Ducking for My Life!

We saw 5 baseball games while in St. Louis! And guess what? I took a lot of photographs!

One of the highlights, for me, was the last game when my life was threatened. Yep, it could have been lights out for me. Or at least, I could have received a terrible headache.

Mike and I were sitting down the first base foul line. Actually, we were pretty far down, off the side of right field. We had to watch the game rather turned to our left toward home plate and most of the action. Well, Yadier Molina decided to send a little attention our way. It wasn't a real high ball, more of a direct hit to us. I saw him hit the ball our way but really, I thought it was going to fall far before it got to our section. It was I was wrong. The guy in Mike's line of view stood up and so Mike couldn't see where the ball was. I could see it, though. I was just watching when all of a sudden I realized that it was going to hit me in the head. I ducked! Well, I didn't have a glove with me and I need my hands to start IVs and to perform other nursely duties. I still think it was the best course of action.  Here's my favorite part of the story, though...

This young man was behind me and he was READY! When I ducked, I heard a loud smack. I turned to see this boy smiling from ear to ear! He was sooooo proud. Just look at him, all Cardinalled up! People came around to congratulate him. I'm sure he will remember that moment for ever. 

At an earlier game Mike and I got our moment of fame. Mike actually missed it. I was elbowing him saying, "Mike! Mike! Look!" He was distracted, watching a baseball game or something, and by the time he gave me his attention is was no longer on the big screen. Luckily, I had been ready for it and snapped a photo.

That day was a very slow game. It was misting on us, a light rain that you didn't really notice until you realized you were wet. It was 53 degrees and felt even colder. The teenage girl by Mike was wearing little shorts. I could see her goosebumps! I had several jackets and was just sitting on one. I offered it to her but she insisted she wasn't cold. Right. I don't think those goosebumps were because the game was so exciting.

We actually left that game early. I never thought I'd see the day Mike left a Cardinals game early but he was cold, wet and sick. 

This is what it looked like as we walked back. We couldn't see the top of the buildings.

We watched the rest of the game in our room.  Mike watched it on television.

I watched it live, out our window, while drinking coffee and crocheting! I could see it well enough to say spoilers like, "And he swings and misses!" because the television view was delayed by a few moments. I'm kind of mean, aren't I? It didn't matter. That game did not end well.

OK, I've read that bloggers shouldn't make posts too long because people don't have very long attention spans these days. I don't want to bore you but I took soooooo many baseball photos! In fact, when the play was slow, I took photos of people around me, kind of on the sly. Anyway, I'm going to stop writing words now so if you click out, you won't miss anything vital. However, if you are brave or crazy about baseball or just like to finish what you start, you are welcome to scroll down through some more of our photos.

Two for One!

Ok, ok... I can't wait anymore! I  have to tell you about Saturday night of our vacation and meeting the Friend I Never Met Before.

So, Mike went to another St. Louis Blue (hockey) Game that night. I didn't go to that one as the only affordable tickets we could have purchased weren't even together. I really love Mike but I don't really love hockey so much. I had no interest in going if we couldn't sit together. It worked out well, though, because I had another plan in mind.

Do you remember AKM? Click here and you'll remember; I'm sure of it. She has been following my daughter's blog, Little Things are Big forever. When I started blogging, she began following mines as well. So, I contacted AKM because she lives in the St. Louis area. I was nervous to ask, because she is a very busy grad student, but she agreed to meet me. She and her mom both came and met me in the lobby of our hotel in downtown St. Louis. I got to meet two new friends! You can tell they are related, can't you?

It was fun to actually get to know AKM and her mom. I was rather awkward but they are nice people! It was kind of weird, though. As I told her, she knew a lot more about me than I did about her. I also wished I'd gone back and reread her interview before I met up with them as I had forgotten some of the things that I did know about her.

Nevertheless, they were both very gracious and kind. We ate dinner together at Imo's Pizza. It was my first time eating the special thin crust St. Louis Style Pizza. AKM explained that the cheese is a unique blend, different than the traditional mozarella I'm used to. It was delicious!

We visited for a long time and then I showed them our room at the hotel. I was quite pleased with our hotel room (I'll show you why another day) and thought they might like to see it.  I forgot, though, to point out one little weird thing about the bathroom in our room. Do you see anything weird?

