I'm still married to the man I fell in love with when I was 16. We've been through hell and back and sometimes we're right back in it again. The last year and a half have been very difficult for us. There have been times when I wasn't sure we'd make it and even now, I'm not sure every single day that we will. We've made a life and we keep plugging along in it. Not because it's easier than splitting up, because it's not, but because we feel that it's worth fighting for.

We have one son. I can't begin to tell you how very proud of that boy I am. He also got married very young, even though I tried to talk him out of it. Their life has not been easy. His wife has a lot of medical problems. They have three children and live far away from all of their family. He's in the Air Force and has been for more than 10 years. He plans to make a career out of it. This makes me proud and scares the hell out of me. There is just no telling what our military will be put through in the coming years.

Those three grandchildren are such a beautiful blessing. I'm so very thankful each day that I'm here to see them grow. I have a very close relationship with my granddaughters and I hope it continues as they age. My grandson is becoming fond of me too, I do believe. He's been labeled autistic, but never given any idea of how "severe" it is. I think that if the label is correct, it has to be some lesser form such as Asperger's or something like that. He's made amazing progress this year! He entered kindergarten, was put on ADHD medication and is now learning to write and so many other things. He's always been a happy, loving child and now he's thrilled to be in school and learning like his sisters. I don't see any limits in what he can achieve.

All of this is to say that I am very blessed and happy to be alive. Happy Birthday coming to Me!

Hair

I have old hair now. I'm going to be 50 in a couple of weeks. I'm not upset by that number because it sure as hell beats the alternative and I'm more comfortable in my own skin than ever before, but I'm not overly happy about my hair. I've never dyed it. It's my natural color. The only thing I've ever done to my hair in the past, besides cut it, is to perm it, many years ago. I have some grey. That doesn't bother me. Never has. I'm not all that vain. Although, I am more vain that I used to be. At one time (in my late 30's probably) I saw an interview with Tyne Daly, who said she celebrated her 50th birthday by shaving all the hair off of her body. And I do mean all of the hair off of her whole body! I thought that was pretty cool and decided I'd do the same thing. Well, the closer I got to 50, the more I thought I probably would not do that. Tyne is a more courageous woman than I or I am indeed more vain than she. Maybe both.

So today I get out of the shower and dried my hair. Then I look in the mirror and realize it looks so dull and lifeless. I have old hair now. That makes me a little sad. Even more sad than the sagging breasts, the flapping arms, the smile lines and other wrinkles. But, I digress and I go to places neither of us want to picture at this time of day. When I was much younger, I promised my dad that I would never dye my hair. I may have to break that promise one day because if the commercials are to be believed, that's all I have to do to get my shiny hair back.

Now and This Week

I'm going to be out of town at the end of the week so I'll be posting my photo of the week early. I'm going to the Houston Quilt Festival!



I've got a lot of things to do before I leave early Wednesday morning to meet my momma and sister for my dear momma's 70th birthday celebration. We're going to lunch at a restaurant that has a reputation for being haunted! Mom and I love stuff like that.



It's also my hubby's birthday. He totally understands me not being home to celebrate with him so that I can be there to celebrate with momma. He and I will celebrate his birthday when I return. We were going to celebrate his birthday before I left, but our water is funky tasting and smelling right now and I think it would ruin the chicken for frying, so the celebration has been put on hold. That is one of the occasional drawbacks to living in a rural area. Our water gets nasty at times.



It would have also been my dad's birthday. He would have been 71 this year. Yes, you read that right, all of them -- my husband and both parents share the same birthday.



As for other updates on my life, I'm doing really good now. After a lot of work, with a counselor and alone, I've been able to forgive both friends who had hurt me so badly at the end of August. I've told the friend in person who lives locally and mailed a letter to the friend who lives out of state. I have decided that even though I've forgiven the person that is out of state, I no longer want that person in my life, so they are actually a former friend. I'm happy again! So happy in fact that I'm having trouble figuring out how to finish the miniature quilt that I had started to work out some of my Rage on. I had started to embroider the word rage, but now I think I'll take that out and just do the quilting I had planned to. I'll still title it Rage though.

Photo of the week 13 of 39 -- Nostalgia

I had a lot of ideas for the theme this week. I was leaning toward taking a photo of board games. I miss playing board games and whenever I happen to see them in the toy isles of some store, it always reminds me of my childhood. Boardgames, coloring books, Crayola Crayons, blowing bubbles, playing go fish or some other card game and even dominoes all remind me of childhood. I don't think my son has memories of these things and I'm pretty sure my grand kids won't either.

I picked the photo of watermelons for a totally different reason. I was born in January and usually got to have my favorite chocolate cake to celebrate. My sister was born on June 16th. One year, for whatever reason, my father asked her if she would like a birthday cake or watermelon! She said watermelon and a new tradition was born! She was thrilled and I was jealous. There was no way to get a watermelon in January. Dad took both us girls to a local fruit stand that happened to have refrigerated watermelons, so we could pick out one that was already cold! My dad never picked out a bad watermelon either. We were able to celebrate as soon as we got home. We put candles in it, sang "Happy Birthday" and everything, just as if it were a cake. It was the best. To this day, when June 16th hits, I start craving watermelon. To this day, I still have a hard time picking a good one out. The only time I could pick out good watermelon was when I was pregnant with my son. Of course, that could have been because I truly craved them then and it didn't matter if it was a good melon or not, I was going to eat it (after all in February of that year, I craved peaches and the only ones that could be found were three green ones -- to this day, they were the best peaches I've ever had). I would eat a 20 pound melon in 2 days by myself during that time. Watermelon is very nostalgic for me.

Next weeks theme is "adolescence".