Thursday, April 23, 2009

Knowing When You're Blessed

I have refrained from discussing this year's birthday on my blogs, but I am 60 years old today. It doesn't seem like it's been sixty years since my birth. So much for my time sense, huh?

Vicki and I have planned a short trip up into the mountains for our birthdays, since hers is 5 days later than mine. For 5 days every year I hear about how I'm three whole years older than her. I never tire of the taunts and ribs. The trip was to be our presents to ourselves and nothing else was planned; or so I thought.

We spent this last weekend just chilling. Nothing special going on and looking forward to a really lazy weekend.

In the middle of Sunday morning Vicki announced she needed to go to the store later that day and run some errands. What I didn't know was that she had been scheming and planning for over two weeks to surprise me.

A couple of hours after she left there was a knock on our front door and there stood a bunch of our grandkids. I invited them in and then the rest of the crowd showed up. We have 5 kids and 13 grandkids so we hardly ever see them all together cause they are spread out throughout the country. The group that came on Sunday was comprised of the local ones along with Vicki's parents and some friends of my oldest daughter.

It was a great surprise and warmed my heart in that:

a) My wife had thought to do this and planned it all
b) My kids and grandkids had taken time out of their weekend to come see me
c) They all understood how this was the absolute best gift a guy turning 60 could get

We had a great time, I hung out with some of the grandkids and we terrorized our Adult neighborhood a bit. The group was convivial and teased me greatly about my advanced age. I received a pin
to wear that lights up and an old geezer's hat. I immediately donned the aforementioned chapeau and wore it in the fashion of Art Carney's character "Norton" in the Honeymooners. Don't worry if you're too young to remember this famous show starring Jackie Gleason; you're young baby, enjoy it.

For those mature enough to understand the reference you should be able to picture me as the height of fashion and studliness in the hat.

Here's a portion of the group that showed up. This is as many as I could get to sit still for a picture. The others not seen were adults, most specifically my wife (who told me when I asked her to sit for the picture, "You see me every day."

I feel truly blessed to have family and friends who'll come celebrate my continued aging with me on a warm Sunday afternoon in Phoenix. Thanks everyone for coming.

Here's their picture....



I might be 60 today, but at least I know I'm blessed.

The Daily Husband


8 comments:

Robert said...

♪♪♫ Happy birthday to you!! ♪♫♪

You are most definitely blessed with such a thoughtful wife & family. I hope this is your best year ever!

Richard said...

Robert: Thanks, hope all is well with you and yours.

Betty said...

Happy Birthday, and many, many more.

Richard said...

Betty: Thanks Betty, I'll toast your health this weekend as we celebrate.

Anonymous said...

My computer had a "reminder" that it was your birthday and I meant to call a couple of times but that dammed boss of mine kept thinking it was his mission to control my every waking hour! My gosh, I knew you were older than me but not that much! And now here it's 10:42 and I'm just looking at the computer and getting that second wind. Happy birthday McMims

McPleger

Richard said...

McPleger: good to hear from you man. Say Hi to Nancy and Jim for me will ya?

We're headed up to Payson this weekend to check out the Casino and enjoy the ride. Staying at Kohls Ranch for first time.

Rich

quilly said...

Happy Birthday, Richard!

bettygram said...

Yes you are blessed. Happy Birthday to you and your wife.