Category Archives: birthdays

Nov19

My life at 50

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That’s right, 50 yrs ago, yours truly floated into the world in a rather fast labor and delivery-one hour to be exact. Yours truly was the loudest baby in the nursery too. My mom said she heard me over the other babies and got up to comfort me and was ushered back to bed. I was welcomed home by my older brother David, age 5. Three months later, my mom got pregnant again and was also coping with a troubled marriage. My father was to leave us all in 1972 (by that time there were 4 kids, Ken came along in 1967) to go back to his home state of Oregon where he would pass on alone in Feb. ’08.
Though I’ve had a rough childhood, I think we still had many blessings and I’ve tried to hold on to family traditions with my own son. Mom always outdid herself on birthdays, Halloween and Christmas and we had so much fun. I don’t remember wearing a store bought costume. In fact one year, she cut up her wedding dress for a 1st grader. It felt a bit odd wearing it, but I’m sure I felt pretty special. My birthday was usually shared with my year younger brother Don. We had the best one when we were about 6 and 7 when we had a house full of neighbors and cousins. Christmases were special, down to the overstuffed stockings that would always hang on the stair railing. One year my mom and grandmom(she was my second mom) sold some evergreen trees that my late grandfather had planted to have money for gifts.
Here’s me as a newborn babe-with my mouth open:

I turned out to be a stay at home (mostly, I’ve had a few jobs) wife and mom, though I went to college to be an Early Childhood Education teacher and came very close to doing so. I have been an aide to many children over the years. I think I would love to do art projects with little ones now. Sean always enjoyed doing projects from making paper to painting wooden plaques.
I think I’ve been a good wife, sister, aunt and mom. I’ve been there for people. I look forward to this part of my life when I hope, things will get easier soon. It’s hard to believe only 10 yrs ago I had a son entering his teens and now he’s a young man. He’s been my best gift ever. And he was almost my birthday gift back in 1986.
And lastly, thanks to Brian for being there for me through thick and thin. He’s been a great husband and best friend. I hope when we are 80, we have scooters to toot around Longwood Gardens on.

Nov6

Mama’s getting a new toy!

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I gathered some things that I had been gifted with over the years-some necklaces, bracelets and earrings that I would never wear (not my taste)that belonged to someone else (deceased). These were ‘regifted’ to me over the different holidays, and I would just stick them in storage. I went up to the neighborhood jewelry store on Thursday to sell it. I almost got enough for the full purchase price for this:
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It’s a Dell 15.6″* Inspiron* 1545!
With Windows* 7! Rolled over at Wally World to a better price! I wanted something I could take with me to bookstores, coffee shops, on trips and I needed a faster computer for games I play on Facebook. I still own jewelry that I like and I even left off two rings to be resized, one of which is my birthstone, but a blue topaz. Hey, I’m getting older and like everyone else, I need to downsize. It’s great to make a little cash in the process.
Brian doesn’t know about my purchase, but I think he’ll be ok. He was looking at a laptop on here and it was over 1k and I said no way. Can’t wait for my early birthday gift. It has a webcam and case, so if anyone has that, we could use it to chat.
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Probably going to my mom’s to help her clean in her room. My brother is moving in at the end of the month.

Nov3

Autumn Splendor

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Sean said there was a lovely sunset on Monday, so I went out to capture it to share:
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I wasn’t feeling 100%, so I decided to stay off my feet and scan some old photos. My brother always gives me a bunch of them and it takes a while. I just love this one of my maternal grandmom Ruth at age 2 with her sister Ethel about 3 or so. It is dated April 1, 1906! Little Ethel passed away when she was 6 from pneumonia. My grandmom was the second of 6 and she had 2 children and her younger sister Edna had only 1. She had two brother pass on in their 20s. So sad to think that we could have had a larger family if they had lived and married. By the way, my father was an only child with a few step siblings, and Brian is an only child. Our immediate family is about 13.
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and after I photoshopped it a bit adding a reddish tint. The tints seem to bring out more detail in these old photos:
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And here’s a cute one of Sean on his 1st birthday (1987) on a motorized car he had and loved to pieces:
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The Phillies are giving the Yankees a run for their money, but they can’t just play well every 5 games. They have to win the next two game to hold on to their championship title. They had a huge lead and the gap narrowed in the 8th inning. We were on the edge of our seats. I only see 3 Phillies really giving it their best. At least we won the National League Championship to get this far two years in a row-the Yankees can’t say that.
Hoping for a good game on Wednesday!

Oct24

Photo Hunt-tied

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Knot garden, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is a bit of a stretch-but this is a ‘knot’ garden that I may have shown before, but then you can think of the expression-‘tied up in knots’. So there-lol!!
Happy Birthday to my son Sean who turns 23 today! He’s had an interesting year for sure! I was blessed with a great only child.
Sean's 1st photo-January, 1987
January, 1987
Sean age 3 months-his first portrait!

Sep23

Happy Birthday Mom!

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Happy Birthday Mom! 9-23, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Next year will be my mom’s BIG birthday, but I wanted to take a walk down memory lane. The newest is the second photo where we are toasting each other with Blue*Moon beer. (I sent that to the website, I should see if they uploaded it yet). The first shot, mom is about 16 (I always thought she looked like actress Penelope Cruz); the 3rd shot is when she went to the Smithsonian Institute with a friend and the last shot is us in my childhood room. We are going down in a few hours to bring her gifts, flowers and a red velvet cake (bought). One of my brother wants to take mom out to dinner and said we could come along.

