I mentioned that the Boundless Universe has been providing us with amazing gifts lately. The piano was one. Here’s another: 

Some anonymous Birthday Fairy gave me an Amazon Kindle electronic reader for my 36th. Although I can usually wheedle information out of my husband, despite my considerable and creative efforts, his smiling lips remain sealed on this subject. I do not know the name of my benefactor. This gift-giver is crazy, over-the-top generous and I’m just thrilled to have this gizmo. 

So, whoever you are, wherever you are, Birthday Fairy, thank you. You rocked my world.

It’s true. I’m an addict. I have actually socialized with people I love and admire for four days in a row, beginning on my birthday last Thursday and continuing through until late last night. It was wonderful and my heart feels full from all the hugs and kisses, love and attention I’ve received.  

On my birthday I went to Bellagio Spa and spent a gift certificate that Ian bought for me in 2005. I met nonosays there and we got pedicures. I also got a lovely facial and a manicure. I could totally get used to doing that as often as possible.

See how cute my toes are?

On Friday I went to see nonosaysgraduate with a graphic design degree from Sacramento State. It was super cool seeing her so happy in her funny black cap and gown. I only wish I got a photo of the googly eyes on her cap.

Here she is. Isn’t she beautiful?

On Saturday, we went to  her graduation party at her home in midtown. I got to meet some more of her and her husband’s family, which was fun. I especially enjoyed talking with mrplanet4   ‘s mother and sister. We took the boys along and they did really well, considering we were at the party for 9 fun-filled hours. We finally dragged ourselves away at 9 p.m. when the boys’ eyes became glassy. They fell asleep the moment we strapped them into the car seats to come home. Some friends, including our gracious hosts, complimented us on how great Lucas and Asher were, which pleases me so much. Ian and I try hard to provide Lucas with plenty of positive reinforcement for being polite, friendly, and well behaved when we go places.

My home was full yesterday of delightful shenanigans, hot tub soaking, champagne, cocktails, brunch, burgers, dancing, sunshine, conversation, and beautiful people. My children were well behaved and wandered hither and thither among friends who love them. I admit I was sad when the last guest left at around 11 p.m., but felt glorious when falling into my bed. I slept a heavy, restful sleep and woke up feeling fantastic. Nothing quite like a day spent relaxing in the spa. It was exactly the day I imagined and wanted. Thank you, darlings. If anyone has some photos to share with me, I’d love to have them.

This is a superquick post to say THANK YOU for all the sweet birthday wishes I recieved on LJ, Barbarians, my email, voice mail, and in person. My friends are the BEST. It was a great birthday except for something that Mother Nature did, which has me feeling sad and disappointed. (Wicked wind storm shattered my favorite tree. Kaput.) 

I would go on to enumerate the amazing, fantastic qualities of my peeps and describe in detail my gratitude, but I can’t because I’m racing a deadline this morning and have plans for the afternoon.

Happy Birthday, mickibean!  You are probably the most enthusiastic and energetic person I have ever met. You are kind, sensitive, supportive, positive, and sweet as pie (and I like pie!). I am grateful for your friendship and hope we can play together sometime soon. I hope your special day is as wonderful and charming as you are! Love you, my Gemini sister.

Nana turned 95 on Monday of this week. The family took her out to The Buggy Whip restaurant, which at one time was probably a very nice steakhouse but now is only so-so. Nana’s lost her short-term memory, so she probably thinks of the place as it was in its heyday. About 30 of us crowded into their banquet room and surprised her with a birthday celebration. I’m not sure whose idea it was to surprise the 95-year-old woman on her birthday: Fortunately no paramedics were needed! 

Nell Mueller is her name, but she’s always been Nana to me. I know “Nana” is a nickname normally given to grandmothers, but Nana is actually my grand-aunt. She is my grandmother’s oldest sister and for my entire life the two of them have lived together. Birthdays and holidays always included her, so I have always felt as though I had three grandmothers.

She was always tall and big, but never heavy. Her salt-and-pepper hair always perfectly set in short curls. She is fastidious in her dress and grooming: Nana always has a nail file on hand and she uses it often. She has strong features, sparkling eyes, and a gentle touch. She has gotten smaller over the years—both thinner and shorter. Now she is bony but still strong. Physically she is in much better shape than my grandmother.

Nana was “the busy one,” or so I thought when I was a child. Nana worked on her business, while my grandmother, RoRo, worked on family stuff and raising grandchildren and all of the many cousins of my generation. Nana founded the Hobby House in the 50s, which later became the Graphic Hobby House, on the family’s property at Fulton and Marconi avenues in Sacramento. Mueller Corner is across the street from Town & Country Village, and while it has never performed as well as T&C, given that it is smaller and has less available space for tenants, it is a valuable piece of land nonetheless. That was where Nana, RoRo, and their sisters Dorothy and Mary grew up. They live only minutes from that corner even now.

Prior to starting the Hobby House, Nana was an artist and an art teacher at San Juan High School. I believe she has an art degree from San Jose State. There are a handful of paintings by her around, mostly landscapes in oil. She was the one who always gave me art supplies as presents; I’ve noticed she likes to give such gifts to my son, too.

