{"id":3145,"date":"2012-06-10T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T02:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=3145"},"modified":"2024-12-03T16:20:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T21:20:09","slug":"family-roar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=3145","title":{"rendered":"Family Roar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Kent, Washington while traveling between Salem, Oregon and Honolulu,\u00a0Hawaii\u00a0\u2013 <\/em>We had to stand at the top of the stairs to sing Happy Birthday<\/em>. The stairs to the family room, that is, so Kramer could see the cake-with-candles and join in. Kramer loves birthdays. One year he gobbled up half the cake before the party; that\u2019s why he\u2019s in the family room today, behind the gate. Tami is taking no chances, though he\u2019ll get a slice, after everyone else is served. Right now, as the candles flicker and the nine of us sing human words, Kramer howls, in his own joyous big-black-dog way. \u201cHe\u2019s the best dog there ever was,\u201d Scott affirms. \u201cThe best.\u201d \"\"<\/a>We\u2019re gathered here to celebrate; my baby-child is 47 years old today. How great that I arrived in time to party up. Boxes are stacked everywhere for the family\u2019s impending move, but we don\u2019t mind; we use them for table-tops. Finger-licking food; corn on the cob and KFC; the youngest ones are picky eaters still; the oldest gobble up. Tami made Scott\u2019s favorite cake, the German chocolate kind his grandma made when he was ten and went to fish the Gulf of Mexico. And now it\u2019s picture-taking time. Let\u2019s go outside. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We\u2019re all caught up, touched base, and brought each other up to date. Alec is about to graduate, getting his AA; he has his own apartment now; works two jobs, more schooling planned for fall. Jake is about to get his AA too, lives at home and works full time; plans to join the Highway Patrol some day soon. Sam is just finishing 4th<\/sup> grade; he\u2019ll have a new school for 5th<\/sup>, after the move north to Bothell, coming up. Sam loves his sports; \u201cI\u2019ll make new friends,\u201d he tells me, \u201cand I\u2019ll play ball there too.\u201d That\u2019s son Scott and Tami\u2019s crew; Brett is the only one missing today. He\u2019s stationed at Ft Huachuca with the Army; Arizona, remember my March visit there? Kids growing up. https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=315<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As to son Rick\u2019s crew, they\u2019re growing up too. Matt is working on his AA with plans to study in Japan next year; eventually to teach. Sayonara, Matt! Andrew is finishing his high school sophomore year, is reading letters from colleges all around, and concentrating on his GPA. Kayla is finishing 4th<\/sup> grade, like Sam. \u201cI want to study French, and learn to play the violin,\u201d she states as her ambition, \u201cas soon as I\u2019m eligible for orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick has his eye on a retirement place, still years away; Scott is joyful that the move next week means almost no commute to work; Tami is looking forward to a new job at Macy\u2019s (employee discounts, she grins). And through it all, Kramer wags his tail. Dogs don\u2019t think much about tomorrow, or making future plans; they just want the birthday cake! Tami put the once-used birthday candles in a bag for me. Two big fat numbers, the\u00a04 and 7. \u201cJust reverse them,\u201d she said, \u201cfor your birthday coming up in April.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m like Kramer; I like birthdays too, and being happy now. Outside, I line the family up, to get their pictures by the car.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Kent, Washington while traveling between Salem, Oregon and Honolulu,\u00a0Hawaii\u00a0\u2013 We had to stand at the top of the stairs to sing Happy Birthday. The stairs to the family room, that is, so Kramer could see the cake-with-candles and join in. Kramer loves birthdays. One year he gobbled up half the cake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4586],"tags":[845,844,965,846,966,847,673,519,961,962,848,963,964],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3145"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3147,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145\/revisions\/3147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}