September

September 21, 2020: Celebrating the birthday of my friend, Debbie.

The horse was my gift to her, named "Buttercup."

On the first day of September, I celebrated my sixty-sixth birthday. True, sixty-six isn't quite as thrilling as turning sixty-five had been. After all, last year's birthday meant eligibility for Medicare and the end of paying $925 out of my own pocket each month for medical insurance. Still, it was good to begin another year feeling well, starting my third year of retirement and being healthier than I'd ever dreamed I'd be at this age! And the best part was how so many more good things happened throughout my birth month.

September 1, 2020: Debbie and me at lunch on my actual birthday.

Because of work schedules in our family, we didn't have our big party until three days after my actual birthdate, the following Friday, but I was still able to mark my big day, thanks to going out to lunch with my friend, Debbie. We first met thirty years ago, when I started teaching at Blue Ridge High School, where she was an instructional assistant in the special education department. Eventually, she became a high school teacher herself and accepted a position in Mesa. She retired two years before I did, and she still drives up each year to spend her summers here in the pines, in her summer home.

September 1, 2020: My annual birthday selfie for age sixty-six.

I started the day of September 1st with my annual "old lady selfie," a tradition I started on my sixtieth birthday. However scary I may look today, I remind myself, I'll still look younger now than I will next year! Then Debbie came by to pick me up. She brought me more of her beautifully handcrafted seamstress work, including a plush handmade wallet with a matching face mask (being the year of covid-19 and all). We had a great lunch at Darbi's Café, where I enjoyed a yummy steak salad out on the deck and we felt the mist of a summer squall as it briefly passed through.

September 1, 2020: Fun cards and gifts to start off my birthday month!

It also rained flowers on my birthday, or so it seemed. I came home from lunch to find a beautiful bouquet of blue roses and yellow daisies with a stuffed toy mallard from my son Jacob, and soon after that my daughter Sarah came by with a lovely bouquet of pastel daisies and a sweet note. Later that evening, my good friend Wyndie stopped over with a gorgeous bouquet of carnations and hydrangea, plus two sugar-free candy bars and a fun lightsaber birthday card (she knows my heart!).

September 1, 2020: It was raining flowers on my birthday!

On Friday, we waited to start my party until almost 7:00 so Chris could be there, since he worked until 6:00 that evening. We enjoyed grilled steaks and burgers for dinner, plus potato salad. The best part was that my brother Darryl and his wife Tamera showed up while we were still preparing the meal and were able to join us for dinner. That's a big deal, because they'd driven all the way from their home in Missouri to spend a few days with us and to see our dad for his eighty-sixth birthday, which happened to be the same day as my party, September 4th.

Darryl is the youngest of us five Butler siblings, now age fifty-seven. Exactly one year ago, we weren't sure if we would ever get to see him again after he'd had a series of heart attacks (he thought they were panic attacks, since all he'd experienced was shortness of breath) and was told there was nothing to be done except prepare for the worst, while he wore a defibrillator vest around the clock.

My brother Darryl and his sweet wife, Tamera, came to town!

September 5, 2020

Fortunately, one of the top cardiac surgeons in the country agreed to review his case. He determined that there was one area that could be improved through open-heart surgery--the type where they saw open your breast bone and spread your ribs apart--that might improve his heart function and life expectancy. Thankfully, the surgery was a success. He improved so much that they were able to do a second procedure to place a stent in another area, and now he's feeling greatly improved--although he still has to be careful not to overdo. It's a reminder to us all that life can be so precarious.

Birthday presents from Sarah, Jacob, and Mark

I don't for the life of me know how I overlooked taking a single picture during my party. Too busy preparing food and visiting, I suppose. I had made myself a sugar-free cheesecake and topped it with raspberries and sugar-free chocolate chips. We also made a delicious batch of sugar-free homemade strawberry ice cream. 

Between dinner and dessert, we stopped to open presents. Every year, I think the kids have topped it all, it can never get any better, and every year they blow me away with their choices! (I remembered to take pictures of the presents, at least. But later...much later.)

Sarah gave me a new Willow Tree figurine called Quiet Wonder. Over more than a decade, Sarah has given me thirty beautiful Willow Tree figures, and it's getting difficult to find new ones to fit the person she feels I am. When she mentioned the problem to the man at the store, he said, "Wait! I have something brand new, we just got it in!" And there it was!

I don't know where Jacob got the idea for the metallic rose, but it totally dazzles my eyes! No matter which way you turn it, it captures the light and reflects clear, prismatic colors every direction. It reminds all of us of the rose featured in the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast.

My gift from Dylan and Jake: Three candles by Mythologie Candles.

