Happy Birthday, Kathy!

Dear Kathy:

Happy xxth Birthday. As my mom would say, I was there when you were born. I could say that I was only one of four (you, me, dad and the doctor), but that was not true. We were at a teaching hospital in Houston and something was going wrong during your birth, so 20 students ran into the room to watch as they asked me to stop your birth (kind of like stopping the tide). You were half-way here. As we paused to fix the problem, you decided to put your thumb in your mouth for comfort. It stayed there for the next eight years. But thanks to Dr. Bosler, your teeth are beautiful, so no harm, no foul (as many of the relatives say).

Some things we like about you: How hard you try to take good care of your family, how craft-y you are, how you are good at decorating, playing the piano, cooking, running, planning fun adventures, and how good you are taking care of children from all over.

We hope you have a great birthday year.
We love you.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Dear Benjamin:
Happy Birthday! Here is a picture of you that we like:

This is the railroad museum we visited when we went on our long car ride. You got to ride on a hand car with grandpa. It was his first hand car ride, and yours, too. We love that you are happy, and that you are working so hard on learning. You're doing a great job on your alphabet and alphabet sounds, and you have a great singing voice. You're right on key. We love you!

Happy Birthday, Katelyn!

Dear Katelyn:
Happy Birthday! Here is a picture of you that we like:

We're so proud of your horseback riding skills, and your piano playing and your crocheting and your singing. We think you are a very great person, who tries so hard to be helpful and kind.

We love you!

Monday Memories

For my 50th birthday, Kerry got the family together and made a book of memories for me. It's made out of quarter-sheets of scrapbook paper, with a cover, a plastic front on top of that, and a back page of a cardboard/plastic-type material. The spiral-bound book is made up of 50 memories and/or paragraphs about what they liked growing up. There is a break every 10 pages.

It's a wonderful idea, a wonderful book to reminisce with, and it's cute and crafty!

Inside are a lifetime of memories from:
Martin, Kerry, Stephen, Samuel, Lily, Jonathan, Kathryn, Joel, Katelyn, Alexander and Kristin

Thank you more than you can ever know for taking the time.
I love you all.

Grammar Tip

Kathy and I spend time working as typists. It behooves us to stay up on grammar usage. So in that spirit, here's a tip:

Katelyn and I; Alex and and me. When do you use them?
Here's an easy way to remember:

Just say the sentence to yourself without the other person in it at all.

"Sam and I went to the store." (Just say "I went to the store." Yes, that's correct, so that's it.)

"Sam and me went to the store." (Now say me went to the store. Correct? You can hear that it isn't.)

How about at the end of a sentence?

"They went to the show with Lily and me." (To check: They went to the show with me. It works. How about: "They went to the show with Ben and I." (Check it. They went to the show with I. Doesn't work.)

Now that you have this memory tip, see how often people get it wrong, and you can act nice and smug. :)