Happy 50th Birthday Tina - My Dear Friend

Tina has been a friend for a long time. Pops went Jr. High with Tina and I met her about 20 years ago when she moved next door to me. We used to have so much fun. Our kids were all about the same age and we all spent a lot of time together.

She was only my neighbor for about 5 years when she moved a couple of miles away. The distance didn't keep us apart. We talk on the phone regularly to catch up on the latest details of family life and have lunch at Celebrity Bakery often. Her son Matt and his wife Missy now live down the street from Jennifer and Lamar. It is fun to watch them repeat our early days.

Tina comes from a family of 6 girls. She and I could write a book about the events that have happened in our families over the last 20 years. At times it has been extremely dramatic, but God has seen us through the tough times and it has been so much fun.

Tina will be 50 on August 1st. That sounds so old!!! We celebrated a little early yesterday with a lunch at Al Biernat's. We had a great day. The table looked awesome with the huge bouquet of flowers, letting everyone know something special was going on at that table.

We ate great food along with the gorgeous dessert tray that they brought out. It was almost too pretty to eat. We left the restaurant at about 3:00, but we could have stayed longer talking if they hadn't closed at 2:30. We had a little detour on the way home because of the crazy driver. With massive construction on Oak Lawn, I went straight in the poorly marked right turn only lane and got pulled over by a cop along with 4 other people. Even with my carload of friends, we could not come up with a good enough excuse to talk our way out of a ticket.

Happy Birthday Tina!!!