My happiest birthday... EVER

Where do I even begin?  At the beginning.  OK.

I woke up to a polka-dot ballooned dining room, flickering cruellers and the ecstatic faces of my beloveds.  After a relatively calm breakfast, puncutated with gifts (My daughter knows me... oh yeh, Kettle Chips!), we relaxed outside with a morning fire.  Nice.

After a tasty Indian lunch, we had "rest" time, during which two more gifts arrived: an emotional support animal in the guise of a VERY LARGE teddy bear from Ty (that I named Gerard, said the French way, of course) and a cozy, COZY hat from Girumy.

Then, while enjoying a decaf. mocha, we all snuggled on our new red couch up in the Speakeasy and watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show.  I was so happy to be with my precious ones.

And then the kids began to ask for the time, time and time again.  Rob kept looking at his phone.  Another fire was started in the backyard.  A chair was placed in the front yard.  Hm.  And then they began to arrive... Paul, Mari and Don, Glennda and Tom, Yiwa, Asher, MattMatt and LeighLeigh, the Wetzels and the Mattkes...

    "We love Mrs. Stensberg / Which is why we have made / A special poem to say Happy Birthday! / Of all the things we love about you / Here are just a few / You love to garden / So your dirt won't harden / You love to travel / So your tension can unravel / In your favorite pair of pants / You delight in visiting France. / She loves learning language / Her foreign guests to encourage / You love to climb tall towers / To view the brilliant sunflowers / While reading a book / She delights to cook. / These few things are just the tip of the iceberg / There is so much more to know and love / About Mrs. Stensberg.

... Grace and Laura, the Johnson ladies, the Dewitts, Carlos, the Ryan Fam., Cheri with the booming drive-by, Adam, Nancy, and the police.  Yes.  The police.  I walked over to the car, "Are we in trouble?"  And the officer on the passenger side just kind of stared at me.  "What's going on?"  "It's my birthday... and (Yep, I did it.  I pulled out the cancer card.), well, I have cancer and it might be my last, so we're living it up."  And then he told me about his mother's cancer and ended by saying that they just stopped by to say "Hi."  They drove away.  The masked chatting continued, and... the police came back.  With a cake!  The officer joked that he felt awkward for not having anything to give me the first time they stopped, so he went and bought me a cake.  For real?  Yes, for real.

Slowly, The Few made it to the backyard where RaRa began dishing up guaca and chips, the PoPo Cake, my tasty cheesecake and Jare's flatbread and hummus, all to be washed down with pink lemonade.  Masked chatting, masked children running here and there.  Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the Moon (O, and Jim too) even stopped by.  

And then Rob was quite insistent that we had to go in for another surprise.  "Get your phone and your tablet."  I was thinking, "Why in the world should I need both?"  FaceTime.  Connected.  Disconnected.  Click the link.  Thinking, thinking, thinking... FINALLY.  "What?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"  "Are you kidding me???????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Sara and Dru had arranged for Gus, my dear Gus, to send me birthday greetings.  I just stared at the screen, like he was really in front of me, crying and nodding.  

All of that, with all of the texted love from near, far and 30 years ago, made my happiest birthday EVER.

God is too good to me.

Click. Click. Click.

 

G has taken an interest in photography lately.  In the course of a few days, he has learned to use that camera more than I have over the past 11 years.  Ha!  

Norman the Snuggler

 

Our dear friends brought their Snuggle of Love over to cheer me up today.  Too sweet.  For most of the time, he just curled up under my arm or put his head on shoulder.  Aw.

"No, no, no, Amy!"  "Do not be insane!"  "It's the chemicals talking!"  "Pam and Dex are only temporary friends.  Do not let them convince you to make any lasting decisions!"

My dearest children

     G has been waiting all summer for Fezzik the Sunflower to be done stunning us so that he could turn the stalk into an impressive bow.

 

Hungarian Homeboy hooked us up with some wood for our firepit, which necessitated a LOT of work from the kids and me.  Here the boys are enjoying the fruit of their labor: Whittle World!                                            

Thank you, G-ma, for the Ikea boxes!

Garlic girl, c'est moi.

 So, had I lived in la Mancha, don Quixote and Sancho surely would have found their way to me.  My garlic scent would have wafted them in; because, you see, don Quixote would have thought that a beautiful woman was bathing in a tub of flowers and he would have wanted to promise his protection to her.  I would have offered to cook him dinner, but he would have declined, love-sick as he would be; however, Sancho would have sneaked in the back door and joined us at our tasty, garlicky dinner.

I have just roasted about 100 cloves of garlic, to use this winter.  In addition, I divided up many heads into their cloves and planted them.  I believe I've planted 101 so far.  My house smells like garlic, the yards smell like garlic and I smell like garlic.  Yummy!