Hint: It isn't about what you see, but rather what you don't see.

Something you might need...

Toilet paper anyone?

I had to bend down under the counter to discover 

where the toilet paper was hiding.

It was fine, once a person knew the secret, but kind of 

weird and I am guessing has led to more than one person 

feeling a bit of panic at a crucial moment.

Anyway, moving on. I didn't really mean for this post to be about toilet paper.

After a tour of our room, which didn't take too long, we went bar hopping. Not really! I was just wondering if you were paying attention. We did go to one bar, though. I suppose that is no surprise now that you know I spent last Sunday morning in the basement of a bar. This was not in a basement, though... quite the opposite.

Our hotel had a rooftop bar/restaurant. In order to go there we had to first take the elevator down to the lobby. From there, we had to have one of the elevator guys get us up there. What is an elevator guy? Well, they are guys that dress in black suits, wear ear pieces attached to coiled wires and look just like secret service men. Yes, I have seen secret service guys. The elevators there were strange anyway. They had little computer screens on the wall. It was there that you had to tell it what floor your were going to. You couldn't change your mind on the way up as there were no buttons inside. However, only the secret service guys could enter the code for that top floor.

So, with the help from men in black, we went to the top floor and spent just a few minutes up there, enjoying the view (click and wait a few seconds until you see the photo of the ballpark below). I think all three of us felt rather out of place. The people up there were mostly dressed in fancy clothes. There was loud party music going and the whole scene seemed more like something from a movie than from anything I could reference in my own life. It was fun to experience for a bit but we were all ready to leave moments after arrival.

After saying good-bye to AKM and her Mom down in the lobby, I turned around and got back in the elevator line again to go to my room. Two twenty-something beautiful girls came up beside me. I was standing there in my jeans and gray sweater. They were wearing sparkly formals. The elevator guy, who was quite pretty himself, turned to them and said, "You look really lovely." The girls smiled and thanked him. I waited a second, my idea of a comic pause, and said, "Thank you!"



It was a nice evening, though. I was pleased that AKM wasn't a serial killer or anything. Oh come on! I'm just saying what everyone else was thinking. I bet she felt the same about me!



I was sorry Maria wasn't with me as I know she would have liked to meet AKM in person also. Well, since AKM wants to one day move West, maybe she'll come here someday. AKM, you are welcome to visit us, and bring your mom along as well!

Church Under the Bar

James 4:8 

Draw near to God, 

and he will draw near to you…

 

As I said, Mike & I were in St. Louis last Sunday. We had gone through some tourist booklet, looking for a place to worship downtown. There were quite a few big churches to choose from but then we found a church called The Vintage Ten. We could tell from the website that it was a small group and that it wasn't fancy. We knew how to get there and we could even wear our jeans if we wanted to...and we did.

Let me tell you, I've never been to such a place to worship before. As we approached, I knew we were in for a bit of an adventure...

It doesn't look like an ordinary entrance to a church, does it?

Just inside the bar doors there sat a couple who greeted us warmly and 

pointed us toward the stairs.

When we got down there, we found a worship space set up in the middle of a dark basement room.

There were several rows of chairs set up.

There was coffee, cookies and water.

I saw no windows so they had some lights set up here and there.

People were friendly and kind.

Although we asked several people, we never really found an explanation for their church name.

Do you suppose the Vintage part is because it is under a bar...like vintage wine?

Maybe ten people started the church?

I just don't know.

Their regular pastor wasn't present so a seminary student was there to give the sermon.

He did a nice job.

A guy in shorts played the guitar and we knew most of the songs they sang.
It was really quite nice!

We worshiped.

We prayed.

We sang.

We rejoiced.

I kind of felt like an early Christian, or one worshiping in a

country where Christianity is outlawed. 

I knew that people walking by on the streets and even likely

the people in the bar upstairs had no idea a church

service was going on down there.

We knew they were above us, though.

Whenever someone in the bar used the restroom and flushed a toilet,

we could hear the water whooshing by in the pipes around us.

It really just added to the charm.

I snapped a photo of the walls when I used the restroom.

It kind of gives you a sense of the space there.

So today, while I worship in our pretty building with windows and fresh air,

I will think of the people at Vintage Ten and know that they are also

worshiping the same God at the same time, just in a different location.

Baptismal Anniversary and Vacation Agenda

Today is Mike's Baptismal Anniversary!

