Bean’s Birthday Dinner

On the girls’ birthdays I pick up their requested lunch, a birthday treat to share with their friends, and I have lunch with them.  Zman wanted to know why I don’t have lunch with him.  So I offered to pick up lunch for his upcoming birthday.  He was all excited until I reminded him that I’d be joining him for lunch.  Funny, all of a sudden Chik-Fil-A was not so appetizing….

Anyway, Bean requested a McDonald’s cheeseburger – plain.

She is not big on cupcakes, so we searched for an alternative.

Twinkies make everyone smile!  And they have a 3 to 4 year shelf life.  What more could you ask for?

Look how good they make you feel!

As I have said before, in our family, on your birthday you pick the dinner.  Bean ALWAYS picks Macaroni Grill. 

I picked up Mamaw after work and Fadre picked up the kids.  And we all met a Macaroni Grill.  Here’s a video of Bean’s excursion from her friend’s house to the truck to head off to dinner.  A little dramamine anyone?

 

You have to wait a few minutes when you ask for a table for 13.  Let’s see how we spent our time…

Bean and Bug were given this digital camera by my boss about a month ago.  It hardly ever leaves Bean’s hands.  (hence the above video)

Clockwise from bottom left:  Nana, Mamaw, Fadre, iNik, Jocelyn, Paul, Zman, Carson, Almost Mine, Bug, Bean, Papa. 

 

Bug’s a little tired.

iNik in her natural habitat – on her phone.

 

What’s in the bag?  What’s in the bag?

It’s her own camera so she doesn’t have to share.  She was elated!

 

And then this lovely lady sang “Happy Birthday” in Italian.   Complete with a piece of chocolate cake.

WHAT??????

Oh, sorry Mom!

Almost Mine’s Birthday Dinner

Almost Mine picked Chili’s as his birthday dinner restaurant. Zman and his girl K had plans for later that evening, so we invited her to join us. I got this appetizer for free with a coupon. Mmmm.

Bean, Bug, Almost Mine

Fadre, Poppa, iNik, Nana

Zman and K (he loves for me to take his picture)

Almost Mine got a cool backpack for his Nintendo DS.

Me, iNik, Nana

I ate me some of this.

While Fadre had this.

The girls you ask? They went all the way to a restaurant to get the same mac ‘n’ cheese I make at home.

Bug was a little tired and in a sour mood.

I tried to sympathize with her.

I shared this with Fadre and it was good!

A perfect end to a fantastic night.

Silly Yak

Do you know what this is???

This is a container of rice spaghetti noodles, as in - not made from wheat, but rather from rice. MMMMmmmmm! These are my sister’s and my mother’s noodles for dinner. We went to Macaroni Grill to celebrate iNik’s birthday. Because iNik suffers from Silly Yak disease, she cannot eat wheat (the spaghetti noodles the rest of the world eats). She has a gluten (wheat protein) allergy.

I’m pretty sure when she was diagnosed by the doctor, he did not say: You have Silly Yak Disease. I’m pretty sure he said Celiac Disease. But if you’re not going to be able to eat wheat for the rest of your life, shouldn’t your disease have a much better name than Celiac? Hence, the Silly Yak Disease was born.

Now, you could focus on all the things you can’t eat if you suffer from Silly Yak, but look on the bright side: iNik still eats: potato chips, chocolate, and ice cream. So it’s not like she’s REALLY suffering. And through the years she’s found better tasting food. I mean, seriously, that first loaf of bread she found, that she was soooo proud of, tasted like Styrofoam and kinda looked like it too. But now she makes mean spice cupcakes and if you didn’t know they were gluten-free, you sure wouldn’t be able to tell by the taste. She claims her bread now is really good, but after the Styrofoam bread, I just can’t bring myself to try it again.

Raising children is much, much easier if they don’t have Silly Yak disease. iNik kept Almost Mine on a gluten-free diet until he was 2. You actually have to be eating gluten to be tested for Silly Yak. He showed up in my pantry and discovered cheerios, goldfish, pretzels, cheese-its and he LOVED them. After introducing these finest of delicacies, what were we going to do if he DID have Silly Yak? I mean, how do you tell a 2 year old, thanks for playing, but you’re not a winner? Thankfully, he does not have Silly Yak and all is well with my pantry.

When iNik was first diagnosed, it was before the Atkins Diet. You would be amazed at the number of fast food employees we could baffle by ordering a cheeseburger with no bread, or a roast beef sandwich sans bread.

You mean you don’t want any bread?

Right.

No bread?

No, no bread thank you.

You just want a hunk of meat on the plate.

Yes, just a hunk of meat, with all the trimmings. Thank you, this is exactly how I envisioned my dinner – hunk of meat….

You would not believe the number of times we have received that hunk of meat – without silverware. Now, just how did they think she was going to eat that hunk of meat?

But at Macaroni Grill, aahhh, life is good with our rice noodles!

iNik

iNik is my younger sister. Younger by 8 years. I don’t remember much before she was 2 years old. That’s about the time she started crawling in bed with me at night. With her, she brought her grinding teeth and a mild case of sleep apnea. After our parents divorced we shared a bedroom. When she was 6 we packed up the 2 door hatchback and she, Nana, and I headed from California to Tennessee where we would start our new life with Poppa. iNik sat in the backseat with Trouble, the cocker spaniel mutt for the days it took to get to Tennessee. Poppa had bought us a new HUGE house where iNik and myself would each have our own bedroom – at opposite ends of the house. For the next year she would still sneak into my bedroom after I was asleep.

She, self-admittedly, has her “blonde” moments. When we took her to register for the first grade in Germantown she was deathly afraid she wouldn’t be able to understand anyone because they would all speak German.

One day Wes and I headed to Nana’s house. iNik had left and locked the door behind her. Wanting to make sure we were not locked out of the house she left us a note taped to the front door: “The key is under the mat”. Thankfully, burglars apparently cannot read….

By 16 years of age she had become one of my best friends.

And she grew into a fantastic woman. She was thrilled when we announced the impending arrival of Zman. He was born just before her last summer at home before heading off to college. I stayed home with him for 6 weeks, Wes stayed home for 2 more, and then iNik kept him – all summer. It was hard for her to leave him and drive 4 hours away.

I called her at college to tell her I was pregnant with Bean. Bean was born in March with iNik as a witness and iNik came home that summer to keep her. She took pictures galore and iNik struggled, but SUCCEEDED, in convincing that nursing baby to take a bottle. Back to school she went. It was at iNik’s apartment Bean had her first slumber party.

But she graduated and moved to Georgia. So far away. It was hard on all of us. She was the first person I called when I discovered we were pregnant with Bug. She was over the moon, but a little sad that she wouldn’t be here to share the moment.

She called me several months later to tell me she was expecting Almost Mine. A tough call. She was scared, he was unexpected, and I couldn’t be there to hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

After Bug’s delivery our first call was to iNik.

Then she moved back home with her big belly. She let me be there during the ultrasound that told us Almost Mine was a boy. She let me be her birthing coach. She let Bug (at 5 months old) and I come to the delivery. And she gave me the honor of cutting his cord.

She loves my children as if they were her own. She constantly takes them for the day, for the night, it doesn’t matter to her. She is the aunt with abounding patience even though she works 24/7.

She is a MAJOR part of my village and it takes quite a village with my crew. She’s one of my best friends and I love her. And today is her birthday.

Happy Birthday iNik!

Love,

Your favorite sister!