Birthdays | Peaches Prattlings

{January 9, 2025} OneDrive Memories

Do you use OneDrive Memories? Well… do you use OneDrive, or Microsoft 365? Is that a better question? Either way, not sure if you use it, but as you can tell… I do.

One of the things that I enjoy is when it pops up on my laptop, lower right corner, and I click on it, I never know what I’m going to get. Ooh, I just thought of something! I could do a post a day of what’s in my OneDrive Memories, that would be cool. Thinking…thinking…

Well…while I decide on that one, and by the way, I had a whole different topic I was going to talk about tonight and got waylaid by my memories, ha ha, that was just funny to me. I have to file the lottery thoughts to another day. Back to OneDrive.

Two years ago today, I was flying back from a three week trip to England. I spent a week with my dad, then Paul arrived and it was the three of us for 2 days, then my sister’s family arrived and we spent a few days together, then PSM and I went off and spent a week in London/Wales/Bristol, then I was on my own, went to Liverpool for a few days, back to London to attend RuPaul’s DragCon UK and on Sunday/Monday I was flying back to the US from a whirlwind trip!

Three years ago, I was with my friend CGS, and have a pic of her four kids, wow! I just texted her with the pic, I apologized for the late text, but I couldn’t help but share the love! That’s one of the things I love to do, when some memories pop up, I take a pic with my phone and text it to the people who are in it and I get to share something special with them, makes me so very happy.

Four years ago, KFN sent a pic ‘How to spot a biker chick’ and it’s a pick of the top of a pair of Chuck Taylor ‘Converse All Stars’ with black clutch marks on the left toe…and I sent him a pic of my chucks that look exactly like that! There’s also a few pics of PSM with Bee and Ruby, awe.

2019… pics of an overcast sky with a rainbow coming through, from our lanai off the back of our house. And lastly…2016, pics of us with my sister’s family at PSM’s family’s celebrating my b-i-l, ACS’, birthday, which is tomorrow. Our nephew, JM, and nieces, EJS, and MGS were soooo little! That was just before PSM left for Hawai’i, he was starting work a week later, and I officially moved towards the end of that year, wow…

I’m sitting here, just smiling, thinking of all the random memories that pop up, taking me back, making me smile, marveling at how time flies and how good my life truly is, and it is. Who knows… maybe a memory with you will come up and I’ll text it to you, be on the lookout!

{January 8, 2025} Birthday messages!

I love when my friends and family have birthdays and apparently, they love that I love it too. Ok, the reason I am saying this is I started making birthday videos for people and they love it, some have even come to expect it and if I’m late… uh oh!

I don’t even know when or how it started, but it did and I’ve had so much fun over the years! I take a video of me singing happy birthday to the person. Sometimes I do it early for people, maybe somewhere I’ve been traveling, for example, last year, I made a few while I was snorkeling/swimming in the waters of Jost Van Dyke, the British Virgin Islands, and by last year, I meant in December 2023 for birthdays coming up in 2024.

This year, or last year, well, last week, I was in Hawai’i and recorded a few for this year. I even did one or two while I was riding on my motorcycle! NO! I am not holding the phone! It’s in a phone holder on the bike, I flip the camera and press record, then start singing. Now… those are harder to hear, I’m as loud as I can be, but…the bike and the wind are louder, imagine that!

My singing is not great, I put on voices and accents, and I absolutely love doing it. And as I make friends and family, or make friends my family, my record collection, so to speak, grows and grows, I think I get sillier and sillier, but it seems to work for me!

The year started off with our niece, MM, I was so excited, I sent it the day before her birthday! I sent one to a friend yesterday, HH, who is celebrating in London, then today, my cousin MS celebrating with her daughter in Barcelona, a friend LJ, who happens to be in Puerto Rico celebrating, and then SMB, who is 16, not in a foreign land, but… drumroll please…got her license today! That is a great way to celebrate a birthday!

And if you’re celebrating a birthday today, tomorrow, this month, or…whenever you celebrate, I wish you all the best, and a very happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…happy birthday dear….youuuuu…happy birthday to you!

{May 8, 2024} I have a 36 year old? What?!

