you CAN have your cake and eat it too

Today is Stevie Wonder's birthday.  We don't normally make a big deal out of birthdays, and never really have.  Well except for the Wilton Cake Decorating Course I took at home when the kids were little.  And all that really meant was that they didn't have a whole lot of say about the type of cake they got, because it was whatever I was practicing at the time (poor Jim got a cake that looked like someone had puked a bouquet of flowers all over it because I was learning how to make flowers).  We make sure there is still cake (that I DO NOT decorate) and make contact with the person on their birthday to send them wishes and love.

So yesterday Steve got an ice cream cake created at the Dairy Queen and served up by Jen after the kids' soccer games were over and we were back at her house.  Steve is the kind of Gramps that believes in equality between the grand kids, so he bought a birthday cake at Wal Mart today and brought it home. So Jack and John could have cake of course....

Except that I know the truth...we couldn't bring that other cake home from Jen's like she wanted us to (it would have been a puddle in the back seat before we got here), and it's been burning a hole in Steve's brain since we left her house.  And today is the OFFICIAL day after all.  Stevie Wonder is 66.  So he will have cake to eat after all...which is what he really wanted...after all. :-D

Gratitudes:
I am thankful that back in February, when his heart rate was 27, Steve got a pacemaker and a new lease on life, and the chance to spend many more birthdays with us.

I am thankful for our years together, our children and grandchildren, and the love we all share.

I am thankful Steve wears bifocals.  (So that when he told me to toss him the remote today, arrogantly telling me that he was the only one who could correctly fast forward past the commercials, I was fortunate enough to see him miss an easy catch and watch it hit his crotch and double him over groaning for a few minutes.)  He blamed the bifocals of course.

The laugh I had that lasted way too long, was MY cake for the day.

Wretch and Steve at Point Arena Lighthouse, California 

...life is good. ~cath
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

happy 65th birthday stevie!

Wretch decided to surprise Stevie Wonder for his birthday on Saturday, September 29th.  No cake, (because he is watching his figure).  But he had to have SOMETHING special.  This was his 65th birthday, after all!  The year he gets to start drawing Medicare!  So she gathered up all the party stuff she could find, including a tacky birthday hat and horn, some streamers, a birthday table centerpiece, a Happy Birthday banner, and a giant cardboard pink flamingo (don't ask where that came from).  And then, to make sure he was surprised by it, she stuffed in all in the cab of the truck he had just spent a week getting ready for our BIG TRIP.  Front and back seat.  Stuffed.  Full.  

I was up all night, and it was lucky I was, or Wretch and I would have slept through the surprise.  But I was finishing some laundry, and he came out of the bedroom, and dropped his suitcase, fully packed, with a loud plop in the middle of the living room.  To let me know that he was ready at 3 AM just like we had all decided.  Wretch was buried in the bed, and I was one of the walking dead at that point, a zombie on two legs.  But I had my eye on him.  And predictably, as soon as he knew I had seen he was ready, he picked up his bag and headed to the truck.  The truck that was stuffed full of tacky birthday decorations.  

As soon as he went out the door, I ran to the bedroom and screamed at Wretch to "GET UP GET UP!  he's out at the truck and you are going to miss the surprise!  GET UP!!!"  She raised up slowly, then I could see her come alive.  Probably the fastest she had ever awakened in her life.  (We called her Oscar the Grouch when she was a kid because you didn't dare approach her until she had been up at least an hour, or she would gripe you to death.)

We ran to the front porch.  Steve was loading his bag.  Then he came back by the truck, and that was when he saw it.  I had the presence of mind to grab my iPhone, and take a video.  Not realizing until after it was all over, that all you could see was headlights, and hear our voices.  And Gabe baying when he heard the party noise.  So turn your volume up, and listen...because you sure won't see anything. :D

...life is good. ~cath
  find me @jonesbabie on Twitter