Happy Birthday Michelle (Medontdo) ..hope it was what you wanted it to be, you deserve the best possible. Wendy, how nice of you to remember it! GB Bea

LOL! Special indeed! Thanks again everyone. I was not disappointed in my hope for cards from the kids. I even got a May basket, complete with lifesavers, stickers, and bendy straw/construction paper tulips. I had a five year old I don't know especially well ring my doorbell to give me a dandelion. And I was correct in my assumption that if I ate outside, I'd have company. Lots of wonderful things happened today, but these pictures made me laugh out loud. I immediately noticed two things about them: 1) I am depicted as being the same size as the kids; and 2) I have giant boobs right under my chin (in two separate drawings)!

Thanks all! I had an absolute ball yesterday! Actually, I started celebrating on Thursday and I'm taking several people out for a celebration dinner tonight, so it's sort of a long weekend thing. I'm humbled at how many people have remembered me, and while I'm not a "gift" person, I have received some very unexpected, lovely and well thought out gifts from friends. I told the Ukrainian woman I tutor in ESL it was my birthday yesterday only so I could make her use 39th in a sentence several times. (She can't say dirty, nor thirty, and "thirty-ninth," with its combination of th's and t's and varying vowel sounds, is a complete tongue twister for her.) She gave me a bunch of Ukrainian chocolates as a gift. I was touched by the kind gesture, and when I got back into my (hot) black car that had been parked in the sun to take the country roads back to my house, I decided to pop one into my mouth "so it wouldn't melt." Did you know that smoked prunes (think: big fat prune marinated in "Liquid Smoke") covered in milk chocolate are considered candy in the Ukraine? Neither did I! I was so confused by the flavors in the first bite that I took a second bite just to be sure. Yup: Milk chocolate covered smoked prune! Then I was so confounded by the whole flavor combo, I got distracted, made a wrong turn, and got lost in the country for fifteen minutes! LOL! I decided to simply appreciate that gift for its kind sentiment. Fortunately, there was only one milk chocolate covered smoked prune in the lot. :o) I found my way back home in time to clean up a little and go get Steve at the airport. He flew in from his week in China at 6:00pm last night. While we were eating the BBQ takeout we picked up on the way back from the airport, he fished several surprises for me out of his suitcase. Did you know that Shinjin, China has a thriving pearl market? Wow! Two stunning necklaces, a pendant, three pair of pearl earrings and a pair of jade earrings --- he just kept pulling stuff out of his bags. We don't do gifts, so it was really unexpected. I think I'll wear the necklace with the dragonfly front closure and pink finial pearl to dinner tonight. After dinner, Steve went upstairs and fell unconscious (18 hours of flying and a 13 hour time difference for a week will do that to you), my neighbor ladies came over, and we mixed and imbibed pink drinks and giggled until we couldn't giggle any more. Actually, I lied when I said I began celebrating on Thursday. I began celebrating on Wednesday, when my doctor called and told me that the test for Lupus he had done on me came back negative! The birthday stuff is awful nice, but I have to tell you, "not having Lupus" has been such an exciting gift from the universe that I have a feeling that I'll be celebrating in my heart for a long, long time. I am so grateful for so many things. :o)

Wow...........don't you wish you could put time in a bottle? I'm so glad you had a day where all the stars aligned themselves in such a perfect pattern. It seems very appropriate that your birthday should be the first day of May. You're a breath of fresh air.