Yup, you read that right, I have a 36 year old! My daughter TYL is 36 years old today! I still can’t believe it!

She was 8 years old when I met her, closer to 8.5 years old, but she was a bonified 8 year old! And boy did she put me through the ringer on occasion! When I first met her, she was nice, but skeptical, totally get that! She wanted to see who I was and what I was about, very fair. Her brother on the other hand, just turned 7 and he was like…i wuv you! But not my girl, and I have to tell you, I respect that.

Every time I saw her, every time we got to spend time together, I got to know her more and more and she was a card. Funny, silly, happy, snarky, curious, skeptical, and smart, she and her brother, both very smart, sometimes not a lick of common sense between them, but what do you expect from teenagers?! When I tell you she is smart, I wish I could show you the gold cords on her graduation robes, smart.

She was set in her ways, had her way of thinking about things, had her opinions, but so open to trying new things. She was always put together, even if we were spending the day hanging out at the house watching movies, she was showered, dressed very nicely and face on, she had her own style and way of doing things. We would go to movies, museums, the park, go on adventures, or just stay home and snuggle on the sofa watching movies.

We loved traveling together, we would go to Savannah, GA, Chattanooga, TN, Orlando, FL, and NYC a few times to see my family. Since we were living in Atlanta, GA at the time, the weekends with us were full of new experiences. New places to eat, explore, and discover.

I loved birthdays, sometimes it was a party with friends at a skating rink or bowling alley, sometimes it was a party with friends at our house and then, always…a special dinner out for their birthdays. The next year they always had the option…did they want to choose or did they want me to choose. Most of the time I got to choose and it was always something fun and different, I loved that they trusted me for that.

Did I mention silly? I remember one day running through a parking lot, don’t worry, I checked for cars, and she and her brother asked me if I was an adult…um…great question! There was the time I was taking her and her brother to skate night for their school at the local rink and after I checked them in, they asked who my teacher was! Um…I’m their mom! I was about 27 or 28 at the time, and they were in elementary school…sigh…

I’ll never forget…on my 30th birthday we were going to Six Flags, and I said something and she rolled her eyes, she was 13, totally expected. I looked at her and I said ‘do not roll your eyes at me…and on my birthday’, but what I was thinking was…I’m a mom! And I was over the moon!

We lost touch for a few years, I would reach out to wish them both a happy birthday, they would sometimes respond, and totally understandable, they were still finding their feet at that time. But one year…as I do every year on her birthday, I reached out and we had a very wonderful exchange and she told me she was married and getting ready to have a baby, and she wanted me to be a part of his life. What? My baby is having a baby? I was in the middle of an airport boo-hooing so many tears of joy, I’m sure people thought I was mad!

When we reconnected in person it was amazing, it was as if no time had passed, and so much time had passed. Here was this amazing, grown, smart, funny, intelligent, kind, caring woman standing before me, where was the girl? The teenager who fought with me? The teenager who rolled her eyes at me? She was in there, but on the inside, it was who and what made her the woman she is today, with so much more.

She is an amazing mother, she once told me I taught her how to be a step mom, you’ll never know what those words meant to me. Not only is she an awesome mother, she is a fabulous daughter, granddaughter, sister, cousin, just a top notch human being. This is a woman I am honoured to have in my life and treasure our relationship and bond and I don’t see that changing ever.

I’ll never forget the first time they spent the night, I didn’t sleep, I heard them turn over in their sleep and I even went out to check that they were still breathing a few times…keep in mind, they were 7 and 8 at the time! They made me a mum and I knew from that moment, I felt a love like I had never known. I know I didn’t give birth to her, but she is a part of me, and that is something I will treasure to the end of my days.

TYL, a very happy birthday my girl, I love you very much.

{June 1, 2021} June 1st…What a day!

Today is a significant and special day for me, for several reasons. We’ve talked about some of it before, so please allow me to share again. A lot happened on this day, and today, something else happened.

15 years ago today I lost one of the most important people in my life, my mom. That sounds so selfish, she was one of the most important people to my family, my sister, my dad, family, friends, so many people in our lives. She was quite a woman, I’ve told you about her, a force to be reckoned with, a force of nature! She was wonderful, smart, funny, goofy, stubborn, silly, infuriating, uplifting, encouraging, I’m running through my rolodex of adjectives to describe her!

