Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Family Birthday, Gossip, and UPdates

My father and my sister had birthdays yesterday. Dad turned 75, Sis turned 39 (again!). My brother-in-law has a birthday this Friday. So, I offered to cook a meal for the birthday celebration on Sunday. My only request was a menu. Picky eaters and such. The response was..."Anything is fine with me" three times.

But I know that my BIL doesn't eat cheese, my sister doesn't eat fish, and my dad wants comfort food.

I decided on something easy for me, and generally well received. I made a Five Hour Stew, a salad of leafy greens, mandarin oranges, green onions and sugared almonds. I know that one of my nieces and my mom love a raspberry vinaigrette, so I used it on the salad. I also made cornbread and served a marble cake with white butter-cream frosting from Publix.

This meal was very well received.

We had very good news regarding my cousin's husband. He spent three weeks in intensive care at the university hospital and was then moved to another hospital with pressurized rooms to assist in his lung function. He was moved to a rehab center for a couple of weeks before going home. He has been driving himself to work for a few hours a day. Talk about miracles!

Sis called Sunday evening as I was preparing to go to my safe place due to tornadoes in the area. She had some really good, happy gossip to share.

There was a childless couple who worked with the youth at church when I was in my early teens. They later had children of their own and changed churches but remained close. Jimmy died unexpectedly several years ago.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I became friends with a lovely lady from church who was married with a teen son. She was the life of the party everywhere she went. She died after a long bout with cancer a couple of years ago.

The widowed spouses found each other recently and have married. I'm so happy to hear this. It just seems right.

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