Happy birthday, Mom.

I love you, and I miss you more than you know.

Happy 88th birthday. I hope they have bingo up in heaven.

Happy Birthday To Me and other shameless self promotion!

I'm 51. Fuck it. I'e earned it!

So hey, my new fun in life is seeing how many celebrities I can get to tweet me! So far today I have Gretchen Rossi (from the Real Housewives of Orange County), Tabatha Coffey (my girl crush), , Penny Davidi (former contestant on The Next Food Network Star), and a retweet by Dean McDermott (of Tori & Dean fame).

And a few weeks ago, Kurt Sutter from Sons of Anarchy tweeted me, and I've exchanged several tweets with Trista Sutter from Bachelorette fame.

OMG and I just got a private message from Lisa Vanderpump (from RHOOC)saying "Same age as me! Happy B-day!"

I'm loving this! It way too much fun.

In other news....my honey got me the cutest gift today. He showed up at my office with balloons and flowers, and this turtle family music box that plays "Up Where We Belong". hahahahahaha It's hilarious.

I think I'm gonna keep that fella.

How can this kid be 21 already?

I swear, it was just a couple of years ago he looked like this.

Sigh.

Time flies when you're having spawn.

To my son on his 21st birthday....know that you are loved beyond words, that your Mom is more proud of you than anything she has ever done in her life, and that my wish for you is to one day be 85 years old, surrounded by your wife and your children and your grandchildren (and maybe even some great grandkids), and know that this year, 2011, when you were 21....was the start of the most amazing years of your life.

I love you with all my heart. Happy birthday, bug.

Love, Mums.

So this is what FIFTY feels like?

Greetings from Costa Maya, Mexico!

That's where I am today, turning FIFTY. Woohoo!

I'll post pictures later when I sober up. LOL But so far, so good. I'm fifty and fabulous, baby. And having the time of my life.

Attention Cruisers!

Our cruise is 66 days away.

I am not prepared! I'm excited, but not prepared! I don't really know what to expect, and I worry about getting seasick!

So we're going to be on the Norwegian Cruise ship "Spirit". Have any of you been on it? Talk to me about cruises you've taken. Give me tips, hints, shortcuts, things I should know. I have to book us flights to New Orleans, what time should we return....if the cruise docks at 8am how quickly we will be off it and able to get to the airport?

Talk to me, peeps.

Happy birthday, baby!

Wishing you an amazing 48th birthday today. I love you!

(You make those paws look hot. Rawwrrrrrrrrrrl)

And just because I love to play with Photo Shop, here's my other favorite photo right now:

And this:

And being the Best Girlfriend Ever, I'll even give you this:

(Dude, exactly where is that finger??)

Have a great day, babe. Here's to the first of many birthdays we spend together.

The Best Day Of My Life

December 27, 1990 was the best day of my life.

Last year, I wrote about it HERE.

Today, I look at those pictures and wonder where the time has gone.

How can my "baby" be twenty?

He's no longer a child. Or a teen. He's an adult. No, I mean really an adult now....

He's a college student, and I could not be prouder.

He's a brother, a nephew, a cousin, a grandson. He's a best friend to a great group of young men and women.

But most importantly, he's a son.

He's MY son.

And I love him more than life itself.

So today, on this 20th anniversary of his birth, I celebrate the baby who came into my life two weeks past his due date (and has rarely been on time for anything since), the toddler who made me laugh constantly with his goofy smile and "creative" antics, the teenager who didn't give his Mom a whole lot to worry about, (or at least, didn't tell me til he was 18 and decided to come clean about a few things!) and the adult who is just at the start of his future. A future that I cannot wait to be a part of, to watch unfold, to see who he becomes and what amazing things life holds in store for him.

I love you, Jordan. You are my light, and the love of my life. Thank you for making me the happiest, and proudest Mom ever.

Baby, let's cruise.....away from here.

See this lovely little floating paradise? I'll be on it in 159 days!

Yes, I am spending my 50th birthday on a cruise to the Caribbean with my honey. We'll be in Costa Maya, Mexico on my actual birthday, then the next day Belize, then some islandy place in Honduras, then Cozumel, then back to our starting point of New Orleans.

