family

I have been reminded from more then one person that I have not blogged for awhile...It has been a busy week ! What with company and birthday parties and furniture deliveries and a few other things tossed in the mix. I have about a gazillion pictures to catch up on, and will try and get a few out of the way here.

I don't think I will ever stop thrilling to having deliveries pull up to our door! So unlike the islands..The UPS driver is about my favorite company to come. Even better when the UPS and Ashley Furniture pull up at the same time, that means a lot of goodies are showing up.



We have more seating then we ever need now in the living room and I do not believe I can fit anything else in there. We had fun trying to make everything fit!







Mom finally after two weeks received the mattress to go with the very hard boxspring they had ordered. This was a pillowtop and quite comfortable....


She was busy buying new sheets and quilts for it, as after all, it is "her" room now! It does look pretty. She found some fantastic sheets and I asked her to go out the next day and get some for the boat and for my bed as well...


Ordered (remember I have lived in the islands for a long time) a new fangled coffee table that lifts up so you can eat, and my son was happy to try out anything that had to do with food and drink for us. He is good that way.



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A meal out at Marie Callenders and then we dispatched Kevin to pick my sister, Syd and Chris up at the airport....




Syd makde herself right at home!



Friday (the actual day of my birthday) was the obligatory family trip in the car to sightsee. ALMOST a family trip, Bazza looked very relieved that he could stay home and work in his workshop, and Kevin ran a mile a minute at the thought of a packed car family driving day...I think he has bad memories from when he was a child and I drag him around continents in the back seat....



We wandered a bit as "lost" the back road to go over to Palm Springs and did not want to go the freeway....





This is looking over down into Palm Dessert by the time we finally were on the right area. We left Temecula at before 1. We arrived at Palm Springs at 4. It is only an hour drive, if that tells you how much of a smart boy Kevin was to actually stay home!



I had decided that we were going to a Belgian Restaurant called Pomme Frites for my bday....


We had all the usual suspects, Moules, Coq au Vin, Escargot, Frites, etc...Although good, not QUITE as good as we have had in Belgium....


A stop on the way back at one of the casino's on Interstate 10 (where I proudly won a $1.50 for my birthday and figured I better not push my luck!)



My sister and I had stared out the day looking neat and presentable....



Almost like Bobbsey twins...





As soon as the door to the house was hit we quickly found even more comfortable clothes....


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Presents and Cards came...Some of my favorite presents are food. We had steaks, Burgers and Franks (thanks Janice)



From my son. The inside was cute, saying, on second thought don't look at the bright side, you probably don't want to go toward that light yet!



The one from Lu Lu and Richie was a BIT naught but very cute too!





Mom always puts a lot of thought and time into her cards and they always turn out nice....





It is Bazza's 50th birthday in November so we celebrated his now too. Mom made him a nice card too! I think actually he forgets what the ROV looks like, but he is certainly working hard in the shop to get a few parts for it ready to take with him to the islands next month....





And my sister found some noisy not very nice cards either!!












Mom had also put together a nice slide show of pictures of ME all the way from birth up to now. It was well done, themed to music and I think my son thought the baby pictures of me were never going to end...and if there were 200 pictures per year and I had been alive 50 years he was in trouble.



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The next day my sister and I were dressed and ready for Birthday pool parties... While they went shopping for the numerous things on my list that I needed to make BUshwackers and Blue Drinks, I took the opportunity to swim an hour of lengths trying to work off some of the food and drink I knew I was going to eat today.



From being a southern California girl now and swimming a lot, my hair is even getting lighter I think then it is in the islands...I quite like it the length and color it is now....



Sydney took the opportunity to marinate all those nice little meat items we received....






and of course, we had the obligatory family pictures.....




Either I don't have many friends, or I picked a very bad day to have my party, as we only had a few show up, but that was just fine with me. I prefer small and intimate where I have less people to share the Bushwackers with...!


Mary Sue, Nancy and Charlie drove down from Orange County. They were on the yacht in May, and the lure of bushwackers was quite strong....



Chris was the only one who made it in the pool that afternoon, I was not getting my hair wet, and besides, I had already did my exercise....




By this time I was on my " not sure what number" bushwacker, so Chris happily did the grilling....



And we had a marvelous spread outside. I am not sure we can call it a pool party as we all stayed in the house in the A/C most of the afternoon and then huddled under the shade to eat as it was quite warm out with not a cloud in the sky....



The few of us managed to eat all the meat and the homemade potato salad, along with two large mixer jugs of Bushwackers and Blue Drinks if that tells you anything....






Then it was cake time. For some odd reason my husband delights that he is 58 days younger then me and reminds me that he is a boy toy for 58 days EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. Apparently my family has picked up on this theme as well!



Whatever. He is just lucky to get a mature woman....



I was good following my diet though, no cake for me. After all I had already ate three times my daily allowance in liquor, steak, potatoes, cheese and bread! For one brief second when I stepped on the scale before the party started I found out that I had hit the 30 lb loss mark and gone over it...I had lost 30.2 lbs. Which was fairly exciting!


Until 8 hours later when in a food and liquor come the scale read 5.4 lbs heavier!!!! Every one else thinks this is a cute picture, and I truly do not think so. None the less, I will put it up to PROVE that I also put up mean pictures of me, not just everyone else.....



Yep, the first thing I did in the AM was get in the pool, figured it was good for curing headaches and all.... Bazza tried to color Kevin's face with marker while sleeping but he slept too lightly...



And that end the birthday festivities, thank you to my guests for coming, and my family for being there and doing most of the work. It was perfect!

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My sister made the mistake of downloading pictures on my computer and she had a couple nice pictures of my NIECES. My youngest niece Melissa, is in Grade 12 and this year, to the shock of us all, went out for the cheerleading team! Could have knocked us over with a feather...Where is her shyness????


Apparently that cheerleading business is hard work though as she is almost cuter wrapped up in her little girl blanket....


My older niece Cassie, is very outgoing and has a great smile, this is from the Highland Games in Pleasanton...



So, with great effort I believe i have bored you long enough here with way too many pictures. This took me well over and hour to do and I suppose I have no excuse now but to go and answer the billion emails in my in box!

Only a few more weeks until we go back to the islands, gee I hope all the things i ordered for the boat come first!