Happy 75th Birthday Mom!

On Saturday we had a 75th birthday celebration for Terry's mom.  She has been a mother (raised 5 boys and a girl), wife, sister, aunt, great-aunt, grandmother, daughter, partner, co-worker and friend to so many and she hasn't had a birthday party in many many years so we thought it was time to honor her and celebrate her life.

We were a little disappointed (especially for her sake) that more people weren't able to make it, but we enjoyed our time with those who could be there.  We had Mexican food for dinner (one of her favorites) and showed slides of some of her life history.  We also had Costco Chocolate cake with Chocolate Mousse filling, which is her favorite dessert.  Fortunately, the smallest size we could get was the half sheet cake, so there were lots of leftovers for everyone to take home.  Mom said she'd freeze individual slices to spread them out over the coming weeks.  Good for her!

Another fun surprise was that her sister, Patty (in New York) contacted a bunch of their cousins and other relatives that Carole hadn't seen in a long time and asked them to send birthday cards to our house before the party.  So when she arrived we had a basket full of birthday wishes for her.  She really enjoyed hearing from all those folks after so many years.

I found another use for the branch in the living room, too.  These are photos from various seasons in Carole's life (click to enlarge).  It was so much fun going thru old pics to find some of these wonderful ones.  Thanks Amy, for scanning all those old Hann family slides and thanks to Patty and Susan for sending some that they had at home too.

I'm so thankful to have a mother-in-law that's so kind and sweet and loves to laugh.  She's always been patient with her children and their spouses, no matter what.  She has never tried to give unsolicited advice and always forgives and loves her family thru thick and thin.  When I hear so many horror stories about some "mothers-in-law" I'm so thankful that mine is so awesome!  What a blessing to have her in our lives.  I only wish we could see her more often.

So all in all several generations were in attendance for Carole's big day:

Check out a few of our favorites from the slideshow that we put together for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM !!!

WE HOPE YOU HAVE MANY MANY MORE.

A new form of art!
As mentioned before, we visited Terry's mom, Carole, this weekend and while we were there she showed us this new piece of "OvenArt" that she created. Can you tell what it's made of?

I asked her if she'd pose with it, but she declined, so I decided to do a few different views of it to help you truly appreciate the piece.

I love the abstract nature of it...the tentacle-like legs reaching out between the vertical metal bars. It almost looks like a jelly fish or some otherworldly creature. It think she should sell it.

Now can you tell what it is?

I'll reveal the secret at the end of this story.

Terry has always told me the stories of when they were growing up, his mom used to store bags of potato chips in their oven because she didn't have enough cabinet space to store them anywhere else. Every once in a while, she would forget that they were in there and turn on the oven to bake something. As you can imagine, it wasn't long before things were smelling strangely, the room would fill with smoke and sometimes, if she was really busy (and distracted) they even caught on fire. Fortunately nothing else in the house went up in flames.

Now, I must say, in her defense that taking care of a family with 6 kids (5 of whom were rambunctious boys) had to be so much more than a full time job. You can't really blame her for overlooking a measly bag of potato chips in her busy day.

Have you figured out the artwork yet?

It's actually a couple of plastic container covers melted down thru her oven rack. She put them in there because she didn't have room anywhere else for them. Sound familiar?

It's nice to know that she can laugh at herself though. We love her for that.

I really do think she could sell it.

A Weekend with Mom Hann
We drove up to Prescott this past weekend to spend some time with Terry's mom, Carole. We had offered to take her to see the musical, Wicked, for her Christmas present and decided to go and pick her up so she wouldn't have to make the drive down alone.

As an added bonus, we had a chance to get out of the extreme heat for a few days.

On Sunday, we drove down from Prescott to ASU's Gammage Auditorium for the musical. This is what we saw when we sat down. It's a little out of focus since I couldn't use a flash and had a long lens, but it was a pretty cool sight of the stage curtain with the lurking dragon, map of the Emerald City, Oz and more.

The play was excellent! I love the songs and the woman who played Glinda (or Galinda), Katie Rose Clarke did an awesome job! She was hilarious and her subtle mannerisms added just the right touch to make things even funnier.

While we were at Terry's mom's we were talking about some of the items that she has around the house and found out that this little piano was a gift to her from her parents on her 7th birthday (68 years ago). It was one of two mini-sized Wurlitzer grand pianos that were window display models at their neighborhood piano store (1 black and 1 white one). She was told that there were no others made, but we're guessing that maybe they made one for each store, which would still be a very limited number of these pianos. I took some pictures of it, and I'm thinking I might try taking the photos to the Antiques Roadshow in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure if they can give me any kind of appraisal on photos, but it would be worth it to get even an idea if it's worth anything. just so she knows.

She says it's very heavy, a little wobbly and in need of tuning, but pretty unique, don't you think?

Quick Post:

Isn't this a fun picture? My friend, Julie took it when we were on a weekend trip last year...or was it earlier this year...

I like the pop of red.

Today we're going to see Terry's mom to celebrate her birthday (a little late). We're going to Prescott. Highs are only in the 70's, and we're hoping to see a little Fall color somewhere around, although that's not the best place in AZ for it.

I'm taking my camera so I'm sure I'll post about the trip.

We're looking forward to a great day with Amy, Andrew and mom.