Eustacia

Several weeks ago, my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday. He said it ought to be something special, because 50 is a milestone. We talked it over, and he suggested it might be time to start planting the roses I've been dreaming of growing for a long, long time. Years ago, before we were even close to being able to buy a house, I signed up to receive David Austin English rose catalogs. Every time I got one, I'd spend hours poring over it and hoping one day I'd be able to place an order. 

Well, now we have a home of our own, and a garden, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate turning 50! 

The initial plan was to order three roses, because that's how many we have room for in the spot I picked, but after giving it some thought, I decided it would be better to start with one and then later (maybe next year) add two more. That will give me the opportunity to focus all my attention on my "birthday" rose, since this is new gardening territory for me.

It took two weeks, but I finally picked the variety I wanted and placed my order. That was on Tuesday of last week, and on Friday my rose arrived! When I got home from work Gregg had already prepared the bed by digging up and moving the banana plants that were in the spot--hard work, and I was so happy he got it done for me! The next day, Saturday, we were able to plant.

Behold my newest "pet"...a bare root shrub rose called "Eustacia Vye":

It doesn't look like much now, but I have high hopes!

Birthday weekend

The Saturday morning before my birthday, while I was in the midst of finally finishing my cake, I got texts from two of the three friends who were invited over that night. Both had last minute emergencies and weren't going to be able to make it to the party.

At this point I'd already made and purchased a lot of food and drinks and alcohol and I knew I was going to have way, way too much. Marla was the only friend I'd invited in advance who was able to come, and the neighbors I'd planned to text that afternoon weren't home. 

I was disappointed, but of course I understood. Martina and her husband had a friend in crisis and needed help finding temporary housing for his dogs, and Meisha had a family issue come up. And since I hadn't mentioned anything to the neighbors ahead of time, they had no way of knowing I was going to text them to walk over for cake that night. 

It was still a nice time anyway, even though it was just me and Marla. I set out small dishes of the food I'd prepared, made a small pitcher of champagne punch, plugged in the string lights on the porch, and we spent a few hours eating and drinking and talking. 

The next morning, Martina texted me and asked if she could stop by that afternoon. She felt about about missing the night before and wanted to bring a gift she'd gotten me. Of course, I said yes, and that afternoon we had another small "party" with more small plates of food and plenty of cake. I didn't make punch this time, but we did have a selection of hard apple ciders. 

That afternoon, my phone rang and I saw it was my nephew, which seemed odd. When I answered, he said, "Hold on a second!" and then him, his mom (my sister in law) and his wife Jessica all sang "Happy Birthday"! Even one of their dogs joined in by barking while they sang! It was so sweet! 

I got serenaded again later that day. Two of my favorite little kids (siblings) at the school have a sweet mom who saw on Facebook that it was my birthday, so she recorded them singing Happy Birthday to me and telling me that they love me, and posted it on my Facebook page! (Those of you that I'm FB friends with can go check it out if you're interested). That made me so happy!

Then on Wednesday, not-so-little P. and his mom met me at our favorite Mexican place for dinner to celebrate our birthdays...since P. and I are birthday twins. He's 12 years old now and growing up fast. It was really good to spend some time with them and they gave me a card in which they had written, "Friendship is a treasure, but you're more than a friend. You're family." That made me cry. 

All in all, it was a good birthday, even though it was nothing like I'd planned!

Back later today when I show you my gift from Gregg. :)

The short version

I've been trying to write a post about my frustrating experience with baking myself a birthday cake last week. When I told one of my friends about it, she laughed until tears ran down her face. Granted, we'd had a few drinks, but it really was funny as I told the story.  

When I tried to write about it, though, I couldn't get it to work and convey the humor of the situation, so here's the short version: I got way overambitious and attempted to make a huge chocolate cake with homemade buttercream. I also wanted to decorate it, despite never having any practice at that. I ordered a cake decorating kit with lots of bags and tips, watched a few Youtube videos, and gave it my best shot. I baked the cake on Thursday evening and left it to cool overnight, and then on Friday I started making buttercream and attempting to pipe borders and simple flowers.  

What a nightmare! Turns out buttercream is hard--not hard to make, but hard to get the consistency right. I did a thick layer of chocolate buttercream first, and it looked awful. Just awful. So then I made a huge batch of vanilla buttercream and made two more attempts to cover over my bad work...and it kept getting worse! Finally after three or four hours, and a trashed kitchen, I gave up for the day. I was disgusted with the whole thing and ready to dump the mess in the trash!

The next morning, Saturday, I knew I had to do something. The party was that night, and the cake was a wreck. So in desperation I went to the grocery store and bought two cans of Betty Crocker chocolate icing which I slathered liberally all over the mess, smoothed it out, dumped a bunch of sprinkles all over the top, and called it a day. And then I said to myself, "What the hell was I thinking?" and also, "Never again."

Two days of stress and effort, in pictures (and layers of crappy buttercream):

Next: the first two big blobs of cheap canned frosting I slapped on top of the wreckage made me laugh hysterically, and I had to take a picture. This summed up all my planning and effort perfectly.

