Happy Birthday To Me!

And a happy one it was.

I'm older and wiser. And many friends and family were charming enough tell me wonderful things that made me feel better about reaching this milestone birthday. I turned 50 today and it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The anticipation was definitely worse than the reality.

Don't be shocked that I'm admitting my age on the world wide web. Afterall, Greg already announced to practically everyone in our address book exactly how old this old gal is --and encouraged them to send me birthday greetings. Thank you, everyone who sent kind and gentle (and even some profound) words my way.

Following is an e-mail I sent to a friend who asked me how it was -- as she is anticipating her 50th birthday later in the year and is wondering what she and her husband can do to prepare for it:

It's glorious, Friend. Really....when the time comes, just embrace it. I have and it's not as hard as I thought. Oh...and suggest that your husband send an e-mail out announcing to the world that you're now older than dirt. Really. It's all uphill from there.

All kidding aside, it's been a great day. And I'm happy to report that the anticipation was worse than the reality. For months now, I've been whispering, "I'm turning 50 this year." Just to see how it sounded. Today I've proclaimed it proudly at least 5 or 6 times. And no one fainted (or even looked the least bit surprised). Honestly, I wouldn't mind a little touch of surprise from a few of my admirers. Oh yeah...Greg already told them. I have no more secrets. I've embraced humility too.

Okay...truly - now all kidding aside.....We're going to a fun concert in a couple hours -- Riders in the Sky . They are the singing voices on Toy Story 2 (if you can remember back that far -- if you have REASON to remember back that far.) They are a quartet of singing cowboys, comedians and who knows what else they will bring to tickle our funny bones. I figure welcoming in the next 50 years with laughter is the only way to do this thing gracefully.

Thank you for the birthday greetings.

~ Becki

P.S. Make sure your husband has our e-mail address flagged to get your entering-the-2nd-half-of-the-century birthday announcement. But just in case I miss it, Happy 50th, Dear! Isn't it great to be in such good company?

Show and Tell Friday

A while back we ruined a microwave by severely burning something in it. Okay, the real story is that middle son reheated a pork chop for 5 minutes - the house was filled with smoke and the chop was on fire when I walked in the door. The plate he was cooking on exploded and all in all.....this little episode did not bode well for my high hopes the boys could manage without adult supervision for any serious length of time.

After several days of trying to cook and gagging on burned pork chop smell, we admitted defeat and decided to replace the microwave. With our pronouncement of this news, oldest son suggested an experiment he had heard about.

First you take 1 old ruined, but working, microwave (you don't want to do this with a good working microwave, and I'll explain why in a minute). You place a bar of Ivory Soap in it (we used Lavender-scented).

Close the door and "cook" on high. This is what it looks like after about 45 seconds:




After a minute or so:



Pretty cool, isn't it? Well, we thought so, anyway. We used it afterwards for soap to wash with, btw. It was very fluffy. Hard fluff. Kind of weird, but kind of cool.

BTW, I suggest doing this outside because the smell of soap will become overpowering inside. Also, use a ruined, but operating, microwave because the smell of soap will remain and will permeate the microwave and I would imagine the lingering soap scent would flavor food cooked in it. The only thing I can imagine being worse than burned porkchop-flavored popcorn is soap-flavored popcorn.

Actually, I can imagine much worse, but it would not be polite for me to print it here.

So there you have it. Check out other's Show and Tell pictures at Kelli's place!