My birthday party

Yesterday was my 60th birthday celebration. The day began early with David, Dustin, and Justin heading off to the movie theater for the 9:00 a.m. showing of "Star Wars". They had all seen it at least once before, but....Oh, well, it's something I don't quite understand. I rousted Lori from the warmth of her bed to go have breakfast with me at Grumpy's and then we went to the Dollar Tree to get the decorations for the party. When we got home, Lori went to lie down for a while, having not slept well the night before. I was, of course, apprehensive about getting stuff ready to go in time but seemed to be alone in that concern. I'll jump ahead and let you know it did pull together and we entertained about 50 guests at my church in the Fellowship Hall. 

Here am I posing with my cake, made by my friend, Betty. The candles had blinking lights in them. What a delicious cake it was!

 As guest began to arrive, my sister, Lori, and her family were good about engaging them in conversation. Lori had nicely picked up a couple bags of cheese curds, one for the party and one for my friend, Ollavan, who is shown talking with Lori. Also shown is Dusty with Patty and her daughter, Katie. Seated see Jackie, OJ, Betty, and Judy C.

Thanks to Terri T. for taking pictures of the room, trying to catch as many guests as she could. She is just a doll for doing this, and for helping out in so many other ways!

Mike S., Justin and I sat down to eat with my friends Bill, Nancy M. and Nancy W. 

(Click the photo to see it larger) Justin took this photo of the room using my camera's panoramic feature. On the left side of the photo, foreground, see my neighbors Joe and Rose across from Dusty and Lori.  On the far side, left corner, see more neighbors, Debbie and Dick, and Tracy.

Thanks to Brenda for the idea of getting the four of us together for a photo! OJ made this lovely wreath we posed in front of: Robin C., me, Betty G., and Brenda N. The two on the right worked for/with me at Rosewood and Robin worked there after I was no longer involved. We've remained friends and look forward to get togethers as often as we can make it happen. 

Justin and I posed together as well (I wish I'd thought to remove his name tag first....)

As I was opening my presents, my friend and neighbor, Debbie came up to 'roast' me. Instead of insults, she said loving and kind things about me. I was so moved and deeply touched. I must spend the rest of the year living up to her accolades. Marlena is behind me, filling her plate.