The Grand-Fabulous Ava's 4th Birthday Party

My Son Turned 30 Last Week

I'm not sure how my son can be so old while I'm still so young, but he turned 30 last week.  We had a birthday celebration at a local Mexican restaurant.  It was amazing to see all his friends grown up with families of their own.  I've know these kids since they were crazy teenagers and it's amazing to watch the adults they've become.  Love you all!

A Little More Dad Weirdness

As mentioned below, today's my dad's birthday.  This morning, I had a piece of junk mail from the e-mail address "rolex @ clownlicense . com".  Thanks for the "hello" this morning, dad.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I heard this song the other day and it made me think of my dad. I'm not sure why except that he was a magician and he loved music and he loved to dance. The lyrics just seem to fit, you know?

Happy Birthday, Dad! Love you.

Why...

...does Ringo turning 70 make ME feel old?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RINGO!

This and That

Happy birthday to my beautiful son!!! I love you!


I love getting a new big fat book and being excited about the world I'm about to enter.

I get all warm and bubbly as I read the first sentence.

Then, as soon as I can, I find the character I will identify with throughout the story

and that I will play in the movie version of the book.

Casting directors can reach me through this blog.

I'm cheap.

Dad Update and Ava's Second Birthday Party

Dad Update
Dad's temperature is going up and his bilirubin levels are going up, too. So, he'll probably be transported back to Methodist Hospital (hopefully tomorrow) to get this situation taken care of. We're still not sure exactly what's causing all the problems. Hopefully, it's the drain tube and not the stents. I'll update as soon as I know something tomorrow.

Ava's Second Birthday Party
Last weekend was my grand-fabulous-daughter Ava's second birthday party. Below are a few highlights. Click here for a slideshow of all of my pictures.

"Now, this is what I'm talking about."

"Mmmmm...cupcake!"

Nannie Bonnie's birthday gift...aprons for the family.

"Are you people still here?"

My birthday gift for the grand-fabulous Ava ... the Kitchen Helper.

Tribute to the princess.

"Seriously. When are you people going home?"

My birthday...continued...again

My loot from my co-workers.

Friday night...

Veronica and Gates

Jamie, Laurie, Cory

The party...fabulous friends, great patio, delicious Mexican food, yummy margaritas!

Bonnie, Kelly, Clay

Saturday lunch

Ava loves her pasta.

The gang.

The gang.

More gang.

Still more gang.


Ava really, really, really loves her pasta.

My birthday...continued

The celebration continues next Saturday, September 13th at the Logon Cafe! Come out and join us.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is the 4th anniversay of my 49th birthday! Happy Birthday to me!!

Happy Birthday, mom!

Happy Birthday, Cory!!

Did you know that when your grand-fabulous-baby and her parents stay at your house, everybody, including grandma and the dog, gets up at 6:00 a.m.? It's true and here's proof. (Be thankful I'm BEHIND the camera.)



Below is a slideshow of Cory (my son) and Ava (my grand-fabulous-daughter) opening his birthday presents at my house very early Saturday morning.

Happy Birthday, Jamie!

Happy Birthday today to my beautiful daughter-in-law, Jamie!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Tonight I was going to post a lovely Bill Pullman/Bill Paxton quiz I'm working on when I suddenly realized that most of you will read this tomorrow which is my birthday. I knew you would be much too distracted trying to construct the perfect happy birthday comment to be bothered with Bill Pullman-Paxton nonsense.

Since my last official birthday was in 2004 when I turned 49, I still haven't decided on my exact age. You may choose from the following:

• The "3rd anniversary of my 49th birthday"
• My "49 plus 3" birthday
• My "Reverso Birthday Age" of 46*

* Subtract a year each year since I turned 49. It's physics. You wouldn't understand.

Happy 16th Birthday, Katie!

This is a montage of snapshots of snapshots.

They're pretty fuzzy but still adorable.

Check out that shirt she bought on her drill team trip to New York.
She's one cool chick.

Katie = my sister Terry's daughter

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My dad's birthday was yesterday. Here is a little retrospective on some previous dad posts.

Dad Honored by Sertomas

Christmas Dad

Repeat After Me

Phone Message

Garage Sale

Did I Mention?

Happy Birthday, Dan!

This is from Dan's birthday celebration Saturday night. Happy Birthday, Dan!

Happy Birthday, Janice (a/k/a Poodles)!

Monday is Janice's birthday so Janice, Bonnie, Amy and I went to Frankie's for wonderful Italian food and a couple of bottles of wine. From there, we went to the TEN lounge on Crockett Street for Pama-tini's and Sugar Baby martinis.

The martinis eventually led to a round of drunk phone calls and you should all be glad you aren't in my cell phone directory. For those of you who are in my cell phone directory, I think I completed one call successfully and promptly handed him off to Janice. The rest of you have a missed call from me so...uh...Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday, Phil, Texas Style!

Last night was the surprise birthday party of my sister Terry's husband's brother Phil. His girlfriend Trish told him they were going to the birthday party of someone else and we all showed up at his favorite bar. Phil has lived in Kountze for a long time now and has developed a deep and abiding love for a little bar called Laverne's and I know why. Everyone cooked a bunch of food (chicken wings, sandwiches, red beans and rice, two cakes) and it was all delicious.


Here's our little group: Front row: Elda, Phil, Susan; Middle row: Terry, Christi, Trish, Laurie; Back row: Dan, Jimmy.

Notice my bottle of Tanqueray Sterling vodka on the table. Any bar that lets me bring my own bottle is a friend of mine.


Did I mention that Phil has a piglet? Someone shot the mother while hunting and distributed the piglets to interested parties. That's her up there in the little pink dress. The plan is to fatten her up and eat her, little pink dress notwithstanding. Any bar that lets livestock roam freely is a friend of mine.

Did I mention it was raining? It wasn't just raining, it was pouring. Sheets and sheets and sheets of rain on an unpaved and muddy parking lot. Any bar that doesn't mind that you're tracking mud in all over the place if a friend of mine.

Did I mention that the lights went out about twenty minutes after we got there? Phil went to WalMart and bought candles. One of the men pulled his pickup truck to the front door and shined his lights in so we could have a little light on the food tables. One of the guys stood his flashlight on the floor aimed at the disco ball for a more festive affect.

For weirdness, the song on the jukebox that was playing when the lights went out was Credence Clearwater Revival "Put a Candle in the Window." I swear I'm not making that up. When the music came back on, I SWEAR TO YOU, the second lyric we heard was "...as long as I can see the light." It was beyond surreal.


To add to the surreality of the night, the lights were out for about an hour and a half and, when they came back on, the television began televising news coverage of the execution of Saddam Hussein which occurred an hour or so later.


At about 10:30 p.m., Jimmy decided it would be a good idea to go to a club "...about five miles north of my house" which had live music but, because of Hardin County liquor laws closed at midnight. So, we drug our soggy asses outside, sloshed across the parking lot and headed toward Silsbee.

We got there at about 11:00 p.m. and exited the car in more driving rain in another unpaved parking lot. The band playing was Chris Johnson and Cheap Whiskey and they made me remembered why I used to listen to country music.

Oh, and the Neches Club also let me bring in my own bottle so they're my friend, too.



Soon, it was time to go, and, in more driving rain, Dan got us safely home.

I love a good adventure and this night was full of them. I do love Texas.

(More pictures here.)

Happy Birthday, Jamie!!

(Jimmy, Lori, Jamie, Cory)

Today is my wonderful, lovely, beautiful daughter-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday, Jamie! See you guys soon...like REAL soon. ((smooches))