Nana never married. I suppose at one time, she was Nell, or even Nellie. I’ve seen pictures of her as a young woman. I do not know if she ever dated anyone, and I am now curious about that. She was always involved in clubs such as Soroptimist International of Sacramento North, a charity that has donated lots of time and money to improving the lives of Sacramentans and the residents of the Arden Arcade area. She was always involved in family life, just never had a family of her own.

Nana doesn’t remember recent things anymore. She forgets what she ordered for lunch only moments after ordering. She doesn’t remember that she pruned the rose bushes yesterday and so prunes them again. She doesn’t remember that the woman she has always treated as a daughter (her neice in reality) has lied and stolen thousands of dollars from her in recent years (and is now trying to abscond with the family fortune through a legal battle over the trust). Nana does not recognize Asher. Every time she sees him she asks his name and his gender. 

It makes me sad to see her like this, however, in a way, she seems really happy. Some of her sharpness has rubbed off. She is easier to please and not as picky. She isn’t in a rush to accomplish anything, although she still putters and plays hours of solitaire on the computer, whose sole purpose is to let Nana play solitaire. She misses driving herself around. She used to drive very fast.

At one time, I did a “grandparent” report on Nana; I think it was my freshman year of high school. I wish I had it now because I know I’ve forgotten lots of things about her life. A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of helping Nana publish a tiny book about the history of the Soroptimist group of which she was a member and past president. It was kind of tough working with her at the time since she has a hard time with computers, but nevertheless I’m happy I got to spend that time with her.  In some ways, she was a pioneer in business in a time when women typically didn’t venture there.

Happy 95th Birthday, Nana. You’re wonderful and I love you.

Nana at our house, Feb. 3, 2008.

We are very fortunate in that we are the lucky recipients of some really big gifts lately. Opportunities for family and personal enrichment seem to be falling out of the sky.

During the hottest part of Saturday afternoon, movers brought us a piano that is being given to us by Ian’s ex-step-family. It is a Kimball that Dan Sr., Ian’s sister’s father, purchased new in 1968. It was in Dan’s possession until about five years ago. What I hear is that he was a good musician and enjoyed playing it until he and his wife moved to an upstairs condo in Capitola. For the last several years, the piano has been at Dan’s sister’s home. A fall and a broken hip has resulted in elderly Aunt Rachel’s having to move to an assisted living home. Rachel’s family are selling, donating, and disposing of her things, including her home, to help pay for her long-term care. 

We were very touched to hear from Ian’s sister, Kellie, and his ex-step-brother, Dan Jr., that Dan Sr. wanted his piano to stay “in the family.” He hoped we might want it, and tearfully said he feels Ian has “always been like family” to him. Dan is understandably upset about the changes that are happening for Aunt Rachel, his sister, and he is frequently emotional since he had a stroke several years ago. 

So through old connections and the good will of some really sweet people, we now have a pretty, 40-year-old mahogany piano in our home. I do not play, but I have always wanted to learn. I always felt at a disadvantage when I was singing because I couldn’t plunk out my own part without help. I have held a secret hope that Lucas would learn to play someday. It seems to me that if you learn piano, nearly every other musical endeavor comes more easily. It feels like a tremendous windfall to have this instrument for the cost of moving and tuning it; we would never be able to afford one otherwise.

I know of another young boy who was in Lucas’s class last year and he plays. A music teacher comes to his home once a week and teaches Charlie piano and Charlie’s sister, the violin. I’m hoping to arrange for lessons for us to start this summer. 

So, in honor of kind people who gift us with wonderful opportunities to learn new things, I raise my popsicle in a toast: Thank you!

Last year for my birthday, NoNoSays gave me a beautiful pink hydrangea in a 4-inch pot. I planted it in my front yard in a partly shady spot and it has easily quadrupled in size. Its leaves are a charming light green and it’s just beginning to bloom in time for my birthday again.

When I was a little girl, we had a clump of irises in the front yard near our mean neighbors’ house. I rarely visited that side of our yard because the neighbors had big, mean dogs, teenaged mean boys, and a pinched, mean mommy. Every year, though, right around my birthday in May, those irises would burst into the most magnificent purple you ever saw. My mother called them my birthday flower, and over the years, whenever I would begin to get antsy and excited about my impending birthday, she would say, “Go check your birthday flower and see how it’s doing. If it’s blooming it’s your birthday.” For several weeks of the year, I would brave daily visits to that side of the yard to check the progress of the buds.

I’m very happy to have a beautiful birthday flower again. Next week, the day after my birthday, NoNo graduates from CSU Sacramento with a coveted and hard-won design degree. I know that pink hydrangea is blooming for both of us. Thank you, NoNo, and congratulations!  

Friday

Working, Asher at babysitters’ house, May Day celebration at Lucas’s school, potluck lunch, Lucas at babysitters’ for afternoon, hair appointment to become more fabulous, 4:30 p.m. vodka and seven, visit with my mom, Ian home from work with more fixings, dinner out, carboliscious Mexican food including nachos and a fajita burrito, evening visit to Chicken Park, bedtime rituals, fell asleep with each of my kids in turn.