What? You don't know what I am talking about?

Well, in our family we celebrate birthdays just like everyone else does. We ALSO celebrate baptismal anniversaries. In fact, we think the day we were baptized into God's family is even more important than the day we were born. It is a day when we celebrate God giving us new life as Christians, forgiving our sins and making us fresh and clean. It is a seriously paramount event!

Seriously paramount or not, we have some fun with it. We try to find gifts that really have nothing to do with baptism, but give them some kind of religious meaning. For instance, one year Mike gave me a sprinkler. That was kind of funny because we had many discussions about baptism, should it be by immersion or sprinkling?  Another year I gave him a package of three pairs of undershorts. It's obvious, isn't it? Three for the Trinity (Father, Son  and Holy Spirit.... central to Christianity) and white to resemble the purity we achieve through the forgiveness of our sins. 

I struggled a bit with a gift idea this year but I came up with three...again, representing the Trinity. 

So, new LIFE given by the DIVINE gives us a HEAVENLY hope for eternal joy (oh shoot, I should have added an Almond Joy Bar) with him!

Ha ha ha!  I'm so clever.... or pitiful, depending on your point of view.

Now, I've not forgotten that I have oodles of vacation stuff to tell you. First, I want to document our agenda. You likely don't care what we did day by day but I'm afraid if I don't document it, I will forget something later on. So...

Wednesday April 23 - We drove to Denver, stopping in Cheyenne to wander around the mall a bit. Mostly we were killing time so we didn't arrive in Denver during rush hour traffic.

Thursday - We flew out of Denver, arriving in St. Louis early afternoon. We bought tickets on MetroLink (light rail) for a week of rides on their train/bus system. We enjoyed a full week of no worries about driving or parking a car!   We ate at Mike Shannon's (he used to be a Cardinal player then announcer). We'd eaten there on previous trips and remembered it to be a family type of restaurant, casual and moderately priced. It was loaded with memorabilia and was really a baseball museum. It was fun to wander around and see all the things on the walls. When we entered this time, it all felt different. It was very upscale and  the menu pricing was very, very different. The food was delicious but we both felt it was all wrong. Finally, we asked. It turns out that the restaurant we remembered had burned and the new Mike Shannon's was a very different kind of restaurant. It was nice but we felt kind of sad. We shook it off, though and then we attended a Blues Game that evening.  They won! Mike smiled! 

Friday we went to Union Station, an old train yard turned mall. Later we walked down to the Arch but the lines were long so we moved on to LeClede's Landing. Then, we went to tour the Edward Jones Dome (where the St. Louis Rams play during football season) and ended up at a Robotics Competition. MORE ABOUT THAT LATER! Friday evening we attended a Cardinal's Baseball Game, the first of 5.  MORE ABOUT CARDINALS LATER!

Saturday we went for a long walk, in the rain, to tour the Campbell House. When we got there they said their staff needed a lunch break and could we please return in an hour. Seriously? We'd checked ahead and their site said they were open but oh well, we'd only walked an hour or so in the rain to get there. We went back to Union Station and then later attended another Cardinals game in the rain....brrrr...MORE ABOUT THAT LATER AS WELL. Saturday evening Mike went to another Blues game, which they won. He's happy that they are now in the playoffs. I met with a friend I'd never met before. Yes, you read that right. MORE ABOUT THAT LATER.

Sunday, we walked to a bar and went to church in the basement. DEFINITELY MORE ABOUT THAT LATER! Sunday afternoon, you guessed it, another Cardinals game.  Sunday evening I think was when I went swimming in the pool featured in the movie, UP IN AIR. I didn't see George Clooney there, though. Mike rested as he wasn't feeling great...head cold.

Monday we toured Busch Stadium. Yep, MORE ON THAT LATER. Later we toured the ARCH, definitely more on that later. After the ARCH we toured an old courthouse that had some interesting history. I'll tell you more about that later as well. Monday night was another Cardinals Game.

Tuesday we rode a trolley to tour City Museum. That was one of the weirdest places EVER! You'll hear about it again as well. I took MetroLink back to Union Station while Mike rested, still not feeling great. We attended another Cardinals Game that evening. Yadier Molina batted a ball right to me. More about that later as well!

Wednesday we rode MetroLink back to the airport. It was a hot day!

