Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy birthday, mom.
Thanks for having me. And loving me. And letting me live in your basement.
You've taught me about family, about faithfulness, about marriage, about filing. (I never did really catch on to the filing bit.) Thanks for showing us all what it means to keep one's vow of 'til death do us part'... you were The Best Wife for dad, especially at the end. We are blessed to call you mom.

From being Realtors together in the early 80's to being partners at Billie's Country throughout the 90's to being house-mates now, you've always been 'my person'. Thanks for being so encouraging, so supportive and so caring.

So many things to look forward to in this next decade: new (penthouse!) digs for you, ten more birthdays, possibly a great-grandchild (?) and maybe, finally, some face wrinkles? The 20's are gonna be awesome.

Love you x 1000.

(May Queens, for example.)
:)



Here's the slideshow we prepared; from birth to 80 in about 5 minutes.
(A whole decade is missing; I couldn't find any pics from the 60's...)

Click the > arrow to start it. Then, I'd recommend making if full screen. The first few images are of my mom's parents and grandparents (both maternal and paternal). And then? A million pics of my mom with big hair in various bathing suits. She was a babe.

Three things I'm thankful for:

1. New year. Everything feels shiny and bright. And to be honest, a little spinny and weird. Haha. Oh these meds should settle in any day now. (This morning, I placed my phone on the microwave, but, like the bowl on the island on Boxing Day I missed by a few inches and dropped it into the butter bowl. WHAT THE HECK. How can my aim be so far off? )

2. Half of my kids are home from Sunpeaks, safely. YAY. Thank you, Jesus.

3. A fun weekend/New Year's with some friends...

Kim came for the weekend; I introduced her to the Vedder Rotary Trail. She's a fan.


And then some friends from work hung out with me on New Year's Eve:

E and A are from France, and they brought dinner. First time having Raclette for me. And it was a thousand times AMAZING. I am a fan. 

We had an assortment of french and canadian treats on hand ...

... to sustain us while we played Ticket to Ride (my new favorite game):

And then, when I got up (noon-ish), I made French Toast (to keep the theme alive) and bacon for brunch while we swapped stories of our ancestors. We talked about our grandparents in Romania, in Manchester, in Africa, in Russia. It was all so fascinating and rich. And I loved the journeys our families took, from 4 different corners of the world, that brought the 4 us together at my table in Cultus Lake.

Thanks for reading/keeping in touch throughout 2019. 

Wishing you THE VERY BEST ADVENTURES and the most love ever, in 2020. 

xo