Happy Birthday to "US"!!!!!

Craigs Birthday Brownies that Amy made for him!

Blowing out the candles on his birthday!

Hello Luvs,
Well, today we are heading on the down slide of Winter here in Michigan! My 50th birthday was yesterday! Craig turned 58 on February 5th and we also celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary on Valentines day this year! This is the month of many celebrations! 
   Craig's birthday was wonderful! He turned 58 yrs. young! We spent the day together and went out to dinner at "Deliziosa's", our favorite little out of the way spot that has the best food in town! There he got his favorite Bolognese penne and he enjoyed every bite and brought some home to last for more days! Amy made him some special brownies and we gave him some nice gifts that he wanted, especially some new slippers and then we surprised him with a set of the whole "four seasons' of "BIG BANG THEORY", our favorite and his favorite program on the tube!
    Then on the 14th of February we had our 15th wedding anniversary! It was so wonderful! We really do have a good marriage full of love and we do talk to each other sternly when we feel the need, but never do we say mean or horrible things to each other! We got some beautiful and wonderful gifts from Amy! She gave us a Panera gift card and a Valentine cookie from Panera! She is so cute all the little sweet things she does for us and we do for her! There's alot of love here and that's what I live for! She even went and got us some pretty bouquet of flowers for an Anniversary/Valentines gift! We had a great day and dinner out and then we'll figure something else wonderful to do for our big 20th anniversary in 5 years!! LOL...
    Then yesterday, the 24th of February we had just recovered from a horrible day in "hell"! The "Uverse" man came out to set up our Internet to a faster one and he cut wires and undid our internet and our phone and then he left 3 hours later and we had NO SERVICE in either area! It took 3 hours on the telephone and 7 people to get someone to listen to us! Finally, we got someone to listen and to complain to but they then couldn't get anyone to come out and clean up the "Mess" that the guy made at our home, until the next day which was my 50th Birthday! Yes...we had to WAIT until they came to fix our internet and phone lines before we could do any real celebrating. We had the whole day planned and had to re-think everything and I was very distraught from the whole ordeal. I cried and cried for so long that I had a horrible headache because I was worried about our phone lines being cut!
   The AT & T guys came out on my birthday, Friday the 24th and they got there about 10:00am and stayed until 11:30 or so. Then we got to go to the mall and have my birthday lunch at Macy's and go shopping with each other alllllllll day long! I had to rest, of course, but we had such a wonderful day! Then after that fun day of shopping, we had a nice dinner at "Red Lobster" and I had stuffed seafood Tilapia and then went home for these special chocolate bumpy cake/carmel cupcakes that Amy had made special for me! A girl at her work does this for a living and makes cakes for people and these are the best, delectable yummy cupcakes I've ever eaten in my whole life!! GO AMY...YAY!!! Sooo those were great and she gave me a beautiful "MOM" bead for my "Pandora/Brighton" bracelet along with a gorgeous silver ring with a heart on it and inside it's engraved with "I love you Infinitey"! It's one of the best gifts I've ever gotten from her and so thoughtful and I love it ...along with the "infinitey" bracelet and necklace I had gotten for Christmas and now I have a set! LOL... Craig got me some lovely diamond stud earrings because I had lost one last year and was very sad about it! Then he took me out shopping all day and we enjoyed ourselves as he paid for things and I got to buy some fun and cute clothes and walked around with the people I love most in the whole world! What a great birthday I had this year! Oh and not to forget that last night we watched a funny and silly movie called "Horrible Boss's" and we celebrated with cake and ice cream..or I should say "cupcakes" that were wonderful and I have seven more to eat this week!! What a special day I had!! You can see some of the pictures below!! I hope you enjoy them!
  I wanted to tell you a little story! This week my husband was off of work on mid -Winter break vacation. He went to our Dr. for a physical. He walked into our Dr's office and my father was sitting there in the waiting room, waiting for either his girlfriend who was seeing the other Dr. in the practice or waiting to be seen himself? But he was sitting there when my husband went in and still sitting there 45 minutes later when my hubby was finished with his own appointment. 
     First of all, Craig sat down across from him so he would know that he wasn't uncomfortable around him! My dad put out his hand to shake hands and Craig shook his head and said  "nuh...no...nope...no thanks"! My dad looked down and says "How's Suzanne doing?" Craig says "awww she's doing GREAT! You'd NEVER know SHE's GOING TO BE 50 tomorrow (Feb 24th)!! My dad said "I was going to send her a card but last time I got "flack" for doing that last time!" Craig knows that's not true it's just that they don't talk to me and they do mean, spiteful and hateful things to hurt me. Why then would they send a card once every 10 years on my birthday??WHY BOTHER??That's exactly what I've said to any of them when they send a card every 10 years or so. I text or email and say "Why would you do that when you don't see or talk to me all year and all of the past many many years? What's the point in that?"