After some delays, we returned to Denver. It was a cold day! Due to bad roads and accidents all over Denver, we stayed another night and drove the 4 hours to home the next day. 

Can You Guess Where We Have Been?

So, as I said, Mike and I just returned from vacation. We had a great time! A lot of you can guess with no hints as to where we've been but I'll give some photo hints anyway.

Let me show you our hotel room. It is the bottom four windows on the right. You can see our lampshade in the 3rd window from the right. Can you tell where we were staying?

Here, let me pull back just a bit...

You still can't tell? I will pull back further yet and see if you can figure it out. Can you still see our hotel in the center of the photograph?

Aaaaah, now do you know?

Do you see that weird thing in the background on the right?

Yep, we've been in St. Louis, Missouri.

Why?

Well, if you've forgotten, just click here.

Oh, I have sooooo much to talk about!

I took over 500 photos!

Lucky for you all, most of them aren't very good so I won't post them.

May Day? Are You sure?

Mike and I have been on vacation! Sneaky, aren't we? Not to worry. I took lots of photos and I am going to tell you more than you probably care to know about our trip.

Today, though, I have to play catch up so I will just tell you this much...yesterday we were in sunshine and temperatures in the 80's. We flew back to Denver, where we had left our vehicle last week, and the weather didn't exactly give is a warm reception!

Happy Birthday, Eric!

My daughter has great taste in men! She wisely chose a kind, creative, talented and good man as a husband and as a father to her children. As parents and grandparents, what could make us happier? We love having him as part of our family!

Today is Eric's birthday! I just want to publicly say that I have the best son-in-law ever!

He is thoughtful and fun.

He is a good provider for his family.

He has more energy than anyone I know.

He is multi-talented...paints, makes movies, sings, plays drums in a band, etc.

He loves our daughter.

We love him.

Have a great day, Eric!

Confessions of a Nurse

I think I have already made it pretty clear that sometimes I say things in an inappropriate way. It is a gift, really.

Recently, while at work, I did it yet again. Have you ever seen these funny little blue booties? We have to wear them over our shoes at work when we go back to the OR area. All of our patients have to wear them when they go back to the OR area as well. 

The problem with these dumb blue booties is they come kind of wadded up and people have a real hard time even finding the hole where their foot enters. Several times a day I find a patient struggling with them and I do the shoe salesman thing, squat down and put them on for them. I was doing just that one day when the patient made some comment about how easy I made it look. 

OK. 

Fine. 

Until...

I chuckle and say, "Yep. I'm a highly skilled professional. That's what I went to college for, to learn how to work the booty."

Yep. That is what came out of my mouth. 

What Kind of Blog is This, Anyway?!

Admit it, that question crossed your mind, didn't it?

Perhaps you first came upon my blog when you were looking for a quick but delicious cookie recipe. The next time you stopped by you maybe happened upon one of my Movie Reviews.

Sometimes I'm talking about matters of faith or even featuring one of my husband's sermons,  but the next thing you know I'm telling you to get a colonoscopy.  I may be confessing dumb things or doing the world's worst tutorial. I've posted on things from birth to death. I post everyday but you really can't count on a particular theme from me on any given day.

When I look around at other blogs I find some that have cooking themes, some devoted totally to crocheting, others that are all about spirituality. There are people who seem to have an endless supply of tutorials, recipes, etc. I follow some of those blogs. They are kind of cool. Mine, though, just isn't like that.

For awhile, I worried about this. I thought I should pick a theme and go with it. I never settled into it, though. I just kept flitting around from topic to topic. When people ask me what my blog is about, I don't really know what to say.

I guess my blog is just about life. Sometimes life is routine, sometimes it is extraordinary. Sometimes the routine IS extraordinary.  Those are the best days!

 Good To Be Alive

Jason Gray

from the album A Way To See In The Dark

Hold on 

Is this really the life I am living

‘Cause I don't feel like I deserve it

Every day that I wake and every breath that I take You've given

Right here, right now

While the sun is shining down

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow

Love like I'm on borrowed time

It's good to be alive

Hold on 

If the life that we've been given

Is made beautiful in the living

And the joy that we get brings joy to the heart of the giver

Then right here, right now

This is the song I'm singing out

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow

Love like I'm on borrowed time

It's good to be alive

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow

Love like I'm on borrowed time

It's good to be alive

I won't take it for granted

I won't waste another second 

All I want is to give You

A life well lived to say, “Thank You”

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow

Love like I'm on borrowed time

It's good to be alive

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow

Love like I'm on borrowed time

It's good to be alive

I won't take it for granted

I won't waste another second 

All I want is to give You

A life well lived to say, “Thank You”

Fresh New Art

Our daughter, Maria, has been doing more and more commissioned paintings. 

