Mary & Andy

It was a very fun wedding. Lovely couple, lovely venue, lovely dessert bar. Creme Brulee to DIE for.
Then there was lovely music (a very touching song for the first dance, sung by my lovely husband Billy), and then we all got down and got funky in our middle aged, step-touch, 70's kinda way. NOT so lovely.


There was even a really cool "candy bar" where you could choose candies to put into a chinese take out container to take home. I knew this would make Emily happy to see us when we picked her up at Grandma & Grandpa's house.



I'm very happy for Mary & Andy, but my feet hurt from dancing in high hells. I mean HEELS. =0)

BOO

Oh, BROTHER. It is September still and I am already tired of Halloween. The kids already have their costumes (yep), and I am afraid they don't really understand that if they get tired of these, they can't just go get different ones later. Hmm. We'll see. Ryan is working hard on his "Haunted Mansion" project: a kind of hand made version of the Disneyland ride. Is it November yet?
Today is Mary's wedding. I am pretty excited. I love weddings and this will be fun because both my sister and my husband are playing piano at some point-and Billy is even singing the first dance. Okay, fun for ME, not for HIM, I guess. I just hope I don't cry-I have a lot of mascara on right now.

Happy Day /Sad Day

My third sister (okay not a real sister, but when we were kids, it felt like she was) is getting married tomorrow to a very nice man. This is a sweet and happy thing, and I am so happy for her. As you can probably gather, this is the HAPPY thing for September 29!
Two years ago on the same date, my mother died. I had to sign the papers that said NOT to keep her breathing if there was no hope of a "quality life" afterwards. She hadn't had any quality of life for a decade-oh, wait- I guess she had: HORRIBLE. So, two years ago on September 29 at 4:15 AM, my amazingly complex mother slipped away from the life that had somehow gone wrong for her- a life SO well lived. A powerhouse of humor, music and acceptance, I am proud to pass along not only her stories and lullabies to my children, but her genes as well. She is still here, and she always will be. "Thy mother shakes the dreamland tree, and down come lovely dreams for thee, so sleep, baby, sleep." Goodnight, Jane.

THINK TWICE

My son Ryan is considered an "Aspergers" boy, or high functioning autistic, though I have really grown to ignore the labels. He was with me at Safeway the other day. As we left the parking lot, we passed a man who sits there every day with his two dogs, holding a hand made sign asking for money. I had seen him many times, but Ryan had not. As I drove past him Ryan yelled with great urgency "Mom, wait! There's a man there with his dogs! He has a sign. We need to read it!" When I asked him why, he thought for a minute and said, "Maybe he's lost."

Lolly's Kids

Well if you check the last entry you'll read a bit about my grandmother, "Lolly". Here is a picture of her kids I spoke about: let's just say they are both around 80 or more...we had "Lolly Day" yesterday. This is when the whole family gets together to celebrate her birthday even though she now with us in spirit only. It's fun to see my lovely cousins and get goofy pictures of everyone. Oh and of course, we eat.

Lolly & Bobo's House

This was my grandparent's house-well, this is the one I remember. We visited this house pretty much every year for a period of time-when I was about age 9 to age 15, I guess. They lived in Redlands, which was about an 8 hour drive in the VW bus. We also got to go to Disneyland on most visits-how much did I LIVE for these trips? Well, I counted hours until we went, and I collected water in little prescription pill vials: water from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and It's a Small World. Does that make it clear? I guess it is no huge shock that my son is obsessed with Disneyland and all things Disney-This part of him is not his autism, I am thinking-it's his genes. I did slide shows of Disneyland rides in my room; we created rides in the back room, dark rides like at Disneyland- well, we tried!
I am thinking of my grandmother because she would have turned 109 this week, but she died in 2005 at the age of 107. Yeah, 107. Pretty cool. She was one in a million, and I miss her, even though I didn't see her often in her final years. I will forever remember this house and the raisin bread toast in the morning; the quarters we got for any 4 leaf clovers we could find, and the days before video games & cell phones. OKAY so I already said earlier that I am old-and I guess, in a way, I am proud of that. And proud of the fact that Lolly lived to be 107, and her two children are still going strong, not to mention all the grand and great grand and great great grand kids.

Bad Day

The water is wide
I cannot cross over
and neither have I
wings to fly
give me a boat
that can carry four
and we shall row
my loves and I

MORE Birthday Fun!!

I had the best birthday I have had in years last week-and that was more than enough. Last night the sisters gave me a little more celebration. Nice gifts and pizza and loud children creating Play Doh spaghetti...then my daughter did Gnette's hair and we took this charming photo. I am so glad we are all mature now. Not.

Michele, mah belle, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,....It's pay day it's pay day it's PAYYYY DAYYYYYY... You're gonna be OKAY.

You know what? Remember "The Courtship of Eddie's Father"? I get it now- I am old-but how is it that Jodie Foster looks MAH velous? What is in her water? What is it with these people who are perfect in pretty much every way? She was on The Daily Show tonight. Billy & I had a bit of a disagreement about her age. I said she is 45-ish, Billy said "she's 50 if she's a day" ( that's a Billy thing to say: "if she's a day." It's Italian). So, I look her up on DEADORALIVEINFO.COM. Turns out, she is younger than both of us. She is 44- she looks 35. and very thin. AND, she has 2 adorable children and no visible signs of insanity, drug abuse or dementia. I think I hate her now. Double click on the second picture here, and you too can hate her.

I'm getting old now

Well, I turn 48 on Saturday. I guess I have nothing to complain about and nothing missing from my life. Everything about myself that annoys, bores and irritates me remains intact (don't get me started), but I have a pretty cushy life: a comfy home, entertaining and truly unique children, everything I could ever possibly need, and a pretty great husband. BIG cherry on top. So- happy birthday to me.