Birthday Week

My last post was a reflection on my first 28 Birthday's of my life. Even though it is sad to me to move on without my parents, I am one lucky girl to have so many wonderful people in my life!! Thank you everyone for making my birthday special! I got so many sweet phone calls, cards, texts, FB messages...you name it. I felt truly loved! It is really what I needed this year to help get me over the 'hump'! Thank you!

To start off the birthday week, my aunt Holly and uncle Jim invited Jonathan and me over for dinner on Wed night. (they invited Michael too, but he was visiting his father that evening.) What a wonderful evening it was!! We ate yummy Animia's fajitas, then Jim and Jonathan went up stairs to play. Holly and I actually got to sit, sip coffee, eat dessert and TALK! This is very rare for me these days, so it was awesome to girl talk with no interruptions! We ate Lemon La Madeleines in honor of mom, since that was one of her favorite desserts!



As one of my gifts, both Holly and Jim wrote me very sweet and thoughtful notes about my parents. I LOVE to hear stories and memories about my parents, so if you have any, please feel free to send them my way! :)


Holly's letter included photos of my parents and she told stories about each of the photos, a true treasure! Thank you so much Holly!!! This is one of my favorite photos in the letter! I had never seen it before!

My Grandpa Norman, my uncle Rick, my Dad, my uncle Jim and my uncle Mike. I think this is probably Christmas '74, at my Grandparent's home. Holly said she believes this was the first time she ever met my dad. - Can I just say...WOW! Sean, you look just like your dad in this photo, my dad is wearing Tie-Die, I love Jim's mustache and Justin, you look just like your dad too!   

In my uncle Jim's letter, he told a very funny story that went along with the time frame of this photo and I would like to share with you:
All the O'Brien kid's and their boyfriends and girlfriends would gather at my my Grandparents house on a typical Saturday evening. That day my dad had been out and overheard two men talking to each other in Spanish. It seemed that every time one man would say something, the other one would respond in a serious low deep voice "bueno". Then the other would say something and the first one would respond in a serious low deep voice "bueno". My dad told everyone that evening about what he had overheard earlier that day and for the next 2 hours, everyones sides were sore from laughing. Every time anyone would say anything to my dad, he would respond in a serious low deep voice "bueno" and everyone would start laughing again.
Thank you Jim for sharing this story, I laughed out loud when I read it, simply because, that is such a dad thing. I can totally see him doing that!