Happy Bday Marti-ay!

 Happy Happy Fourteenth Birthday to our Marta Therese!

Yes, it is finally here, after much anticipation and counting and campaigning for certain gifts.  Today is the day. You've changed your  mind about the dinner and the dessert countless times, but today is the day and final (?) call: Chinese food and "Brad's Berry Chocolate Cake."

Birthdays are still a new and exciting event, this will be your second officially celebrated bday...here in America and your second personal bday party ever.  We will hang streamers and have festive decorations and plates.  We will stack presents in the center of the table and tell your little brothers, "Not yet, we are waiting for Dad to get home." We might have to tell you that too, because it's  hard to wait for birthdays, whether you are four or fourteen!

But, in this place, my place, I do the list.

So, here is Marti-ay's bday list for fourteen:

You, Marti, have the biggest smile I know.

I call it your "megawatt" smile. 

When you really smile, your whole face lights up, your eyes and eyebrows lift and sparkle.

When you scowl, they don't.
So we try hard to help you find  your smile again...

You love to laugh and are learning jokes.

Your favorite joke is a knock knock joke and it makes you crack up. 

Which makes us crack up.

Funny is always good.

You are crazy ticklish, which can come in handy.

But mostly you just like to sit really close, especially if it's next to Mom or Dad...or both!

You love music.

You are hoping for a guitar so you can learn to play.

We are hoping if you get a guitar you will practice and love to play!

You laugh when we sing and dance and, still, are hard to coax to join us.

Someday we will get you to dance with us.

Because we know you know how to do a great Ethiopian dance!

And can shake those shoulders with the best of them!

You have a sweet kind heart.

Your heart is learning to love many people, but it takes time to grow.

You try your hardest most every day.

But some days, you just need a nap.

You love love love school!

Except for maybe science, that is very hard!

Tests make you nervous, but you work hard and do great.

Learning english is still very hard too, but you are talking  more!

You are are impatient

and stubborn.

But we've got a few others like that in our family!

You love sun 

and summer

and swimming.

You do NOT love winter

and rain

and cold

and snow.

You love football!

You love going to football games!

Especially if it is a game for your school or a game for Notre Dame.

You love basketball and volleyball too,

but not so much learning to ride a bike.

You love coffee
and yogurt
and pasta
and ice cream
and cake
and tomatoes
and cheeseburgers
and chips
and pizza...
all the teen food groups.

You have been home 16 months now!

And some days it feels like a long time and some days it feels very short.
You still love pink...
and you love your room and your bed and  your house, most days.

You are learning how to love and live with brothers and sisters.

It can be complicated and it can be fun, sometimes all in the same day!

Sometimes it can be hard in a big family.

Happily, puppies help!

We are all learning to love each other better, every day.

And we are all learning that families are complicated, big or small.

New families, old families, new kids, new and old brothers sisters moms dads, they all have the same things: love, smiles, moods, mistakes, laughs, food, chores, frowns, hugs, silly.

They are the same that way.

And those new big families, they make for big busy happy birthday parties -
and they come with big cakes!

So we wish you the happiest of birthday's our Marti-ay!

We love you so much and are proud of you.

  

We hope all your birthday wishes come true!

Happy Happy Birthday Marta Terese!

Retro Mama

Sylvia Sue....

This is my mom...in one of the pics of her that I love.
Love this outfit in all it's retro coolness!
And the reason that I'm looking at it today is that today is my mom's birthday!!
Yup, that's right, it's a birthday again!
And it's hers...which means I get to wish her a wonderful happy bday, and all her bday wishes come true.
She is beautiful, inside and out.
And while we both now agree and discuss how aging is a um...bear.....I say she is still beautiful. 
More so now than ever in many ways as her heart has grown in wise kindness and my understanding of her has too. 

She has and has always had a heart for the kids and puppies and the little ones.  That's her above (w/ my little bro behind her) at the house I grew up at in Arizona with our two labs, Nip and Tuck.  (I know...Dad named them, what can I say...great dogs tho...)

This is mom with my sister Nancy....another cool skirt and a great shot of my sis.  Who knew my mom was such a fashion coolio with all the terrific skirts (we clearly share a love for a funky skirt...). 

And this amazing pic is my mom, when SHE was a little one.  Wow.  I could stare at this pic for hours...her artistic side, her creative flair, her stubborn independent streak, her opinionated passion...it's all here.  And so, too, her practical logic too - note the hat and coat.  This in a funny goofy way, is my retro mom....from so long ago, to the wonderful her now...it's always been there and I know always will be. I like to think that some of my best traits, came from her...I wish I had that fashion flair above! 
I love her and miss her, and today, on this special day, I'm wishing her the happiest of days.