I. Can't. Wait.

I've always wanted to take a cruise, and I hate to keep preaching on this whole positive thinking thing, but a couple of weeks ago I stopped "wanting" to do it, and started picturing myself on the boat. Because, according to Dr. Penny, I needed to stop focusing on why I couldn't go or haven't gone by now (too expensive, etc.) and not worry about how or why I would end up going...just see myself doing it.

Out of the blue, Michael came home last week and said he had gotten a cruise as a perk from one of the casinos he used to frequent. We just had to pay airfare to New Orleans.

Wow, I didn't see that coming! LOL

So, less than two weeks after I started changing my thoughts and seeing myself cruising the Caribbean with a drink in one hand, and my guy at my side....it's booked.

This "change your thoughts and change your life" thing is blowing my mind.

And the idea of turning 50 has just gotten so much more exciting!

Happy birthday to my youngest older sister!

The youngest of my three older sisters is having a birthday today.

(This is us last year at the American Idol tour)

Happy birthday, Patty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you very much and hope you have a great day!!!!!!!!!!

Maggie and Pappy birthdays....for the 29th year in a row.

So on this day, I usually post something like THIS to wish my Dad and my niece Maggie a happy birthday.

This year, Dad would have been 87 today, and Maggie is 29. Gasp! Twenty nine? How is that possible???

Maggie always had birthday cakes that said "Happy Birthday, Maggie and Pappy" and my Dad loved sharing his birthday with her.

Ah, those were the days. Dad loved all his grandchildren, but I think he and Maggie were especially close. He never enjoyed birthdays so much as he did after she was born on his.

The birthday girl had a dinner party last night and being the true princess that she is, she wore her crown:

If Daddy had been there, he'd have worn one right along with her.

Happy birthday, Dad. I love you and miss you every single day. Make Linda buy you a beer today.

And happy birthday, Maggie. I'm so proud of you, you are such a beautiful woman in every way....and I couldn't love you more if you were my daughter instead of my niece.

Party on, rock stars.

So far, so good. 49 is a winner!

My birthday was really great yesterday. Thank you for all of your good wishes and thoughts. And your many "fuck beige" comments. LOL

I had a cazillion birthday comments on Facebook, that was fun. Who knew I had so many friends? Some of which I don't even know?

And my son, who we all know is The Best Kid Ever, sent me these:

Then, if that wasn't enough, he organized a surprise party for me at one of my favorite restaurants with my sisters and some very dear friends. AND he bought my dinner AND made me drink two glasses of wine in the process. LOL

This whole thing with him being an adult and having his own income is working out really well for me now! Thanks, buddy, for taking care of your momma and giving her a wonderful birthday. I did something right in raising you!

And then the topper to my birthday though, was to get the news from my dear friend Sue (you might remember her story in this post) that she is able to have the surgery she needs to keep the liver cancer at bay and give her some very precious time with her family. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and collective good thoughts for her. It worked!!!!!

So far, 49 is starting out really well. Wouldn't it be great if that was the worst day I'll have this year? That's something to hope for, isn't it?

49 And Beige? Oh, I don't think so!

It's official.

I'm 49 today.

Or as I prefer to think of it....thirty nineteen.

Funny to think it's been almost two years already that I started this blog.

Way back when I was 47 and starting over.

Starting over from a very painful divorce.

Starting over as a shark bait (yes, I'm channeling my inner Jimmy Buffet...)

Can't you feel 'em circlin' honey?
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
And you're the only bait in town.

The dating pool was a little scary, the few times I dipped my toe into it over the past few years. Part of that has been my fault, for as much as I've bitched about not meeting the kind of guy I'm looking for, truth is that I haven't been all that attentive when I have. 

Maybe that really isn't my priority after all.

Maybe I'm just looking for excitement in all the wrong places.

I've been talking with one of my friends recently about our lives, and how so often we feel "beige". Not unhappy, not happy. Just....beige.

I don't want to live life as a neutral shade during this second half of mine.

I want to be a vibrant color!

I want to be red! Or hot pink!