She's very good and she's very busy, but we were lucky enough 

to be gifted with a recent painting ourselves. 

It's not just any old painting.

This one was personalized just for us!

We LOVE it! 

Some of you will recognize it as the farm where Mike grew up. 

Mike and I lived there 4 years after we were married as well. In fact, that was Maria's first home. 

Maria painted this using a photo I took a couple of years ago. That girl has some talent!

Thank-you, Maria! What a precious gift!

Tears in the Darkness

I want to tell you about Ben Steele... again.  Ben is the father of one of our friends. I met him a time or two but I have to say, at the time, I really had no idea who or what he was. Truthfully, I didn't really ponder him much at all. He was an older gentleman who seemed nice enough. I had heard he was an artist. Mostly, though, he was just Rosemarie's Dad and I didn't ask many questions about his life. It is a good lesson to me. No one is a blank canvas. Everyone has a story worth telling. Ben got a chance to do just that.

Ben was a Montana boy who went off to war during WWII, ending up in the Philippines. He just wanted to serve his country and get back to being a cowboy in Montana. His life took a very awful detour! Ben ended up among those Americans captured. He endured the Bataan Death March. He survived a horrible sailing to Japan, where he was held as a P.O.W. He was close enough to Hiroshima to hear the explosion when the bomb dropped!

Ben Steele is the key character in the book Tears in the Darkness, written by Michael and Elizabeth Norman.  It is one of the most difficult books to read. Don't get me wrong, it is well written. The problem is, it is brutally honest. The things Ben and the thousands of other Americans and Filipinos endured are so horrible, I could not have imagined it worse.

Ben Steele saw such atrocities! He suffered disease, injury and near starvation. Even as I type these words I know that I am not giving you a good picture of what happened to him. It is so horrifying, I can't quite bring myself to tell you more.

A few years back Mike's Mom gave us the gift of a trip to Oahu. Our first day there we toured Pearl Harbor and learned more about the horrors of war that had occurred in that beautiful place. Somehow I felt that I didn't have the right to enjoy Hawaii until I'd suffered through some of that. I guess that is kind of how I feel about this book. I felt it was important that I finish it; that I try to understand what this kind art instructor from Montana had endured in his youth.

It is a hard experience, even to just read about. I just looked back at my old posts and one year ago I talked of this book, even though I'd not yet finished it. Honestly, after that, I had to put it aside for awhile. Only recently did I bring it out to finish. I do recommend this book, but not for the horrible stories so much as the bright spots that shined out, even during the worst times.  It is incredible to read about the courage those men had. Many risked their own lives to help each other. Mostly, though, I was so impressed by the unbelievable endurance shown by men such as Ben Steele.

The best part, to me, was the place of peace and forgiveness that Ben Steele eventually managed to settle in. After reading all that he went through, all that he saw, it is hard to understand how he finally came to let go of the anger and hatred. It's all there in the book, though.

From the point of historical value, this book really gives more depth to what you may have learned in a classroom about that period in time. I learned so much! Anyone who values historical perspective will find value in this book.

As I prepared this post, I found a wonderful site where you can hear Ben Steele himself tell part of his story to the couple who authored the book. It may take a couple of seconds to load up but I hope you will take the time to listen. Ben Steele also documented many of his experiences through his art. He's a gifted artist and his work is sprinkled throughout the book.

The Power to Influence

Not long ago I made a minor mistake. I apologized. What I received for my apology was a single sentence that was thought out and constructed to make me feel small in front of others. It wasn't any big deal. I didn't let his opinion define me as he doesn't even know me. I admit that I did let his words float around in my head the rest of the day and they had the power to bring me down a bit. I still don't know exactly how to control those kind of thoughts but by the end of the day I had pretty much wrestled that one to the ground.