Cowboy fabulousness family photo (I've got my eyes shaded); 

mom is, as ever, the hub.  Good times!

Happy Happy Birthday Mom!

I love you - ok, we ALL love you so.

Another Day Older, Again!

{Reposted w/ current tweaks from two years ago...

because I'm traveling and it's my birthday and so I'm taking the easy way out}

Today is my birthday. I am 48.
I had always naively entertained the idea that I would age "gracefully"....
Whatever that meant...

HA!

Now of course, I have come to realize the truth: I have never done anything gracefully and won't be able to do this so either.
Rather, I will do it like I do most things: clumsily, boring all around me with my vanity and driven controlling ways and opinions and ideas. And at the same time I will go kicking and griping over the cliffs of the inevitable decline and collapse of my body.

I will never be elegant and chic.

I will have very gray hair turning all too quickly to white.
I will have a thickening body being remapped with wrinkles and sags.
I will have spots from too many days in the sun.
I have my mother's hands.

Middle age is no picnic.

Yet, despite my clumsy ways and self, I have a richly woven tapestry of a life - surrounded by so many that I love so dearly. I have the strength in my arms to hold eight children. I have the arms to hug so many others for missing moms and try to let them know that a mom loves them and it feels like this. I have been able to find niches in my heart for many here and others I have even recently met in Africa, ones I won't see again but who will stay with me.
All that is worth every gray hair, every wrinkle, sag, and spot.

I used to be bothered by looking at my hands and seeing my mother's. It was, somehow, shocking. But oddly enough, not anymore. They are mine. They are hers.
They'll do.

I never used to tell folks when it was my birthday, although I've always told my age. Somehow it didn't seem like I should mention it. But, then, I decided that sets a bad example for my kids. As I tell my children, birthdays are for celebrating! And so not to be a hypocrite (at least this time)....I've said it. And tonight I will have some red wine and a piece of tiramisu or icy lemoncello and kiss all my children and husband. And while the kid's bdays and my husband's are ever so much more fun....I am very grateful for mine.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

"I am not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful."

Happy Birthday to the lovely miss Monroe.

Pictures scanned by me from Marilyn Monroe Unseen Archives - Marie Clayton.

Birthday Balloons

The girls at work picked these balloons out for me and aren't they are the cutest? I got all warm and fuzzy when they handed them to me. It's nice to have a job you don't dread going to!

Twenty Three

Happy Trailer Trash Birthday to me!

Happy Bday to My Baby Bro!

Today is my Baby Brother's Bday!!
Yup.  Let's see, he's....um...we are all SO old that I can only remember how old we all are by tallying us up in relation to each other.  Does that make sense?  Maybe not, but it does to me!  So, let's see, John is 44.  Whoa.  Yeah, and he's my BABY brother.  Yipes.

Anyhow my wonderful dear funny kind fantastico brilliant brother, John is celebrating his bday today in his brand new locale: Micronesia.

Yup, read that again: Micronesia.

Yup.  Sounds like a state of mind, no?  And, one could argue, with John, that it could apply quite well, somehow, if it was an actual state of mind.  Does that make sense? No? Well, maybe not, but it does to me and I KNOW it does to him too!

John makes me laugh.  He is a gift because he is crazy kind, but he is more so because no one else can make me laugh so very hard.  Til I cry.  Of course, it's all lies and twisted memories... but they can make my sister and I just howl with laughs.

And today I want to tip my hat to my little dear brother.
Because it's  his birthday.
Because I love him so much.
Because I love his gorgeous family: his beautiful Parisian wife and his stunning brilliant daughters (my nieces!).
Because he has bravely grabbed a brass ring that flew by and just moved, radically, to Micronesia.
Because he is now a grand poohbah in Micronesia: a muckety-muck in the Attorney General's office...either the Assistant Attorney General of Micronesia or the de facto Attorney General or the Gofer Attorney General or something of that sort.
But I know it's a big deal because they sent a cargo container to move his family's stuff over the ocean to live in Micronesia and work.
He's an old pro at this, having lived and loved living in Vanuatu years ago.
Because he's a surf rat and tennis pro at heart, under that pin striped suit.
So I think he will fit right in and be immediately at home.

And I am wishing him a happy happy paradise of a birthday, with foofy tropical drinks, sparkling sun, and great waves to surf today.
Because he's my baby brother.
And I break into tears whenever I see him (because it's never often enough).
And then we both laugh.
And I hug him tight.

Happy Happy Birthday John!
We love you!
Catch a wave, surf's up!

And Now We Are Six. Happy Bday Little Man!

Happy Happy Birthday my Little Man!

