Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa!!!!!

Today is my Grandpa's 80th birthday. Truth be told, he doesn't look anywhere near 80 (good genes, I guess). Despite the nine inches of snow on the ground (which is a lot for this area), we managed to pull off Grandpa's party complete with family (and there are a lot of us) and friends (some of which have known him since they were kids!). I think Grandpa was truly happy-it was wonderful to see so many of his old friends (the BaRaCaGa gang-named after the streets they grew up on in North St. Louis-they've all been friends for 70 years!), our cousin Terry (my mom's cousin), came in all the way from California, my sister and Jon made it from Texas, dad and Tim didn't make it due to the weather (and the fact that Tim had a flat tire) and my cousins in the military weren't able to make it, but all the rest of us were there.

I must say....the scrapbook I made Grandpa was a BIG hit! I don't like to brag about my work, I made it with love and didn't care about the time or money it costs. As Grandpa was looking at it for the first time, he looked at me and said "I don't deserve this!", which made me tear up.....of course he deserves it! He is the only grandparent I have, I'd make him a million scrapbooks if he wanted me to! It started with baby pictures of him all the way through the years to the present. Uncle Jimmy gave a wonderful speech, providing some of the hilights from Grandpa's life. He got us all sobbing when he mentioned my two cousins, Adam and Andy, who left this Earth entirely too soon (they both had Tay-Sachs disease-a horrible genetic disorder that just attacks a poor child's body). In lieu of gifts, we gave everyone the option to make a donation to Rainbows in Wichita, Ks. It was the school my cousins went to and a charity that is near and dear to all our hearts (they even have a playground named after the boys there). I think we all hit our breaking points then-my family is so super close that it is hard to imagine not all of us being there. Anyway.....enough of that! I am so glad everyone was able to make it out, in spite of the weather. I will try to have pix of the party up soon. For those of you that are MySpacer's-my cousin Rachel already has pix from today up on her site-notice her new profile pic is of the two of us (party pics!!!).

I am finally back home after having been gone all weekend (I stayed at Grandpa's so I could see him and my mom). It is kinda interesting typing with limited use of my right thumb. I mean, could I be any more of a 'tard for falling down the stairs? I think not. It was for real crazy out there yesterday. Mom, Cousin Terry, Grandpa and I attended a memorial service at Mt. Lebanon (the cemetary where my grandma is buried). Immediately, I had a bit of a freak out-you see that funeral home belongs to the Dignity Memorial group (all those at the crisis line know what I'm talking about!!!! I stole some mints with the logo on it for y'all!)-I instantly felt like I was at work taking grief calls.....After that, we all hung out at Aunt Cheryl's-watched some old home movies (damn, I was a cute kid! What happened?) and had a great dinner (I daresay Aunt Cheryl's meatballs are better than mine....). We had so much fun chatting that we didn't realize it had begun snowing again-probably four or five more inches! Mom and I were a bit nervous to drive back to grandpa's-what is normally a 10 to 15 minute trip took us an hour....it was terrible, cars sliding everywhere, cars in ditches, people driving like a-holes, you know. Luckily we made it back to Grandpa's in one piece.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA! I love you more than you could ever know. You are the greatest Grandpa in the world! Here's to many, many, many more birthdays to come!