A New Year, A New Opportunity

2009 has come and gone. It was overflowing with great memories, mostly of Libby. She started off the year only being able to sit up, & now she is running around shouting the word “No” at me whenever she can. (Though it mostly sounds like “doe” instead of “no”, unluckily I know what she truly means).

Our biggest event of the year had to be Libby’s first birthday. It was a grand occasion with over 40 guests. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking when I decided to have that big of a party. I must have been drunk…drunk with love for my little princess. This party took weeks of preparation & money that could have been spent on vacations, tummy tucks, bills, college tuition funds. Instead, I knew it was my duty to throw her the best party that she would never remember. There were flowers, streamers, balloons (there is a story for those dang things), appetizers, signs (we’ll get to that one), Dairy Queen catered ice cream, guest books, center pieces, presents, full dinner, a mini bar, & a small birthday cake that NEVER got eaten (yes, there is a story for that as well). Let the stories begin:

To start off with, I have the BEST mother-in-law one could ever ask for. She is always willing to help me with anything I ever ask; she is worth her weight in gold for sure. Anyways, I had told her that I wanted to have balloons for Libby’s party; she went out and bought me TWO helium tanks, enough for about 75 balloons. (Which sadly I had bought about 150 balloons). When I saw how many I could make as opposed to how many I had in my head I was going to have, a frown came across my face. (You would have thought I was the one year old.) Could I have seemed any less grateful to my MIL?? The worst part of it was that I knew I was overreacting & was still upset. She offered to go to Publix to get the rest made & I kept assuring her it was okay & that I was fine. My cousin Kelli, her friend Jessi, & my sister Mary Susan were in charge of blowing up the balloons and tying the curly ribbon to the ends. They were at balloon count 70 before I realized that they hadn’t used the second shade of purple (Hydrangea) that I had bought. Tears streamed from my eyes as I tried to explain that Hydrangea tied all the colors in together. My family looked at me like I was nuts, my sister started crying & said “I never do anything right” (you can see that dramatics run in my family) & Jessi started laughing. They blew up about 3 more Hydrangeas before the tanks ran out. Needless to say I sniffled quietly as I arranged the balloons throughout the house and outside. No one talked to me for awhile after that.

The next story is about the giant sign I had bought that said “Happy First Birthday Libby”. It had four posts & was supposed to stick in the ground. I had it in the perfect spot in our front yard welcoming people to our front door. I spent about 15 minutes arguing with Tad on sticking it in the grass (Tad and his damn grass) then another 20 minutes sweating in the hot August sun trying to stick it through layers of Georgia red clay by myself. When my Aunt arrived to help me set up, I asked her how she liked the sign & she replied with “What sign?” I ran out the front door to see that the sign was missing. Panicked I walked around the house only to see it thrown thoughtlessly in the garage and ripped in two different places; again with the streaming tears. I screamed Tad’s name, knowing he was the vicious enemy who sabotaged my work. When he shot around the corner I started in, asking why he would do this to me. He tried to explain the wind had blown it away and he actually chased it down our street kicking it along trying to save it. My brother in-law came around the corner to see what all the commotion was about, & then he too told the story of the wind & chase. “Liars” was all I could think in my head, I knew he hated that sign all along. (Turns out the sign did blow away; someone later told me they saw Tad chasing it down the street. I have yet to apologize to either of them.)

The day was filled with numerous other events that played out about the same as these two. The temperature hit around 90 that day causing the Dairy Queen ice cream half melted in my car during its transport, the ice in the beer/drink tubs to melt at an outrageous pace & the balloons to get foggy. Then the Baby Cake fell icing side down, the burgers weren’t cooking fast enough for our guest, & the great-grandmothers were getting hot & kept asking me to fix them a plate/drink/get their purse/give them tissues/turn on the fans/I want a real glass/hand me my cane/you need some lipstick on/how do you walk in those shoes. But to top it all off, at the end of the night I realized we had NEVER sung Happy Birthday to Libby! I had forgotten all about it. Needless to say I felt like I had ruined the whole party; I was a failure at motherhood. I have chalked all this up to being Tad’s fault somehow. Where was he during all of these incidents anyways? I’m sure he’ll have something to say in response.

Over all the party was a sucess in the fact that our guest had a good time and Libby went to sleep smiling.

Happy New Year…may it be filled with endless occasions (like this one) that help you look back at yourself & realize just how lucky you are to be a mother, father, wife, husband, daughter, or son and to have moments like these to look back on and smile.