's Birthday motd July 12, 2008

[Guest guest]

GET THE PARTY STARTED!

Saturday, 12 July 2008

My parents were very much into birthday parties. I have photos of me at my very first through my fifteenth birthdays. And I am so grateful that my brother, Lenny, has given me such wonderful scrapbooks filled with photos from when we were younger, growing up with our parents.

The first thing I noticed from looking at the photos of our birthday parties from all of those scrapbooks is that there were always balloons...and lots of them. And back then, there were no little machines to blow them up with. Your good old lungs had to do the job!And there were always plenty of flowers everywhere, gladiolas, roses and carnations. Oh, they were so colorful and pretty! Of course, there was a big cake and they were always so beautiful. There was a little table in our living room. My father would remove everything from that table and stack all of my birthday presents on top of it.My brother was always so cute in the photos. He'd always have his arm around my shoulders in those shots. Oh, such brotherly love and from such an early age.

From the time I was 15, I continued having birthday parties, but away from home. I've spent my birthdays in many different countries. And now for the last 36 years, I've been having a big birthday party at Slimmons. My staff, my staff-helpers and my Slimmons members go all out to create a spectacular party for me! I also have pictures of all of my past birthday parties from my club and I have to admit, they seem to get more extravagant every year! I guess they all think this is going to be my last year so I should go out with a bang. LOL!

I have to admit that I'm a little embarrassed. I mean, here I am, 60 years-old today and still having big birthday parties like when I was only 12! But I have to tell you that I just love them, as much as I did when I was only 12. And I'll feel that love when I walk into the studio later today.I wonder what the theme will be for this year's party? I wonder who will be there? I wonder what the cake will look like? Oh, ooops...did I say cake?

May I tell you something? I'm not really much of a cake person. Oh, I have my food demons, for sure, but cake is not one of them. I will have a small slice today and I'll stay at Slimmons for a while to chat with everyone. Oh, I will get more photos from this year's party at Slimmons to share with you so don't worry. And when I come home, I'll have another little party as I celebrate my birthday with Hattie and Dolly.If you have a spare moment today, please say a prayer for me and ask God to keep me strong and doing just what I have been doing for all of these years.Love,