Update-
Mom and me at Barnaby’s. We had Blue*Moon again and we both got strip steak. My brother treated us all to dinner. : ) Taken with Sean’s cellphone.
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With 3 of her 5 grandchildren.
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Blowing out the candles on her red velvet cake (bakery bought and really yummy!)
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Apr11

Happy 10th Sweet Niece

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My niece T. turned 10 today and we were invited to a nice dinner at her house. It was really good steak, shrimp, mac and cheese and salads.
Here’s a card I made for her:
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Look we have similar glasses and I think we look a bit alike ; )
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A cute one of all the next generation, see Sean in the middle there-
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It was nice to spend time with everyone! Here is one of my 3 brothers, mom and me-a bit blurry-
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Mar24

Happy Birthday Brian-Down Memory Lane

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It’s hard to believe that three of these photos were taken almost 25 years ago on our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico. The other was taken 8.5 yrs ago in New Hope, Pa.
We celebrated his birthday in 1983 as an engaged couple. I remember using most of my pay that week to buy him a Walkman. Seems like such an old concept now with the MP3 players and Ipods around now. I wanted to get him a MP3 player this year, but wasn’t sure if he’d use it.
I thought he’d enjoy seeing these photos again. Didn’t he look hunky in those earlier photos? He’s still my hunk. ; )
I baked some yellow cupcakes with dark fudge icing for him and placed them on the  ‘special’ plate:
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FYI-I didn’t have vegetable oil and read where you can substitute apple sauce for the same amount of oil needed. I did this and they are light and tasty. This will be good for my brother to know as the veggie oil bothers him when mixed in waffles.
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My mom sent Bri a bouquet:
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I also finished this to be made into an egg shape for my niece T as her birthday is the day before Easter:
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The Prairie Schooler

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All the Kosher food is on sale at the store, so I bought some toasted coconut marshmallows and potato pancake mix which I made last night:
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They were good with meatloaf. I will say I should have used a bigger pan and I had to get the hang out of making sure they were solid and brown before turning. Be sure to check out your Kosher stuff-there’s some good eats there that you may not try that much!
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Sean is enjoying seeing the sights of Vegas-he saw some of the fancy hotels like The Mirage and Treasure Island last night and said they were huge! He is all dressed up in these clothes for the job fair:
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FYI, the suit coat is from the Goodwill and only cost $6.50. We bought the shirt and tie in Macy’s to match the jacket. If we had purchased a new suit coat, it would have been approx.-$150-$200. This assemble cost $83.50. So we saved a lot! He may not even have to wear a suit if he works in the field, so this was a wise thing to do in these hard times. He wore a used jacket in his high school portrait too-who knew?

Mar23

Flying solo on Sunday

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I just talked to Sean about 11:50 est (Sunday) and he was waiting on his luggage out in Las Vegas! He had 12 hours of travel today and is beat. He left State College and drove himself and two buddies to the Pittsburgh airport. The flight was delayed about 1 hour 45 minutes. So the entire day his dad and I were on pins and needles as this was Sean’s first non-family air flight (He’s only been on 3 other plane trips in his life). Here’s where we watched the progress of his flight:
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As you can see, they were flying over the corner of Texas at the time of this screen capture. He flew through 9 states. Knowing Sean, if he could, he would have wanted to stop and check each one out if he had the time.
I’ll keep you posted on his trip. It’s a conference/job fair for Geography majors.
My mom and her friend Jim stopped by for a little bit today. We weren’t very good hosts as we were waiting for Sean to board the plane. After dinner, we ran down to the grocery store and it was pretty much empty. Bri will have my van again, so I wanted to get shopping out of the way.
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My nephew K. enters the teen years today. Hope he has a great 13th birthday. Even though Sean doesn’t have any siblings, he has watched K and T grow up and they really like their cousin.

Dec11

Facebook fun

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Happy Birthday MaryAnne! (my sister-in-law)
Playing around in Facebook and found this connection thing on someone else’s page. Most of the blue circles are high school pals:
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Sent off a few packages and went food shopping Wednesday. Exciting stuff, I know. It was raining and about 65 degrees out, so wore a sweat jacket, that’s it. A deluge is expected later, so I get to do more inside stuff. I tried to find my pizelle maker-couldn’t. Oh St. Anthony!

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Nov25

Shopping and a stitching finish

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I’m posting late as I just did finish my swan and waterlily cross stitch piece. I believe I started it around 13 years ago. It wasn’t an easy stitch, but it was on 14 count aida (before I started stitching on other nicer fabric). I think it turned out pretty. It came with a frame too! I have the chart up for grabs for anyone who would like it!

Also had to go shopping for a wedding gift for Saturday. We decided that a $25 gift card was too cheap and a $50 one was too much. I got a German made lead crystal vase at a price somewhat in between price. I plan to add a little note  to remind the groom that he should always remember their late November nuptials with a big bouquet of gorgeous blooms. Glad I found something.

I did buy a few Christmas gifts too. I bought my niece, Bri and my mom things. Sean bought a few gifts at Wally World tonight. This year we aren’t going overboard because we don’t really need anything. We are planning on concentrating on the decorations and food. : )

Had a phone spat with my mom and she hung up on me. She bought her new eyeglasses at the eye doctor’s office and in my opinion was terribly overcharged for them. I was going to take her to one of the stores I’ve used in the past. My new eyeglasses are from Wally World and I just got a compliment on them. I think I paid half of what she did. She’s talking about having her friend Jim move back in. That would infuriate my brothers even more. I know it’s her house, but the situation was not good when he lived there as he is a messy person. I swear it’s always something.

Swan and Waterlilies Cross stitched piece

Thanks to my friend Carole over at Pea’s Corner for the lovely birthday gifts-a cute basket for bread or muffin with a red cloth and bells that says ‘Jingle All the Way’, a miniature coffee cup candle, Christmas themed cheese spreaders and some yummy soap. I plan to make muffins out of a gazillion bananas I have, so I will show you the goodies later.

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