Thirty-Three hehehe

My Darling Daughter, Jade~

It is hard to believe you are 33! It made me shed a few tears yesterday when I started to go back and realized how very fast it went. You made it all the more magical for our already magical love. Thank You!

Here are a few thoughts I tripped upon after I began thinking of your topic ideas:

Favorite TV shows:  At first you watched what THEY watched, big brothers. They were gone 2 weeks out of 4 so you had your 'only child' time, too.

 You liked Mr.Dress Up on Canadian TV, and of course Sesame Street.
You loved Burt and Ernie and had adorable slippers with their heads on the toes. Too cute! You had a Sesame St. vinyl album with songs like, "Its not easy being green," and 'I'm Pretty', my favorite. 'Look at the stars, Look at the Sea, Look at the Moon and then compare them to Me, I'm pretttttyyyyy, what I am is prettttyyy." I think a little seal or some other funky little critter sang it.

Whenever a Garfield special went on you all adored that. Claymation was a big hit, too. Dr. Snuggles was a hard one to watch with our rabbit ears and 3-station Canadian shows, but we somehow managed. We loved Dennis the badger and Nobby, or a similar name of the creepy little mouse. Winnie Vinegarbottle and Granny Toots were fine ladies, too.

Mistakenly we let you watch the movie 'Gremlins' and it was your nemesis movie and monster freak out picture. Mine was the witch in Snow White. We left the drive-in as a lightening and thunderstorm  rained down on the show and as we drove out she was on the screen holding out the apple!  It will be interesting to see if Jay had a scarey movie that freaked him out. Of course, who wasn't afraid of the flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz.

For Easter you kids loved 'Hupsha Hupsha Quick Like a Bunny' with a gangly Easter bunny with a bugs bunny type persona.

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Funny Words:
Otsa Botsa=That is too hot
Botty Coffee= an empty triangular yellow plastic bottle filled with milk and sorgum and sometimes grain coffee.
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Here is the questions you asked me.

ideas:

Jade as a toddler—what did I like to eat, funny things I'd say, routines, things I feared, toys I loved, songs or tv shows or books I liked etc etc
crafting for your kids
favorite games and crafts you'd enjoy with your kids
Daughter-mom relationship when you were in your early 30s
Stories you made up for me
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 I have many answers and I will continue, I promise. I just wanted you to have a little bit of birthday blog today. Our photos are mostly packed but I want to add them, too.

You and I had a great relationship in my thirties. You were always enthused with whatever project I was emersed in, sewing, painting, gardening and cooking. You were so helpful.

Quick Thoughts:

~ I see you on Lake Titus road with huge rhubarb wing-leaves and a curly head full of little buttercups.

~I see you picking blue berries with me and making Rainbow Path in back of our house (Lake Titus) and going down to the stream out back and sitting on a huge, huge rock with me and Adam and we'd pretend it was a ship or Island and the many tufts of new spring weeds that looked like an ocean of little Watson type doggies.

~I see you and the boys and me playing " Indians' there. We'd go on an adventure. Mykel was always Golden Eagle!

~I hear you singing with me "Hey Look Me Over, Lend Me an Ear" as we walk through the woods.

~I see path number 7, our favorite walk of all time. We'd go quite far and always had fun. We found a big, big house shaped rock and named her Violet House although there were no flowers, just deep moss. I have a photo of you sitting on it giving the peace sign somewhere.

~I made up Silvery John the Unicorn stories for you and his little sidekick Chi-Chi-Chipper. You loved any story about the two little fresh boys, Johnny and Eddy, too.

I think I will stop here for today but I will surprise you one day and just write when it isn't for your birthday.
Honey, You make everyday better and always have. I love you with all my heart and I love your family. Eko looks so much like you did! Gorgeous! How lucky we are that 33 years ago you joined our circle of Love.   My Love Surrounds You Always,
                              Mama

My Best Girl Buddy EVER

My Dear Jade,

Being my best girl buddy ever, I'm sure you still love me even if I don't visit this blog as often as I should. Do you know I have my moon in Aries? This makes me constantly seek new fuel to burn and when the flame dims I'm off to seek some new fuel. I don't know if Aires in the Sun sign causes the same effect in you or Mykel. What do you think?

I thought we needed a little Hardy-Har-Harmon Family style humor to change the subject. I love this. I am so sick to my everything of pumpkins. Not the nice, normal, easy-going veggie, but what they've done to it! I applaud the art aspect, but the pumpkin flavored everything has reached the breaking point for me. Pumpkin cream cheese at Lisa and Ad's was weird, as is the pumpkin flavored shakes and coffee at the fast food places. Every recipe on-line for the last month and the next is pump pump pumpkin. I think the only thing I could go for pumpkin-wise would be soup like we had at the Italian restaurant on L.I. we went to for Thanksgiving years ago with Nanny, Uncle George and crew and us.

