My 90 Year Old Girl! My Mom

Time is really a relative thing, isn't it?  When you are young it creeps along like ....forever.  Then life, then family, then retirement and you realize that time is such a very precious gift.  I have really not posted on here in a LONG while...maybe a year ago.

BUT

Here we are with my Mom still alive and precious.  And ready for her 90th birthday. (Hope you don't mind me sharing)  So just come along with me and celebrate...Life

 Mom is Princess for the day and every princess needs a crown and a septor.  She keeps asking, "So who is having a birthday?"

Mom, do you know what today is?  No, she says.  I tell her it's your BIRTHDAY!   It is? She smiles. Yes, and do you know how old you are today?  The forehead wrinkles and she is exhausted from the exercise.  I tell her, Mom...Today you are NINETY years old!  To which she responds, "I am?  Boy that's really old!"  And then she laughs.

Mom's only request this year when  we asked was to have a big cake with LOTS of candles.  It didn't matter what flavor or color or style, she just wanted the lights.

And....so....

Lights she got.  All NINETY and all Lit.  That was no small feat.  Really glad our former son in law got the longer ones, cause we needed a lot of TIME to light them.  For my cake friends...if any of you are even still coming here (I wouldn't blame you if you haven't been, since...you know I haven't posted anything new); the cake is a mexican vanilla cake with cream cheese filling and is covered with buttercream and a variety of flowers:  gumpaste, royal icing, buttercream; and one lone butterfly.  This picture was made when I was ALMOST finished.  Where oh where are those pictures when ya need 'em?  But you get the idea!  

 As everyone sang "Happy Birthday"  I thought about all the cakes that my Mom had for me growing up.  Most were homemade...nothing fancy but OH so good.  And then all the cakes I've been blessed to bake for her in the past few years.

Yep, Mom is crying and celebrating and I love her.  Do you still have your Mom?  So many of my friends do not.  Never did I realize how special it would be.  And never did I realize how much I am thankful that we got to do a few neat things together before her strokes.  You see, I thought I'd work and retire and then just go and do and visit and.....sometimes life does not turn out that way.  Enjoy your family, your friends...I mean REALLY enjoy them.  Your time spent will be more than precious one day.

Okay...enough with the serious.  Have you ever seen someone with the ability to laugh and cry at the same time?  Well meet my Mom.  She's always had this ability.  And I have the same skill.  We're sappy that way.  Are you?  Come on be honest.  Okay maybe we are the only two people on earth that tear up

 and laugh at the same time

 See?

Now ya can't expect a 90 year young princess to blow out ALL NINETY of her candles; but I bet she can blow out at least ONE!

And she did!  Believe me when I say it took every bit of energy and breath she could muster.

 See...the part about celebration cakes is really not all about the cake.  It's about family and stories and laughter...even when you can't remember why you're in the room.  Because those around you are giving you the most precious of gifts...the gift of time.

You may be thinking...that's a long way off for me or my Mom or Granny.  And it may be.  That should just give you more time to remember them in little and big ways.  To make a moment in their lives special because we love them...even when they don't always remember our names or they don't have a memory to share.  We can.  You can.

While I didn't want to post all my pictures.....Well maybe I did WANT to, but I did spare you some.  I want to post a few of some of the family.  And remind you one last time that family is more beautiful than any cake you can create.

The candles have long since been put out, cake has been eaten and some shared, the memory of having Happy Birthday sung by a room full of family and residents is gone.  And we have celebrated NINETY years of life this day!  So I leave you with my memories and encourage you to go and make your own.  You know, my Mom loves every cake I bake and thinks they are the most gorgeous things, cause, you know, that's what Mom's do.  They look past the present and into the hearts of their children and they love them just like our Heavenly Father does with the things we offer Him.  That's pretty cool I think.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LAVERNE LEBLANC....90 YEARS YOUNG