Birthday Bash 2010

Well, it was wonderful. If you were wondering where I was for the past week, I took a few days off for me... and my granddaughter, Zoey.

I drove down to Rockwall, TX just in time for Zoey's 2nd birthday party. It was a big time and all about her. She blew out the candles, but not until her father gave her a straw to blow through. I think it's the first time I've ever seen anyone blow out birthday candles with a straw. Zoey got that all the pretty bags had tissue paper between her and the fun toys and cool books. She tore that tissue out and threw it around her. It was like a multicolored blizzard. It took two adults to fetch the paper she was flinging about her.

Then on the next day, I drove on down to Houston to pick up DH at the airport. The tail end of tropical storm Alex was basting the bayou city in about 9" of rain. So the airport was very exciting. Lots of roads were down to a single lane and traffic was going extra slow. There was really only one spot where I thought we were in danger of becoming more 'boat like' than 'car like'. But we ended up keeping the tires in contact with the asphalt... good times.

We got to my son's home and spent some quality time hugging our grandbabies and eating fajitas and drinking Negro Modelo. We were treated like cherished visitors by my son and daughter in law. They are very accommodating hosts.

The next day, we drove an hour down the road to spend the afternoon with my BFF Lisa and her family. DH's sister and her family met us down there, and an old buddy from the USMC flew into Hobby and showed up for the festivities. We grazed in BFF's kitchen all afternoon and were treated to a wonderful homemade fajita dinner. I knocked together my killer guacamole and got rave reviews.

The next day was my 50th birthday party. I spent an hour and a half at the 'doc in a box' trying to get treatment for DH, who was in a decline... He picked up some kind of bug overseas and it was threatening to ruin my big day. We saw the doc at the minor emergency center, filled the three prescriptions and then headed over to Humble, TX for the big party.

Lots of friends and family showed up to swim, eat and visit with each other. It's traditional to have a backyard barbeque on the 4th of July. I'm sure we could not have picked a more idyllic backyard to use for the celebration. The Burgess' house sits on Lake Houston and has a huge green lawn area, hammock and deck. There is also a lovely pool and cooking area. We had a big group, but all day long they kept circulating in and outside, and it never felt crowded.

I'm pretty sure I had Happy Birthday sung to me two or three times during the day. It was wonderful. I had burgers, hot dogs, watermelon and cake! What could be more exciting?? Nothing.

I'm so blessed to have had the number of people drive in from out of town to celebrate this big day with me. If you didn't make it, I promise I did miss you. Maybe next year, I'll see you there!!

--Sandee Wagner