I have attended enough communication and relationship workshops to know that no one but myself is responsible for how I feel. Others can try to demean me or lift me up, but the ultimate responsibility for my feelings is me. Yea, yea, yea.... I know that. But, like most people, I allow the words of others to affect how I feel about myself, at least for the moment.

By contrast, I have so many friends and family that make me feel valued. Again, I know that only I am responsible for my feelings but they make it so much easier for me to feel good about myself! That's what I want to do for others as well. I want to make it easier for people in my day to feel good about themselves.

I don't want to pass out empty compliments but I do want to notice people more. Sometimes that may be what they need the most, just to be noticed. I'm going to try harder this week to do that. If someone bags my groceries with good care, I want to thank them and let them know that I noticed. If a patient is showing courage in the face of great fear, I want to commend them. Perhaps they haven't attended all those relationship workshops and they will allow me to influence how they feel. If so, I'd better use that power wisely and use it for good.

How about you? Do you have stories of times someone's words helped you feel better about yourself?

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, 

people will forget what you did, but people will never 

forget how you made them feel.” 

― Maya Angelou

I Did It Again!

What is wrong with me?!










 Years ago, while speaking on the phone with a hotel desk clerk, I was enjoying listening to her fancy British accent. We were in New Mexico so her British accent was rather unexpected. The problem is, I am a chameleon when it comes to accents, picking up the accent of those around me. Usually I can keep it in my head but sometimes it slips out. That's what happened with her. The last sentence I said to her came out in a British accent.... likely not a very good one! I'm sure she thought I was making fun of her but it wasn't intentional. Apparently I can not help myself!


(Photo of Big Ben by Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee, .from 
    freedigitalphotos.net)


Recently I was waiting in line at Hobby Lobby. I was listening to the clerk speak with the customer in front of me. The clerk had a sweet southern accent that just wrapped itself around me. When it was my turn to check out she asked me if I'd found everyting. I responded with something like, "Yes, thank-you. I sure did." That seems appropriate, right? Well, the problem is, it came out in an accent from the deep south.  I am not from the deep south. The clerk didn't seem to notice anything because of course she did not know my normal accent. Well, then I had a real predicament. If I spoke normally, she might think I had been making fun of her. If I continued in a southern accent on purpose it would be deceptive and likely not good enough to fool her anyway. So, for the rest of the conversation I just tried to be as non-verbal as possible, answering with smiles and nods. I didn't know what else to do! 

Have any of you ever done something like this? I would sure feel better if you could tell me I'm not alone in this weirdness.

Sam and Elise, Uncle and Niece

Go ahead and say it- "Aaaaaaaah..."

Be Yourself

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” 

― Oscar Wilde

One Thing Remains

Commercial Break

Mother's day is coming up and we have just put a bunch of new items up on Wyoming Rose Boutique!

Stay tuned for your regularly scheduled blog...

Yesterday Bits

Yesterday started out quite cold and with lots of snow piled everywhere. We had so much snow, Walmart disappeared! Well, perhaps it is just a matter of perspective. Also, notice that the snow packed and icy road is all melted.

As the melting continued, it became a great day for icicles. 

All of these were gone a few hours after this photo was taken.

I enjoyed a lot of family time as we celebrated Maria's birthday.

Yes, I know you shouldn't cut the cake before the candles are blown out...

unless your dog happened to reach it and leave a nose mark in the corner.

That figures. Really, I just have bad cake luck.

And in this case, a bad dog!

I didn't even try to get the cake out of the pan. 

It is just better that way. If you don't know my cake decorating history,

please click here.

Cordelia was invited to help her Momma blow out candles.

It was a lovely day!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Daughter!

This
pretty
young
woman...
is
our
daughter,
Maria.


Sometimes
I
look
at
her
and
am
amazed
by
her
beauty.




Her loveliness goes way beyond what you can see in this photo, though, because it shines outward from her heart. She has such a determined sense of kindness and caring, she brightens this world! She is known for her artistic eye and creative talent. She teaches and shares her skills with others, pointing them toward their full potential as well.

To watch her mother her two little girls is pure joy for me. She mothers with a wonderful mixture of wisdom and gentleness. Her sweet girls are lucky children to have such a mother.

I will always be grateful that I was given the gift of mothering her.

I am so proud of our daughter, and today is her birthday!

Happy Birthday, Maria! I love you so much!
.