happy birthday joseph michael

Joseph invited four friends over for his birthday. I hadn't planned very well, so I found burgers in the freezer. Paul grilled them and they were too freezerburned. Tasted awful. So he grilled the three pound bag of coneys, which isn't enough, so I got out three bags of chicken nuggets.....I couldn't put them in the oven yet because I had put cakes in there....anyway, this story DOES have a point....the boys took a coney and some wafflefries, and left to go to a movie! Now I have two full trays of nuggets baking, and a cake cooling on the counter, and Joseph and his friends are gone....

19 years ago today was my due date for my fifth child. ....anyway, that day was hot...we were in the middle of a rare May heatwave, 90+ degrees out, and humid. We lived in a mobile home, and it was just too hot in there for a pregnant mommy...so, we decided to go to the mall. The big mall in the big city. Emily Anne was in kindergarten, we took Abigail Marie, 4, Benjamin Paul, 2, and Mirielle Joy, 15 months. Cheryl's Katie and Becky were also in school, so she brought Susan, just turned 5, Claire, 3, and Janet, 14 months. (she was 4 months along with Ellen, her number six)...and I had a "helper", who was 18 or 19, named Irene. Off we went...well, we were halfway there when I realized my contractions were 5 minutes apart....so we turned around and went to the hospital, all of us! We walked in with those six kids, I was 4 centimeters with steady contractions, so I was staying. Cheryl and Irene left with the kids, Paul came from work, and by the end of the day we had a baby. He was 8 pounds ten ounces, and he was born in two simple pushes, just like magic. He was so beautiful....he was as relaxed at birth as he is now. He stretched right out and I couldn't keep him swaddled for anything. He was a good baby...which was a good thing....we started building this house when he was newborn, and moved in when he was eleven months old...Paul used to go straight from work to the building site, so we didn't see him much. I had to fix up the mobile home to sell, keep it clean for people to look at, and buy the appliances and flooring and light fixtures....ugh, what a year. But I was young, and in retrospect, it wasn't too impossible.

Anyway, we finished our dinner sans Joseph....I didn't bother frosting the cake. We can just have it tomorrow. I don't mind. It is HIS birthday, and if he would rather go to a movie with his friends, it is fine with me....after all, we have so many birthdays here....18 a year, to be exact.

I am tired, it has been a busy weekend....Mirielle is back from Detroit, Abigail is over visiting, and I have lots of tired kids to tuck in....