GEORGIE WUZ HERE! 

Okay, but to be serious, the cake actually turned out to be...presentable. And tasty. You can't really tell from this picture, but it was huge and weighed a ton. Especially with two layers of homemade buttercream smothered in Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge icing and Sprinkles.

Quick update, more later

I've been working on a post about last weekend (specifically, the almost-disaster that was my overly ambitious birthday cake plan) but a comment by Debbie last night reminded me that I haven't updated you all about Gregg's oncology appointment. 

The doctor says his scan looked good! He thinks the handful of radiology sessions were successful and Gregg's going to be fine. Just to be sure, they're going to do a couple more three-month follow ups, but Dr. Smith doesn't expect any more problems. We're so pleased and relieved! That news was the best birthday gift! 

Thank you for asking, Debbie, and reminding me to post this. :)

Okay, more later about the Great Cake Debacle and the birthday weekend. Right now, I'm off to work.

Half century

I have a big birthday coming up on Sunday...one of those years that end in an "0". It seems too crazy to possibly be true, but I'll be 50 years old! 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset about it, I just can't seem to wrap my mind around it. I've barely adjusted to thinking of myself as a forty-something and all of a sudden, I'm about to leave my 40s behind. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I'm sure it's like this for everyone, but whew!

I'd originally thought I'd have a big get-together to celebrate such a milestone, but it hasn't worked out. When I talked to Gregg about it, he asked if I'd mind keeping the party small because he's not feeling up to having a lot of people over and having to help host. He's got an oncology appointment looming next Monday where he'll get the results of a CT scan he had last week. This will determine how successful the radiation has been and whether he'll need further treatment or not. With this hanging over his head, he doesn't feel like any major entertaining, and truthfully, I don't either. 

So instead, I'm having a small party on the back porch Saturday night with just two or three close friends. Marla and Martina, of course, and a new friend I've made at work, Meisha. Later in the evening I might text a couple of friendly neighbors and invite them to walk over and have a drink or a piece of cake. I plan to have some good food, good desserts, and a few different drink choices (alcoholic and non). I bought some pretty string lights for the porch, too. It should be fun, and not too stressful to pull off like a big party would be. 

 

I do feel kind of sad that Gregg is the only family I'll have celebrating my birthday with me. My dad died just over a year ago, and I haven't been in contact with my mom since last summer. * I don't have siblings, although I love Gregg's. In fact, I invited his sister to come down on Saturday to spend the night and attend the party. I would love to have her (so would Gregg), but she thanked me for asking and then changed the subject. It kind of hurt my feelings, to be honest. Not because she's not coming, but because she didn't even seem to really consider it. 

Of course, Marla and Martina are like sisters to me, and I have an abundance of friends. I have a really good marriage. I'm grateful for every bit of it, and I don't have any right to complain. I try not to. I don't always succeed.

These are just things I'm thinking about as I prepare to turn fifty.

* It's better that we're not in contact. It's been really hard coming to terms with that, but it's true. It's sad and hard and I wish things were different, but I've started to prioritize my own needs and my own well-being. It's past time that I did.

I want my hour back

I think Daylight Savings Time is ridiculous and I hate it. Why on earth do we still do this? Maybe it had some value in the past, but I can't think of a good reason to keep it up in this day and age. I've felt "off" all week and it's been really hard to wake up in the morning. Then there's all the clocks that have to be changed--what a pain! I wish we could pick a time and leave it alone already.

You know who hasn't had to drag themselves out of bed an hour earlier and trudge off to work in the (still) dark of night this week?

These two bums:

I snapped these photos right before leaving Monday morning. Don't they look cozy and comfortable? No lost hour of sleep for them!

Just another Thursday

What do you do when your morning is off to a crazy start? 

Text a friend and share a laugh! Sometimes that's all you can do. 

It's been quite the week, y'all. 

Weekend recap

March began with a beautiful, sunny day on Saturday, and quite warm. We spent a good bit of time on the back porch with the dogs and Marco, soaking up some fresh air and sunshine. Yesterday was much colder and slightly overcast. 

Gregg's been sick. Last week he had some sort of cold/flu/virus that put him in bed for a couple of days with fever, body aches, a cough, and nausea. For a while Saturday morning he was feeling a good bit better, but by suppertime his fever was back, and his cough was getting worse. He's still got a lot of chest congestion but as of last night seems to be turning a corner.

Besides bringing him ginger ale and offering to heat up soup, things like that, I've been keeping my distance. I do NOT want to get sick again this year. It's been a horrible flu season in this area and plenty of other nastiness has been going around, too: strep, Covid, stomach bugs. I have enough exposure at the school. In fact, we think that Gregg picked up this virus at the little preschool he still visits twice a month to clean the aquarium. 

So not the most auspicious way to begin March, at least for him. I'll leave you with a few pictures I took over the weekend. Have a good week, everyone.

Poppy facing down her sworn enemy: the FedEx truck! (Our neighbor gets deliveries almost daily and Poppy can't stand it).

Marco preening in the sunshine Saturday morning. 

Daffodils are blooming around the neighborhood.