     Craig went into the exam room and came out 45 minutes later and my dad was still sitting there. I'm just assuming either he was waiting for the "other" Dr. there or he's waiting for his girlfriend who treated me so grossly disrespectful and abusive this past Summer when I introduced myself to her (as I've never met her in person before!!). To refresh your memory, we were at a Panera cafe' outdoors this past Summer at a free concert in the park. Craig and I were eating dinner at an outdoor table and talking with our youngest daughters old dance teacher. I looked up and saw my dad walking into the Panera and his girlfriend sitting by herself outdoors not far from our table. I walked up to her and kept a safe distance and I was dressed very nicely in a Summer dress. I introduced myself as "Bill's daughter, Suzanne". She gave me a hideous look, as if I was some kind of 'crazy person' and she got up, walked the LONG WAY around the table without saying a word to me and she left!!!!!!!!!!! My dad came out looking for her. He looked right at me and us! He then looked right through me! He said nothing and was continuing to look for "Shirley"! She motioned for him to "come" and he went with her and they left the area with their chairs in hand! 
   The thing that I won't and cannot understand is that at my father's sister's funeral just that past June in 2010; my favorite Aunt Vera had died. Craig and I went to the funeral and my father was there but no brothers and no girlfriend was there with him! I'm positive he didn't want them or HER to hear my Aunts' family saying positive and kind things about my husband and/or me. They were so nice! They said how I would "do my aunts hair and nails and how we went to visit her and played cards with her.." and more! Then I saw my father crying and his sister had just died so I wanted to be kind and I went up to him and hugged him. He hugged me back (because it was a big SHOW in front of everyone!!) and shook Craig's hand and told him "thank you for taking care of Suzanne all of these years"!!! I corrected him right away because NOBODY TAKES CARE OF ME! Craig and I take care of EACH OTHER! I didn't  like that at all! 
    Regardless, my dad put on a big show of phony "love" that dad in front of my cousin, my aunt's son; who he just had told before we walked into the funeral home; that he "wasn't ever going to be able to talk to me again because of what I've said about him"! All I've done was confront them in 1997! I didn't want anything but acknowledgement about the abuse...Nothing more and nothing less...but I got much more than I ever bargained for in the form of relentless abuse and attacks for the rest of my life more or less; or the rest of his and theirs?! The funny thing is that the next time we saw my father was at that Panera cafe in the Summer with his girlfriend! He looked straight through me/us and wouldn't say a word; and believe me, he saw me and us for sure 100% as he looked straight at me with a cold and evil look on his face! As you can see, he only will pretend to be "nice" to me when it suits him and when it's in front of people who do love me and care for me! When it was just "her" (his girlfriend who doesn't know me, never has met me and never even gave me a chance!!) he wouldn't even acknowledge my /our existence!
    Craig came out of the Dr's office that day and my father was still sitting there waiting. Once again my father put out his hand to shake Craig's hand. So once again Craig declined to shake my abuser's hand and said "no thanks!" Then he said "about the birthday card, Suzanne's angry with you...and rightly so!!!" Then he got on his coat and he left and came home to me! He told me what happened and now I wait for the repercussions of the incident! What will my abuser's (dad, 2 brother's) do to me next ? What will they do and /or say to show how angry they are that Craig wouldn't shake my dad's hand? What lengths will they go to? They'll want to "punish" him or us because they will look at it as 'Craig was "MEAN" to my dad!!! BUT he was not at all mean, he shouldn't have to shake hands with my abuser(s)!!! 
    All they have to do is tell the truth...My oldest also turned against me for many reasons: she didn't want to follow any rules. Also she tells people how she "forgave" her father for all of the abuse he did to the 3 of us and our dog "Bully", a Rottwieller we had for 4 1/2 yrs! But she treats Craig with disdain and he was always and has always been the best dad I've ever known! He loved her and was her 4th grade teacher and she loved him! He caught her lying to me and doing things and tried to let me know but I wouldn't believe it at first!! Until it was too late for me to take care of it and make her be a better person and to have her follow more rules. I just trusted, loved her and believed her and whatever she told me! I am hurt, heart broken and so very sad about losing my oldest daughter. It's just been so very long and it feels like every year and month and day, we grow farther apart!
    Thank you for reading once again and I hope your Winter is getting shorter and the days are getting longer for you! I cannot wait for the long and sunny days of Summer to arrive once again! Ciao~

MY FAMILY!>>>AND ME!!

these are the special carmel/chocolate "bumpy cake" cupcakes that Amy paid someone to make for me!

My gift

He got the boxed set of 4 seasons of "BIG BANG THEORY"...(the funniest show ever!)

our Family on Craigs' 58th birthday!

My little friend, "Ling Ling" in Singapore made these special bookmarkers.. for Amy and Me!

Craig on his 58th b-day!

My friend Nancy since 1982, sent this to me for my 50th b-day!

my big 50!

yummy cupcakes that Amy had made for me! *SPECIAL

yummy bumpy cake carmel/chocolate cupcakes!! MMMMM

Amy and me on my birthday!

MY good friend and "sister/like" person in my life, Nancy S., sent me one card, each day, for the 50 days prior to my 50th birthday! Isn't that the sweetest thing anyone's ever done? Well, it was for me...."Thank you Nancy, you're a blessing!" I had to put them all up and keep them all up for all 50 days!! Then I took this picture to save it forever!