And that's my goal for my 49th year. (OK technically I think today starts my 50th year doesn't it? Ugh that hurt just typing it!)

I'm not going to be 49 and Beige.

I REFUSE.

I'm ready to find what makes me tick. What I'm passionate about. Figure out what brings me joy and fills me with light.  (Aside from my kid, that goes without saying that he has been the single best thing about my 48 years of life, or at least the last 19 of them)

I'm ready to wake up every day with an abundance of great things to choose from, to finally create the life I've been "waiting" for all this time..

Yes, waiting.

I feel like I've spent 48 years waiting for an exciting life to start. 

Well guess what, folks.

It starts today.

I'm not 49 and Beige. I never will be, dammit.

I'm 49 and I'm fucking RED HOT.

My future's so bright we all need Gucci shades.

Thanks for being along on this ride with me the past couple of years. Stay tuned, because this year I plan to have lots of new and exciting things to tell you.

Fuck beige.

The one where Julie pays homage.

I stole this from somebody's blog. But I forgot who's. 

I'm sorry.

If you remind me, I'll gladly give you credit!!!!!!!!!!

In a related story....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELIZABETH!!!!

It's my bestie's birthday!

She has indeed brought sexy back.  LOL

And one other thing....
Please keep Danica in your thoughts and prayers today. 
She's having surgery and will be away from blogging for awhile. 
This is a hard day for her in a lot of ways
So I ask you all to send her your prayers for a speedy recovery. 
Thanks!!!

Sixty and Sensational

That is what my sister Linda would have been today.

Sixty....(she'd have not been happy that I was blogging her age!) and sensational, which she was all of her life.

She was so many things in addition to that. She loved life and everything about it.

She loved her family...

(Yes, that's me with really red hair!)

She loved our beach vacations...

(This is probably the ONLY time you will see me in a bathing suit!)

She loved her nieces and nephews, especially when us girls would do stupid things like put fake tattoos on our ankles during the aforementioned beach vacations.

(Although I did have a real one at this point...)

And she really loved Jordan. From the time he was a baby, she was his "Nina" (he couldn't say Linda when he was little, so he called her Nina, and then it sorta stuck as a description of who she was to him....as in "that's my Nina". And he was Gordo....(not really my favorite nickname for Jordan!) and I was "The Jewel".

I know I tell you guys all the time how much I miss her. I can tell you with total honesty that time doesn't heal anything, it just helps you accept your new normal without someone. I think of Linda every day, and I feel her with me all the time. There is a very big hole in our family where she should be, and our lives have never been the same without her. And I miss her like nobody's business.

So today, I hope she's in heaven with a glass box of her favorite red wine, a pack of Merit cigarettes, and some Carly Simon blaring on the radio, and celebrating her sixty wonderful years. Because while she may not have been here for all of it, she has never left our hearts.

Cheers, sis. And Happy Birthday. Sixty. Geesh.

Love, The Jewel and Gordo.

Attention must be paid, because on this day 19 years ago....

On December 27, 1990 I looked like this:

And then a year later "we" looked like this:

And then we got a couple years older...

And older...

And his hair got darker and mine got more red...

And then suddenly he was a teenager...

And tried to tune me out....

And he turned 17 but still let me feed him regularly...

That year I had to drive him home from his sister's wedding after he celebrated a little tooooooo much...

He was really happy with me though, when I got us out of Mexico after getting lost in a Mexighetto in a rental car with no navigation, cell phone service or passports (only I can "accidentally" drive over the border of a foreign country). Six hours in the border line having to pee like crazy and finally finding out we're not going to be detained makes for a happy mother and child...

Then he felt the need to turn 18 and graduate...

And lose a shit ton of weight...

But he's always going to be my little boy...just like I'm still my mom's baby...

So today I wish my little bundle of joy, Jordan Nicholas, a very, very happy 19th birthday. You are the light of my life, my greatest joy, and I have loved every minute of the past nineteen years (and even that 42 weeks I was pregnant!). You have given me more happiness than any parent could hope for, and I can't wait to see the rest of your life unfold and cheer the amazing things that come your way.

I love you, my little bug!!!!!