I remember how much she wanted me to be a teacher, that’s what both my parents were, not just teachers, but miracle workers, there’s not enough space in one of these posts to tell you how amazing they were in their field. I remember her saying, if you went into teaching, I could help get you a job in any school in NYC. No thanks! And what did I end up doing? Teaching…adults. And I’m damn good at it! Who ever wants their mom to be right?!

When I decided I wanted to become a vegetarian, other moms might have said, “oh brother, I hope this is a phase” or “you’ll eat what the rest of us eat”. Nope, she was all in! She made two meals every night she cooked. One for me and one for everyone else or one for the two of us and one for the rest of the family. Who does that?! She would also search for new recipes for me, all vegetarian! Meatloaf, chopped liver, I know, crazy, but when you’re Jewish, that stuff is in your veins! So many things she wanted to try and I remember the first Thanksgiving, no, not the first Thanksgiving! I’m not that old! The first one as a vegetarian, everything but the stuffing was vegetarian, she was amazing.

She taught me so much, and that is what leads me to the next reason today is a special day. My mom was amazing, and I mean amazing with kids! She taught GES and I how to be moms, not just moms, but loving moms, caring, giving, huggable moms. We learned how to throw an amazing birthday party at home, make a boo-boo all better, soothe the hurts, scraped knees and feelings, how to listen, and love. Oh, did she teach us how to love. She gave great hugs, anyone can tell you that and to this day…there is not a kid, or adult, who I hug who doesn’t use both arms when they hug me. I won’t let go until there are two arms wrapped around each other, you can feel the love emanating and let me tell you, when I am hugging, especially a child, I can feel her within me, it’s like she’s hugging them with me. And that…brings me soooo much joy!

I remember one day when TYH told me I taught her what it was to be a step-mom, I don’t know if she really knows what that meant to me. I never once thought of TYH or her brother WCH as anything but my kids, I was step-mom in title only. I have so much love for them both and my grandson, CDL, and that’s something my mom taught me.

Eight years ago today, I met my first grandson, Baby A, OMG! I can’t call him that any more! I need to come up with something else, but he’ll always be my Baby A! I was living in Colorado at the time, but came in to see KAB and meet Baby A, he was FOUR hours old when I met him and what a doll baby. Did you hear what I said…EIGHT YEARS AGO TODAY! My grandson is eight! Where did the time go?! He just finished second grade! What?! I remember holding him, he was tiny and beautiful and perfect and had my heart in his hand the minute I held him and looked in his little face.

He’s a smart, precocious, silly, funny, rambunctious, energetic, talented, loving little person. I get pictures from him that he drew, sometimes exactly what he wants to be for Halloween, the last one is actually framed and hanging on my wall of love! He is a lot of fun to talk to and I loved it when he got a Facebook Messenger account, he used to Facetime me all the time! Sometimes we had a conversation, other times, it was me just looking at a wall while he ran around doing something! I love getting video messages from him and his sister, melts my heart! I cannot wait to see them again, maybe a weekend trip to Atlanta is in my near future!

Well, today…there is another reason for joy, my heart has grown with a new love. Grandbaby number 9! AEB! Maybe my newest granddaughter can be Baby A! Of course, when she turns 8, I can’t call her that anymore! Can you believe it?! 9 Grandbabies, 9 loves for me! Yes, I can! I am one of the luckiest people in the world. I got the news just about 2pm that Baby A got a baby sister for his birthday! I’m tearing up thinking about it. What a wonderful gift, well, for me anyway! I’m so very happy for the whole family! I know what a great big brother he’s going to be! And Princess E gets to be a big sister, I know how excited she is!

The family is expanding! CS has a new baby, KAB has a new baby, Pow Pow has a new nephew and niece. So much mazel to the entire family!

Now you can see why today is such a special day, remembering my mom, wishing my grandson a happy birthday, and welcoming my newest granddaughter to the world, my heart is very full. And I’m glad I got to share it with you!

Email Subscription

What was I thinking?