Dylan and Jake had ordered my gift earlier, but they didn't receive it until a week after the party. It was totally worth the wait! Made of coconut-soy oil and hand-prepared, the guys chose three Hobbit/Lord of the Rings-inspired candles for me. "Bree's Spice Market" (Bree being a village east of The Shire, where Men and Hobbits live side by side) is, as one would expect, spicily sweet. "Double Breakfast" is a take on the food-loving Hobbits' customary practice of both first breakfast and second breakfast. Sarah and Mark say it smells like pancakes and syrup. To me, it smells like oatmeal with maple syrup. I love them all, but my favorite is called "King of the Wood Elves." I told Sarah, "If Legolas smells like that, I'd grab him with both fists by the front of his tunic, put my face right into the crook of his neck, and inhale deeply!" (And then kiss him passionately, of course...)

Mark ordered the Tac-Visor for me. I'm not sure how it works, since he hasn't installed it yet. I hope it does what it says. My eyes have always been sensitive to bright sunlight, although I do love the sun.

Sisters-in-law Tamera and Mary having dinner at Denny's.

On Saturday, the day after the party, my sister Karla and her youngest daughter Addison (the last of Karla's ten children still at home) came up from Mesa to join us. They stayed at my house, but divided their time between my place and visiting our dad (who lives two miles away). On Saturday night we all got together to visit some more and then decided to go out to dinner at Denny's.

Three of the five Butler "kids": Mary, Darryl, and Karla.

September 5, 2020

It doesn't matter where we are, but being with our brother Darryl is always a raucous affair. To say he has an "irreverent" sense of humor is an understatement. He always has some wisecrack to make in every situation, and no one laughs harder at his jokes than he does himself! Darryl has one of those deep belly laughs that's so infectious, you can't help but join in. I'm sure by the time we left the restaurant, two hours later, the staff and other diners were glad to see us go!

Mary is eldest, Darryl is the baby, and Karla is the middle child.

It's been two years since all five of us Butler siblings were last together in the same place at the same time. Before that, it had been many, many years longer. As we get older, it only seems harder to make that happen. It's somewhat strange to realize that we're not the youngsters we used to be, and seeing each other as senior citizens or nearly-senior citizens requires a major shift in perspective. I (the firstborn) am sixty-six; LeRoy is sixty-one; Karla is sixty; Jeff is fifty-eight (a month away from fifty-nine!), and Darryl is fifty-seven. We just wish our 'tween siblings, numbers two and four, had been able to join us. We missed seeing LeRoy and Jeff.

The ladies: Mary, Tamera, and Karla.

After our Denny's dinner, Darryl and Tamera returned to our dad's house, where they were staying. Early the next morning, they were off and on their way back home to Missouri. So sad to have them gone so soon, but they hope to return sometime in the near future, when they can stay longer.

Darryl with my family: Mary, Darryl, Chris and Sarah.

Meanwhile, Karla and Addison came back to my house with us after dinner, and we sat up quite late talking and getting caught up. Long after everyone else had gone home and Addison had fallen asleep on the couch, Karla and I lay awake in my king-size bed and shared a lengthy girl-talk like we hadn't had in many years. It was like reliving the seventeen years we shared a bedroom. Who'd have ever thought that we'd look back fondly on those days? Even when we woke the next morning, we just lay there talking for about two hours more!

September 6, 2020: Sisters Karla and Mary hiking the Mogollon Rim Trail, 

a one-mile trail about two miles from my house.

The next day was Sunday, and Karla, Addison, Sarah, and I went to walk the Mogollon Rim Trail near my house. It was quite warm out (in the eighties), but it's always a beautiful and inspiring hike. That evening we had a final meal together of chef salads, and then Karla and Addison began their drive down the mountain toward home.

Sarah (with Willow), her cousin Addison (my niece),

and Mary, paused at the side of Mogollon Rim Trail.

The following weekend, we had a visit from my nieces Haley and Hayden (two of my brother Jeff's eight daughters--he and Dana also have five sons!). They came over after dinner at their Aunt Jona's nearby house on Sunday evening, and we had a great visit that lasted until 3:00 a.m.! 

There was a specific reason for that, of course. The girls are quite excited about a supernatural thriller I'm writing (60,000+ words so far) called Dark Moon Ascendant. (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the main character's name is Haley, lol.) I agreed to read a few chapters to them and Sarah, who was also there to visit with her cousins, and their enthusiasm was so contagious that I ended up reading the first twenty-eight chapters aloud! They even came back for an extra hour the next morning to hear more before they headed back to the Valley. So nice to have fans before I'm even published!

My nieces Hayden and Haley (my brother Jeff's daughters) came to visit!

September 14, 2020

It was beyond wonderful to see so much family this month, and I hope we'll have many more opportunities to spend time together. I can't think of any better way to celebrate getting older than by spending it with the people we love. September was a very good month!

Handmade with love by my niece Haley!