Me Gushing about my Birthday Bash

Oh my gosh. What an amazing birthday week this has been. On my actual birthday I ferretted it out of Dave that I had TWO surprise visitors coming for the weekend. I suspected the first was Parry from Seattle but had no idea that the other was my sister Angela. I haven't seen her in a year and with all this stuff going on with our dad, it took me by complete surprise. I'm so appreciative of both of them for cashing in all their favor chips to leave their kids and come to Boston. Of course tons of people wanted to visit with Parry, and with Stephanie driving up from McJersey for the weekend, we were up until 3am three nites in a row.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Lindy in her role as fairy godmother to me, was slaving away on my birthday bash (Not to mention "Maria" doing all the dirty work!). Where do I start? If there were an award show for parties, Lindy would get oscars for best producer, best director, best set designer. When I entered her house, I was greeted by a gorgeous flower arrangement. In order to keep the flowers in peak form, she had her thermostat set to 49 degrees! Everywhere you turned there were amazing flowers.

Here are the foyer ones on the far left.

And when I used the powder room, I was greeted by these lovely creatures. I heart pink and green. Every detail was perfectly coordinated.

Of course the food was amazing. It was an Asian theme (hence the cherry blossomesque quince in the bouquets) and several courses. There were chicken cutlets, pork tenderloin, beef tenderloin, stir-fry, rice, fruit, salad. But the problem with food at Lindy's is that it disappears faster than it can be served. Normally people eat, and when they are full, they stop. Nobody stopped Saturday nite. I overheard one friend saying he'd been fasting since lunch to prepare for the food. I was jealous of pregnant Sande with her elastic panel...

In addition to good food there was a good deal of humor too. Becca, Parry & Sande made a hilarious quiz about me, such as what is my favorite household remedy (duct tape), how I talked my way out of a $210 ticket and a $100 fine for not having a Massachusettes drivers license, and that I adore shoes, McDonalds, and the Christmas Tree Shop. (You may not recognize Denise without her new wave attire.)

One of my Exponent buddies brought the house down with a faux striptease to "You make me feel like a natural woman!" At one point she was shaking her control top panyhosed booty right in front of a member of the stake presidency and Jen T had to leave the room because she laughed herself into a coughing fit that almost caused her to choke. And then Lisa D. rewrote the lyrics (she is FAMOUS for this) to "She's just a devil woman" to be "She's just a Hobo Mama, with children on her mind" with a chorus about drive thrus and processed foods. I have never been so honored!!!! Then some of my dear friends and family had to roast/toast me and make me cry.

My dear Coco took on the not so fun task of sending out letters and emails requesting people write up some of our shared memories. She took these letters and pictures and put them in a beautiful album that I cannot put down. Let's put it this way, if my house is on fire, I'll grab the kids and this album (and not necessarily in that order...). Thank you all who contributed!

The other gift that blew me away was from Bret & Anne who made and framed a crest for me, that somehow crystalized my past decade. I'll have to take a picture and scan it. The crowning touch is that the bottom reads: "Noli flens ad me venire" which translates roughly to "Don't come crying to me."

There were even party favors of my favorite hot tamales in little take out boxes.

Here I am with two of my 3 favorite redheads, Pritchett & Parry (see Becca above), all of whom have saved my life countless times. Red hair really does give people super powers.

Parry gave me that new book where all sorts of people write 6 word autobriographies, and had people write some for me. Here's a sampling:

"Mormon wife & mother. Still rebellious." "What happened to my body? Babies." "Papa travels. Mama needs break." "Don't come cryin'...but everybody does." "Red Hot Mama writing up a storm." "The best gift ever: photo liposuction." And my favorite, because I say it at least once a day, "Okay, you gotta tell the story..."

Dessert was to die for. So I used to think my favorite dessert that Laurie L. made was this rolled chocolate and cream delight (really, it's a high brow Ho-Ho, complete with crunchy chocolate coating). Then I thought it was the chocolate orange cake that she made for a wedding that Mr. JoySchool stole from me and I'm still mad about. But now I know my True favorite is this little baby to the left: a raspberry chololate cake that made some grown men cry. (This is the same friend whose cookie recipe I made 3 times for Dave's sisters and never once made it into the oven. One nite I came upon the 3 of them in bed gorging on the raw dough and excused myself so they could be alone with it.)


Now I know most Lindy fans think her toasted coconut cake is her best cake, but I've long been a fan of the Banana Lemon Raspberry one (even before A.R. served guests mere "shcmeres" of it and kept the rest for her family). It. Is. So. Yummy.

Sunday morning Dave was over at Lindy's trying to re-put apart their stereo system when he got a text from Stephanie saying, "Still in bed. Want to sleep, but must get up for Melinda's chicken and Lindy's cake." Lucky for us one big plate of chicken had somehow not been discovered until later and we took it home. Parry & Steph polished it off, allowing my sister and I each a tender and a half.

Y u m!

Lisa made her [in]famous lemonaide cake. Dave B. of course decorated it since he can out Martha anyone I know. (He keep refusing to do a cake class for Enrichment despite repeatedly being begged.) One of his secrets is to line the cake pan with a paper towel. No flour, no Pam. This cake is so good that even though the first time Lisa served it around here, and she only peeled off one of the TWO plies, people still went bonkers for it. Sure, some of them had chewed paper towel wads on the edges of their plates, but it didn't stop anyone from going back for seconds. So there you have it. I have never felt so loved and spoiled and cherished as I did this past Saturday, surrounded by so many dear friends. If I can brag a bit more, let me say that no one in the world has friends that are as wonderful as mine. Where ever I go, where ever I live, I have always been blessed to meet the best best people. I love you all!