Well, it is official - my oldest turns six today.  Not only does that make me a little sad (since he is no longer a baby anymore), but it also means that he is old enough to have a birthday party.  Yes, that is right, we are having a birthday party at our house (don’t know if that is a good idea or not).

Anyway, since it is nice out, we decided to have the party outdoors.  We have rented some obstacle courses and inflatable slides and are getting them setup in the backyard right now.  We will be also having a barbeque with hot dogs and birthday cake in the backyard.

It will be interesting to see how many people show up for the party - he invited fifteen kids, but we have only heard back from ten of them.

I am sure that it will be a fun party, though I think that I will probably be happy when it is over.  Wish us luck!

I remember the first time I ever saw a horse race. I was so excited because my dad was taking me and he had not taken me anywhere for three years, since he split up with my mom. It was also the last place he ever took me, as he was in a fatal accident a few months later. It was such a grand adventure for me, and I clung to every piece of advice he gave me on horse racing tips.

I decided that I would go back to the track and try out my chances the day I was old enough and I did. In the days leading up to my birthday, I asked nearly everybody I knew for racing tips, as I wanted it to be a successful day. I wanted to savor every little memory that I had of that day at the races I had with my dad.

I called a friend and asked him for the name of a good horse racing tipster and I got advice from the guy on who I should be betting on. He did not let me down and I won a lot of money that day. I still wonder if my dad was there in spirit, giving my horses an extra little push so that they would make it over the finish line first.

I think that our home might have suffered the worst disaster that it has ever had to in the five short years of its existence.  Now, it wasn’t any natural disaster by any means, but rather something that happened by accident.

You see, I had my son carry a case of wine from the basement up to the main floor.  Now, I knew that it was going to be sort of heavy, but he is a big boy, so I didn’t think that it was going to be any problem.

Boy, was I wrong.

He made it successfully up the stairs and into the living room, when the box broke.  The wine bottles all smashed and I found my white carpet stained with wine - pretty much all over the living room.

Thankfully, the carpet cleaning Exeter company that we usually use has an emergency line, and they are over right now.  I hope that it can be fixed.

I starred in a semi-professional theatrical production early this year and it had an interesting format. We talked directly to the audience instead of out to the cosmos through the invisible “fourth wall” between actor and audience.

One of the neat things about this format was that we could ad lib during the times we interacted with the audience. One character called BINGO numbers. Another made wise cracks. My opportunity came at the beginning of the show. I was supposed to be a former circus performer as a young girl. Since we all hawked tickets for our production to generate a respectable audience, I knew when friends of mine were going to be there.

So this one night I said, “Billy Young, is that you? I haven’t seen you in almost 30 years. You know the Mass is in English now.”

Finally I asked, “Are you still trying to convince people to invest in your stock trading system? The one that nearly got you suspended from parochial school in the twelfth grade?”

He hasn’t spoken to me since. I tell you, what I do for my art!

My husband and I have been blissfully married since last summer and my wedding day has so far been the best day of my life.  Although, all the months following the wedding have been wonderful as well.  I never thought that I could be in this kind of happy relationship as I never really knew what true love was before and that this man.

From the day we were married my husband and I started a journal that we call our relationship book.  In this book we can I love notes to each other and we can even let the other know that we are upset or angry with them without getting too many emotions involved.

Every night, before we go to bed, we take out the relationship book and see if there are any new notes.  We know so many people who are in unhappy relationships that we thought by doing this it would give us a chance to talk to each other every night and hash things out if there was a problem so that we would never go to bed angry with each other.

Aunt Martha was the greatest person I have ever known. She was actually my great aunt; the sister of my grandmother. She had never married and had children of her own and so she had devoted her whole life to her nieces and nephews. She was always the favorite of all of them.

When mom had me, she was single and had little money. She was going to give me up for adoption in order to give me a better life, but Aunt Martha talked her out of it, convincing mom to move in with her so that she could help out with me. She became like my second mother and we were always very close.

When she passed away, I was devastated. I did not know what I would do without her. We found out that she had left child trust funds for both me and my brother, stating that she wanted us to buy a house and go to college. It was so like her to do something like that and that is why I miss her so much. She found a way to encourage us to reach our full potential even after she had passed away.

My uncle is a fun loving kind of guy. He is always doing something crazy for other people. His 50th birthday is coming up and my aunt and cousin want to do something really special for him.

The plan is to hire a limo to take him and several of his close friends on a scavenger hunt. None of them will be in on it, but the driver would be privy to the information. If they can get through the hunt which would take them all over the Philadelphia area, at the end, they would end up at a huge party where we would celebrate all the things he’s done for others.

We have plans for each clue to be about something he has done for his friends and family, like a bowling ball that he got for his sister when she couldn’t afford one, the boat that he sailed home after his best friend died at sea, and the huge diamond ring he bought my aunt for their second anniversary because he couldn’t afford one at all when they married.

Then we would present a slide show at the party to tie it all together for everyone to see. We just have to find a Philadelphia limousine service to get in on the hunt with us.

When I got married, I had the most unique bridal shower of any that I have ever attended. It started out with a tea party at my sister’s house. That was a lot of fun, as all of the girls shared their tips on marriage with me and they all gave me some recipes for a recipe book that they had made for me.

After that, they blindfolded me and drove me to a huge warehouse. When they took the blindfold off, I saw that I was in a lingerie - wholesale warehouse and I was told that I had to pick out fourteen different items, so that I could wear something different for my husband every night for two weeks.

We all had such a time going through all of the racks. We found some really nice pieces and laughed at the hideous ones that we found. I have not had that much fun and laughter in a long time. Did I mention that my girlfriends rock?

I am not one of those people who plan for the future very well. I have been warned that it is dangerous to live in the present moment as I do and that it is completely irresponsible, but I think that I am a much happier person than those people who are preaching at me that my way of living is all wrong.

When I was younger, I was very organized and I planned my day ahead of time, made lists and was the totally responsible person that I am taught I should be. Then, my mother was tragically killed in a car accident. It was like I had an awakening that day and I realized for the first time that there is no way you can plan for everything that life throws your way.

I made a decision right then and there that I was going to start living life one day at a time and stop worrying what tomorrow held in store. After all, tomorrow may never come and what will be important then, is how you lived today!

In my humble opinion, there is no better location for a great home barbeque than atop a deck. There’s just one problem. It’s outside.

Let me explain. I hate to clean. Anything. Well, except for my hands. Can’t stand to have them dirty.

Anyway, since decks are outside, they’re exposed to the elements, tree debris, animal leavings and just plain dirt. When the deck became my husband’s domain, I assumed that meant he would take care of the deck cleaning. Well, I was wrong.

So I pulled a “Tom Sawyer” on him. I said that was fine, that I was looking forward to cleaning the deck, since the directions on the deck cleaner container showed what watery fun it actually was to make your deck gleam.

He grabbed the container and read quickly, kind of harrumphed and said, “On second thought, I’d better do it. It’s too much for you with the baby due.”

Works every time…