Yesterday

Shopping for mom, trip to Lowe’s garden store to purchase new plants, Ian’s labor (shirt off, mattock swinging, digging holes), Lucas’s helping, coreopsis, primrose, orange honeysuckle, purple fountain grass, artemesia, foxgloves, marguerites, agapanthus, muddy baby, sex-on-the-beach cocktails, leftover pork tenderloin and salad, bedtime rituals, TV, lovemaking, snoring. 

Today

Awake at o-dark-thirty, nursing and listening to birdsong, snoozing, Lucas’s 6 a.m. temper tantrum, later in bed alone reading Dr. Doolittle, coffee, receiving handmade gift from Lucas (a heart-shaped necklace made of wet-felted wool and yarn) lax and cream-cheese omelet and breakfast sausage, champagne, brief visit from mom and dad, fancy soaps for my mother, hot tubbing with all of my boys, lunch at Ian’s mom and stepfather’s with Aunt Kellie, VoVo, and DeeDee, fancy necklace for grandma, Lucas swimming, breezy back porch time, Asher throwing the ball for the dog to fetch, Lucas’s temper tantrum, grumpy ride home, nap for me and Asher, chess and a Mary Poppins chapter for Lucas and daddy, waking up, playing outside, crab cakes, more sex-on-the-beach, homemade chicken dinner, crying baby, Lucas in bed early, blogging, and … if I am really lucky, soon sleeping baby, Eskimo kisses, toe nibbles, and spooning.

Happy Mother’s Day!

The great Old West “Ghost Town at Sundown” birthday party was last weekend and it ROCKED! It took two solid days to get everything ready and make the place presentable. I had help from Dakini, Parnasus, and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Ian worked his tail off before, during, and after the party.

We had 10 small, charming guests and a few parents who stayed to enjoy our Wilson Ranch dinner of hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob, strawberries, and salad. The kids had fun lassoing our cows, which were the greatest thing ever made: Ian, my brilliant husband took my cryptic instruction (“Take these sawhorses and make ’em into cows”) and did it well beyond my wildest expectations.

It was hard waiting for the party to start at 4 p.m. We spent the day decorating and shopping for food. Asher enjoyed playing in all the red bandannas.

Still waiting for friends to arrive.

They’re here, finally! We built this teepee from dead birch trees and a canvas painter’s dropcloth. In the morning, we painted “American Indian” symbols on it with termpera paint, such as rivers, bears, salmon, corn, a sun, a rainbow, a thunderbird, a moon, snakes, etc.

E and M ride on the cows.

A ties on his bandana to avoid breathing campfire smoke.

R takes a turn. Sun poses in his fancy costume.

M is M’s younger sister. Here’s M, too. They are both in Lucas’s kindergarten class this year.

R is rambunctious and Lucas admires him a lot. Here’s beautiful E; Lucas has been friends with E since they were 3 and 4 years old.

We had a campfire in the backyard for a while. The children ate their dinners and birthday cake while sitting around it, but we didn’t time the fire right for roasting marshmallows, unfortunately. Still, the novelty of having a backyard fire made quite an impression. Nobody got hurt, either.

Sun liked roping the cows.

Lucas loved being the center of attention. He basically thought the whole day should go perfectly, that is his way. It kind of sucked when he hit his head really hard on the swing set. Still, he got over it. (Those are healing mosquito bites on his face.)

Lucas got lots of wonderful presents, including new fancy Stockmar crayons, a paint-a-dinosaur kit, plastic cowboys and indians (alas, with guns), WWII die-cast airplanes, Dr. Doolittle and Mary Poppins books, original story books by a special 8-year-old nicknamed Snow, leather horsey reigns with bells, and an adventure pack/sleeping bag with a flashlight.


Snow had new, shiny red cowgirl books. I was jealous.

Snow played with Asher and let him wear her hat. Asher thinks she is dreamy.

Here’s Lucas showing off one of his presents. He is flabbergasted that the cowboys have guns in their hands and I have so far not taken them away from him. He keeps looking at me and wondering if I’ve noticed them.

I bought enough cowboy hats and bandanas for every child at the party to have one. Many came wearing hats already, so we still have a few left over. I’m happy with the cowboy cake I ordered from the Raley’s bakery, and even happier that I didn’t try to make it myself. The food was great, thanks to Cookie Daddy! And it was really nice that some of my favorite parent friends stayed for the party. Their presence made it more fun for me and Ian.

All in all, it was a great day on the Wilson Ranch!

Today was the Big Party Day. I do not have enough energy to write about it yet. But I want to record this birthday wish that Lucas received from one of his very best friends in the world. It is perhaps the most wonderful birthday wish ever wished.

From Snow (8 years old) to Lucas on the occasion of his sixth birthday:

“I hope the sun will keep you warm. I hope the moon will guide your way and every twinkling star. I hope the wind will keep you calm. I hope the water will be there when you need it. I hope the fire will make you strong. I hope the earth will make peace in your life. I hope you will always be safe with your family.”

I can add only this: Me too. Thank you. Amen.