Happy Birthday, Ma!

I have quite a few people that I call "mom."  First, there is my real mom, who currently lives in a different time zone and I haven't seen in over a year.  We talk on the phone once or twice a month, when I get bored.  She gave birth to me and I love her, but I need a mom close to home.  That's where Noreen and Laurie come in.  Noreen is my newest mom-type person.  She's a busser at the SAC, like Laurie, and she became my mother one day when she kissed my boo-boo and made it all better.  She's a lot of fun because she acts just like one of us drunken kids.

Laurie, as I mentioned earlier, is my close-to-home mom.  When I first started at the SAC in September '07, I got real close to her daughter, Lis (a hostess at the time), and there were a lot of jokes that when her son, D.J., came home I should date him.   Thus, she became my mother-in-law turned mother/friend.  (I never did date her son, by the way.)  Her whole family refers to me as "Laurie's step-daughter" and her youngest, Brooke, always tells people that she has three sisters, Lis, Erin (whom I've never met), and me.  She's been there when I needed a mom-figure and I love her for it.

Last year, Lis and I started a tradition of taking Ma and Brooke to Friendly's around Mother's Day/Ma's birthday.  This year, we pulled Brooke out of school and continued the tradition - with pictures. (You can click to make 'em near-lifesize!)

Lis and me, you can't tell, but I'm being kicked under 

the table by Brooke in this picture.

Brooke and Ma.  The picture was supposed to be just

 Ma, but then Brooke snuck in right before I took it.

Brooke wanted to take a picture of Lis.

It still amazes me that Brooke's kid's 

sundae is bigger than our adult sundaes.