You are six years old today!

And, this year your birthday lands on Superbowl Sunday! How cool is that?
You get all the birthday fun and all the Superbowl fun and football and football food, all together.
Sounds almost like a birthday wish come true.

Oh my boy....
You've been waiting, impatiently, for your sixth birthday.
Jumping and hopping with excitement just thinking about it.
I think you know it's going to be an especially good sort of year.

When you are six,
you get to do cartwheels in the hallways,
and talk after bedtime with  your brother
and have jumping contests off the stairs
until your mom hollers at you to stop.
You have car races in the foyer,
and wrestling matches in the study,
practice roaring like a dinosaur with your brother,
and pester your big sisters until you all get in trouble.

Outside is for snowballs
and sleds
and bikes
and worms
and cannonballs
and skateboards
and finding the perfect stick.

You love to run fast,
jump high,
shout loud,
laugh hard,
and flop down on the ground to catch  your breath,
before you jump up to chase your brother again.

You love to eat.
Most anything.
But especially, pizza and cheeseburgers,
pancakes and eggs,
french fries and grilled cheese,
pasta and chicken fingers,
cookies,
and more cookies,
most anything, really...
as long as it doesn't have peanut butter in it.
Because peanuts and peanut butter are just gross.

You don't like chores, but you know how to do them when you set your mind to it.
You don't like homework, but you love school.
You think Miss Thompson is the "greatest kindergarden teacher in the universe."
I think she is too.
You like to try out new words like "spectacular" and "ridiculous."
You wonder if I can make you an eye doctor appointment, so you can get yourself "some laser eyes."
You don't like thunder or bad dreams, but like being able to snuggle back to sleep.
You don't like bedtime, but do like singing "Hail Holy Queen" with mom every night.
And you say, "We sound good."
I think so too.

Oh my six year old son.
I love you so.
We all love you so much and can't imagine this family without your big happy grin and loud bouncing running joking you.
You are happy and cuddly and smart and full of life and full of love.

Exuberant.
Being six is kind of magic and especially wonderful.
There was a special writer named A.A. Milne.
He said it best, about being six:

Now We Are Six - 

When I was one, I had just begun, 

When I was two, I was nearly new, 

When I was three, I was hardly me, 

When I was four, I was not much more, 

When I was five, I was just alive, 

but now I am six, 

I'm as clever as clever, 

So I think I'll be six now and forever. 

Author A.A. Milne

Happy Happy Birthday Little Man!

We are so glad you are six!

Happy Bday to Our Gabriel!

Our Gabriel Louis Tariku is 3 today!

And a very happy 3 year old is he!

He has been home with us now, from Ethiopia, for just about eighteen months.

That time has flown, because we are having FUN!
He is a funny quirky smiling wild sweet boy.
He loves his mama, that's me!
Ok, he loves the rest of the family too, but I relish that beaming love coming my way.
His best friend in the world is his big brother, Little Man.
They tumble like puppies throughout the house, all day long.
It makes us crazy sometimes.
Gabey will launch flying tackles at Little Man, who is twice his size.
Unfazed if he misses, laughing if he brings him down...up again for the chase.

Our Gabey Baby....not such a baby anymore:
Crazy for dinosaurs, but a little bit scared of the dark.
Crazy for chocolate and will sniff it out, find it, and gobble it up before you can blink or take it away.

Crazy fast for a little guy with such short legs.
Crazy for cars and trucks and balls.
Crazy in love with our old retriever; kind of torturing her with his overdose of affection.
Crazy about our cranky old cat: he is our "cat whisperer."

Funny faces and a big huge laugh
And frankly, the loudest kid we've ever had, and that's really saying something to beat Bananas.

A nudist for now, unwilling to keep clothes on of any sort, despite the dipping temps.
A destroyer of worlds, everything in his path left in post tornado levels.
A climber, a jumper, a daredevil...I'm a little worried about this one.

Gabey is my cuddly little guy, wanting and needing me to cuddle him to sleep and I can't resist (this is how you spoil your last one).
He is cute and knows it, and works it.
He has never met a stranger, makes friends with everyone.

He is talking a mile a minute now, quoting Shakespeare and lengthy passages from novels.
Ok, maybe not quite, but sounds like.
He is stubborn, strong willed, relentless in his badgering for an answer.
We feel these skills will come in handy someday....just need much channeling now!


Our Gabriel.  
It's your birthday!

That means Mickey Mouse cake and hoopla, because you LOVE Mickey Mouse.
And your favorite food other than chocolate: pizza (because I'm nixing the fries).

 

We wish you a happy happy third birthday, our Gabriel.

We love you so very much!!!!