That Thanksgiving was the first time I met Ian. It was the nice part of the trip. At the restaurant,  Ian swallowed a steak in 3 seconds. When we all went out to dinner before my Mom's memorial, Ian had a huge plate of ribs and didn't get a speck on him. I was amazed. I get messy just looking at stuff like that. I know they 'taste' great, but the stringy stuff in my teeth after any meat is just too gross these days. I'll be down to soft food after the artery op so it will be a new kind of Thanksgiving for me this year.

                           "Salmon shake?'' suggested Dad.

Nope, I will be fine on Lipton's extra noodle soup. I have a mind-fix about that stuff from eating it when I got sick as a kid. Now, I only eat it when I'm feeling uckish. I love soup, as you well know. I used to make it so often. I did this week and had it for lunch for a whole week and it had lots of quinoa in it, too. I love that stuff, too.

Stir fries are what I'm trying to steer to these days, not just to get my cholesterol down, but to lose weight and feel more energized. When my back is better, I so much want to exercise or more likely, do yoga again. For the last few days I've skipped all bread. Wow. That is dramatically hard but grains taste even better. For lunch I slightly cooked 1/2 a yellow squash and tomato. It tasted so good. No matter what I get when I eat out, I don't really like.  You cook great and I always enjoy your creations. Dad is so cute about the whole cooking process and I've finally 'let go and let Gary' and most of the time he is so happy puttering, frying, dicing, and so forth. The last batch of his cookies were the best cookies I've ever had. Maybe because he loves making them so much.

Your peach pies from your own peach tree are so special. I know it is in the genes. I don't recall my Mom every making very many except for a few blueberry and apple. They looked like fiascoes but they tasted divine and we ate every crumb.

My Nanny Case from Patterson, NJ was the pie Queen! I have such fond memories of her at her large old dinning room table rolling out the dough for the Thanksgiving or Christmas pies. Oh, mince was my favorite. Seeing her crimp the crust (she did it with a fork, you know I finger crimp) and cutting the big circles. She would give me the left-overs to play with along side her.

 My Nanny Case was so creative. I see a lot of her in you. She was strong, a real caretaker of her clan and always making food, dolls, and crafts. I loved the big, big family gatherings. 'Madge' had 6 kids, all with kids themselves, it was a wonderful time for me being one of her 14 grandchildren.

The Case tree in NJ was always huge and filled with every imaginable trinket and bulb. Underneath,  the pile of gifts was breathtaking. Every grandkid got 2 gifts, but you can imagine what over thirty looked like in those days to a five year old!

I know Christmas isn't your thing, but how I loved that tradition with the Case side of the family.  You are starting your own traditions and I love that, too.

But most of all, I love you, My Daughter, My Friends, My Wise Master, My Little Elf, My B.G.B.E.

It's A Girl!

March 22, 1980 I gave birth to my one and only little girl. We had a long, long night and day of labor, but when she arrived, eyes wide open, all that melted away and my husband, Gary, and I were surrounded by a heavenly bubble of joy.

We brought her home and her brothers Mykel, aged 9 and Adam, aged 6, were adorable with her. Jade Crystal Harmon completed our family circle, or in some cases, family circus!

For 32 years we've grown and grown and grown!

Our enlarged circle now includes 2 beautiful, smart and funny daughters-in-law, Ann, Mykel's wife, and Lisa, Adam's wife, a wonderful, talented, loving son-in-law, Jade's husband, Jay, and 7 grand kids! In order of their appearance in our lives, Sophia, Kai, Alex, Rowan, Desmond, Leo and Jade's very first, Eko.

People write blogs for many reasons. Few read mine so my blogs tend to be more like diaries or journals for myself. That is just fine! This blog is for you, Jade, and if a few others find it or read it, that is cool. But, you have always asked for childhood memory stories and I think of many of them on a daily basis. Now I have my place, our place, to put them.

So, Happy Birthday to you, dear Daughter O' Mine. Your own brilliant blog, Belly Blog, aka Eko Blog, about the pregnancy and birth of your own boy is so inspiring I thought you deserved a whole blog about YOU. So stay tuned, honey, and I will enjoy this one! I hope you do, too.

You know your parents loving hands are always ready to hold you, help you, catch you, wave hello and goodbye.

White Gold Violet and All My Love (and Dad's too, of course)
 Mama
<3<3<3<3