A Birthday & A Grandson

This is the beautiful bouquet sent to me for my 85th birthday by my two terrific Dallas nieces.

My birthday turned out to be a very special day indeed. Even though I was (and am) still sick, I got so many wonderful telephone calls from all of my children, and even some of my grandchildren. I talked so much that I ended up coughing lots more yesterday, but it was oh so worth it. I didn't feel very hungry last night but Dick really wanted to bring me a special birthday dinner, so I let him. He went to the Outback and brought the most delicious prime rib dinner I have had in many years. It was so thick and it just melted in my mouth. Honestly, I hardly had to chew at all. Of course it had all the "fixings" plus a bloomin' onion. We have enough for another dinner just like it tonight. He even bought me a birthday cake. All in all, I couldn't have asked for much more. I do want to thank all of you for sending so many wonderful, e-mails, cards and good wishes. But enough about my birthday. Tonights post is to be all about one of my grandchildren. You do have to know that I am doing these grandchildren posts in no particular order. Eventually, I will get through them all. Tonight's post therefore, is about Sean Noyes, my only son's youngest child. (This, of course, doesn't take into consideration that last July he added three extra ones of Stacy's, his wonderful new bride.) I'll do them all together at the end, because I want you all to know about them too. (I just figured out in my mind that will take 12 more posts so about this time next year you should know about all of my grandchildren.)

Sean Noyes was born May 17, 1997. He is the youngest of my natural grandchildren. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see as much of Sean as I would have liked when he was a small child because his mother didn't like me very much. As it turned out, she didn't like my son too much either, because after they had been married for seven years, she told Rich that he didn't make her feel pretty anymore so she wanted a divorce. He had adopted her four year old, Cameron, when they got married and they had another child, Blaine, who is four years older than Sean. I really loved these three kids so much, so it wasn't only tough for Rich but it was hard for me too, when they spent most of their time with their mother, even though they had joint custody. Rich had them every other weekend, so I did try to see them once in a while. The amazing thing though, is that all three of them left their mom and step father and came to live with their dad. Sean was only 14 when he went to live with his dad in Lake Tahoe. Blaine had left to be with Rich a couple of years earlier. Cameron left as soon as he graduated High School and lived with his dad off and on until just a couple of years ago. I can tell you though, that Rich was the happiest person ever, when he had both Blaine and Sean with him in Lake Tahoe, after all those years of paying child support for three children.

It is so neat now that they are all together and Sean is so very helpful with the three young ones. It is a joy to us to see how very happy the whole family is.

But more about Sean. He is such a bright intelligent boy who has managed to get straight A's. He and I have such a great relationship and he is about the only one of my grandchildren that phones me on a regular basis, somtimes two or three times a week. He is also a great Scrabble player. Whenever we are together, you can find three of us, his dad, Sean and me hunched over a Scrabble board. I am sad though, that he doesn't get to spend much time with us. I only see them about twice a year, when we visit them in Tahoe, or they spend a night or two with their dad when he comes to see us, which isn't very often. As I said before though, we do talk on the phone, so in that way I can keep up with all of his happenings.

Sean is getting to be quite a good golfer. That is one of the main things he likes to do when the weather is right. He also loves to ski and does a lot of that when the snow is good.(It wasn't so great this year, which hurt the economy up there quite a bit.) The beach there is also a great attraction. That lake is probably the most beautiful lake I have ever seen.

We are planning to go up there around the end of September so we are really looking forward to that! I wish I had pictures of him when he was a little boy because he was such a darling little kid, but I don't seem to be able to find any. Surely we took pictures then, but for some reason I just can't find them so these will have to do.

I have no idea how old he is here, but he is pretty young.

As you can see, he is a great USC fan, as we all are in this family.

I can't imagine what I was writing, but evidently he thought it was interesting.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him. He was letting his bangs grow. They later got so long I couldn't figure out how he could see through them.

This is the family at home , including the three younger ones. He has a nice haircut and you can actually see his forehead.

I really need Dick to help me with the pictures and he is almost ready to go to his meetings, so think I will bring this to a close. Until next Tuesday, my good wishes go out to you all.