celebrations

I spent half of my fiftieth birthday on the road driving home from Pikeville, KY (home of the Hatfields and the McCoys!), where we were for Travis' graduation. That event dictated our itinerary last week, so in lieu of being able to be together on the actual day, we celebrated with mom and our friends Jimmy and Barbara a little early. In true Mom style, she had made a poster to celebrate the occasion, but this time added a little twist. She collected 50 dimes, one from each year since my birth, and with Barbara's help fashioned them into a "50" in the center of the poster. Beginning in 1957, they progress chronologically from the top of the five. Cool, huh? That's an idea worth stealing! We had a wonderful celebration that evening with lovely scenery, good food, great company and lots of fun.

My actual birthday began with the best possible gift: a call from Junior from somewhere "over there" to wish me a happy Mother's Day and a happy birthday. We were able to talk for several minutes--longer than usual for such calls, and though he can't ever say anything about what he's up to, we were able to talk about other things. In the evening we had dinner out at a surprise gathering with some friends at a favorite local Mexican restaurant--a special evening to cap the day. All in all, a nice round of festitivies to mark the landmark occasion.

We tried to get a picture with the dogs as part of a "this is what Anne looked like when she turned 50" scheme for a small scrapbook, but it's a challenge to get their mutual, simultaneous cooperation. This is the best we could manage--not too bad considering the challenges! Now it's back to the grind and life as usual, with warm memories and five full decades under my belt...