JACK BLOWS OUT HIS 54TH CANDLE!

July 8th was Jack's 54th birthday, and we had a great dinner at Macaroni Grill to celebrate. This year was different in that we had little Shawn sitting in a highchair celebrating with us, and what a delight he was. Of course the sun rises and falls on Shawn in Jack's eyes, so he was thrilled to have this little man sharing his birthday dinner with him. Shawn enjoyed their great bread and for dinner he had chicken fingers and big pasta shells in cheese sauce, and he was eating those shells like they were candy. Shawn and Melissa joined us for dinner and we all had a great time. Chris and Jackie were there in spirit of course, but since they were just out here for the July 4th weekend, they gave Jack their congratuations then. Jack received a special present for his birthday. Since Fiddler on the Roof is his favorite musical, next to West Side Story, he was given two tickets to see Topol's farewell tour of Fiddler on the Roof at the Pantages theater in late July. Jack was thrilled to see that this event was even happening let alone getting tickets to go see it, so he's one happy man. Jack is busy now playing for the Fullerton Children's Rep Theatre production of "The Pajama Game" for the next two weeks. On August 7th, Jack will be flying to Des Moines to meet up with Chris and Jackie, and then driving to Indianapolis for the DCI Championships on August 8th. He'll be gone for four days, so I get a vacation too. I'm a firm believer of this thinking - I'm really three people in one - I'm a wife, I'm a mother, but I'm also still that single girl that existed before I got married and had kids, and that is one person I refuse to ignore - she's still in there, deep inside, and she deserves her time too, so I'm putting away my wife hat, my mother hat, and even my grandmother hat, and I'm going to spend four days doing anything I want, that will be my summer vacation to myself. What will I do? Who knows, but whatever I end up doing, I'm going to take advantage of every minute of it.