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Happy Birthday to me!

Well, guys, it's my birthday today. Your birthday wishes have been much appreciated, although Big Boy - I think yours were more out of self-interest so you could help me open presents, blow out candles, and eat cake.

It's been really fun this year with you being more aware of what birthdays are. You sang "Happy Birthday" to me yesterday, and this morning (prompted by Daddy) gave me a big hug and sloppy wet kiss. You also told me what you wanted on your birthday cake next time it's your birthday: a dump truck, a cement mixer, an excavator, a man, and another man (exactly what was on your cake this past year!).

Baby D - your birthday wishes have been glowing smiles, intermixed with the fussiness of teething. So nice, but very wet and drooly.

So, thank you, my little loves. You make my life a pleasure everyday!

I love you,
Your Momma!

I missed Wordless Wednesday.

So here's Family Friday (like that? I just made it up!).

This is my Grandma, Tina - your Great-grandmother. She passed away 6 years ago this summer. We think she was 96 when she died... she kept her age secret for such a long time, even lying on her driver's license to hide it! Her birth certificate was destroyed in a fire, so as far as I know, we don't have her real age pinned down. In fact, her father (a widower raising 8 children on his own in the early 1900's!) assigned all the kids birthdays in different months, no matter when they were born, because of the fire that destroyed the birth certificates.

She was a very strong-willed woman, and there are some great stories about her life - in particular regarding her marriage to my grandfather. I remember hearing stories about Grandpa stealing her shoes so she could not go out with another guy on a date (before they were married)- and she stole his watch for some reason that I can't remember. They eloped (unheard of in the 1920's) because my grandfather was not Catholic, and therefore their relationship was "doomed" from the start in the Catholic church's eyes.

A lot of her "sayings" are family classics. My older cousins heard a lot more of her sayings that my brother and I did, but we share most of these in common. Her elbows were the pointiest things ever when she nudged us with them and said, "Don't snitch!" I think she meant "snatch" - she always said that after one of us grabbed something from the other. But we got her meaning quite well. "When you eat breakfast with the Queen, will you drink milk out of your cereal bowl like that?" um, no, Grandma, I doubt they'd even serve cereal at Windsor Palace. "Is he rich?" she would ask whenever my girl cousins or I were dating someone new. "It's better to marry for money than love." "When you marry Prince Andrew..." I think my cousins got one of the older princes... maybe Charles? And she called everyone "George." At least everyone under the age of 20. And then there was the famous "Lick" - a combination of my dad's and his sister's names. When she said "Lick," whichever was the closest to her came running.I think I inherited a lot from her. While I wish I had her chin and high cheekbones, I can credit her for a lot of my "crafty" ways. She and her sisters owned a craft shop in the little town of Wellsville, NY, where they lived most of their life. Her father apparently sang opera around the house constantly - maybe that's where I get it from?

I have so many memories of her... we went up to visit Grandma and Grandpa every summer in New York, and we also saw them at Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as once each fall as they stopped by our house on the way to spending the winter in Florida and back up to New York in the spring. We even went down to Florida a couple times in the winter over the years.

Since I still have so many memories (and soooo many pictures), I think I'm going to keep up with this Family Friday. Wordless Wednesday would never be "Wordless" for me with all these memories I want to share with you guys. This has been a lot of fun, too. I hope you guys enjoy these pictures and the memories. I'll add dates for these when I get the actual pictures down out of storage again...

Love you!

Momma