"Reflections On Married Life..."

Yesterday was a day of celebrations - One somber and sad, the other joyful and glad... In the morning, our family attended the memorial "Homegoing Service" for my neice Robin who died from cancer on March 7th.

Me, Robin, and my sister Lisa on my 3rd birthday in 1967

Robin was a beautiful woman and really more like a sister to me than a neice. I'm only a year older than she was and we were raised together. At the service as I listened to the speakers tell truths about her life, in my mind I wove them together with my many wonderful memories of her and for the first time I realized how great a void her passing leaves in the story of our lives... I will miss her terribly, but never forgot her and I know her sweet spirit lives on.

Yesterday was also my husband Edward's birthday. So on Friday after work, my "little one" (my youngest son, Dustin) and I baked his birthday cake... Dustin seems interested in cooking and he likes to help me in the kitchen.

In the afternoon, Dustin, big brother "Meechie" and I took Poppa Eddie out to celebrate his birthday... We went to the movies and then out to dinner at Poppa Eddie's favorite Asian restaurant, "Mon Jin Lau."

Meechie's Sesemee Chicken

I was tickled when the server came to take the order and my "little one" ordered a burger! But it looked delicious and even the sweet potato fries he had were very good. I had my favorite, "Mongolian Beef" and Meechie had "Sesamee Chicken," like me, he almost always picks something safe that he knows he likes. Ed is the adventurous one in our family and he often orders the new and exotic and yesterday was no different. I'm not sure what Ed's entree was called, but it looked delicious and featured lobster, shrimp and chicken.

Mon Jin Lau is a beautiful restaurant and is a fine dining destination here in Metro Detroit, so they always ask when you make reservations if you'll be celebrating anything, so I mentioned it was a birthday dinner.  So at the end of our meal our server came over with a bowl of ginger ice cream and a "Happiness" mask for the birthday boy to wear while we all serenaded him with a chorus of "Happy Birthday."

Later in the evening at home, we lit the candles and sang again for Poppa Eddie as he cut and served the cake... And despite the somber mood that began our day, our little family's day ended on a note of joy, happiness and thankfulness for another day spent together...

It does get better...