:)

Yesterday was my grandmother's 92nd birthday, and I spent today in bed recovering- hence the late Best Shot, but it's still Monday, at least! The party was great - nobody bickered (or if they did, I didn't know about); there were munchkins for everyone to coo over, food for everyone to eat, and fun for everyone to have.
Grandmother was almost in tears twice - once because of truly heartfelt gift and once because of a truly hilarious gag gift.

Everybody should have a grandmother who requests a weapon for her next birthday, who'll help you search when your sippy cup goes missing (poor Baby O, we still didn't find it!), who'll tell you the potato salad was wonderful even though you know it was too dry.

Who'll sit through a long-winded cousin's story without rolling her eyes, but commiserate with you when you tell her you were thinking of rolling down the porch steps to escape.

Who gets a kick out of her children, her children's children, and their children ~ who you always know is watching, listening, and is guaranteed to catch you in the act.

Who manages to love with her whole heart, even if people sometimes don't notice.

So, in honor of the day, I've been saving this picture from a couple of weeks ago: Happy Birthday, Grandmother ~ many happy returns!

More pictures of me in one post

than you've seen in the 4 years of this blog put together.

Today is my 30th birthday, and I'm having a pretty good day. I'm ignoring my pain as much as possible, heading to the hotel to take a hot shower, and sitting on the front porch with my grandmother, feeling the cool breeze and listening to the life stories of people I wish I'd known (or known better). As a rule, I don't particularly like pictures of me, and I've been stingy when it comes to posting them here, I know. But I'm in the mood to look back and to look forward, and I thought this would be a nice way to do that.

You don't have to watch the 3 minutes or so of pictures from my life: I'll give you the Cliff Notes version if you'd like. For all my challenges and issues, through all the disappointments and losses, I've still been one lucky lady. I have a lot of people in my life who love me, who I'm lucky enough to love, and who've made my life a real experience. It's never been easy (see: name of blog). It probably never will be. But, for today, all I can be is grateful. (It's too bad only one person in any of these pictures will read this, but I'll try to tell the rest of them in person, if I can.)

Have a great weekend, everybody: I'm going to try for a computer free weekend myself, but we'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow.