A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY BOY.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SON.

YOU ARE #1 TOO !!

A PRECIOUS BIRTHDAY GIRL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LARRY SCHOENBORN

Meet my friend Larry. He is well known in sports-fishing as an angler's guru and as a first class fishing guide in many countries of the world: Brazil, Russia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Canada, Alaska, and all over the USA just to name a few of the most recent. Today is Larry's 72nd birthday, and we are celebrating. Unfortunately, the battle he has been fighting with aggressive multiple myeloma, a wicked cancer of the blood plasma cells which lodges in the bones may rob him of a chance at his 73rd.

Larry is a wonder of a man. He is multi-talented and has an impressive breadth of knowledge in many areas of expertise. He is, for example, a world rated Bridge player and often places high in the standings of those tournaments he fails to win. He continues to be active in the family business - Fishing with Larry, www.fishingwithlarry.com - selling fishing adventure trips to exotic places. He is a well know businessman once owning a prominent local sports store chain. And at one point he and Ethel filmed many TV episodes of fishing expeditions to special places to catch (and release) an amazing variety of fish. Some of those fishing programs are still being rerun on television. Additionally, Larry and Ethel host our mid-week Bible class in their home, and they are always among the first to lend help or encouragement where needed.

We first met about a dozen years ago and almost immediately, Larry endured a stem-cell blood marrow transplant which involved the suppression of his immune system and lengthy convalscence during recovery. All of this high-risk procedure was to earn him the statistical chance of a few more years, maybe three or four or five. He has outlived the target several times over and was able eventually to continue his travels to catch strange and rare fish in many foreign countries. Hey! Want to go Bonefishing at Christmas Island in the South Pacific, anyone?

Most recently he went to Brazil to the upper Amazon basin to guide his clients in fishing for Peacock Bass, one of the largest and most beautiful trophy fish anywhere. An unfortunate fall led to a broken hip, and Larry, wanting to get his medical care at home in Vancouver USA, managed to fly from the middle of South America transcontinentally to receive his urgency care in the local Emergency Room. Gives you an idea of what a tough hombre he is. After the surgery to replace the broken mess with shiny new parts, he was soon up and walking and even attending church services. Sadly, the advancing cancer is now spread throughout his entire system and the cumulative effects of many chemo treatments and transfusions is catching up to him. The encroaching disability and weakness is limiting his body, but it can not touch his spirit.

My friend Larry is an inspiration to me and to his thousands of friends and fans. He is always a joy to visit and his stories and jokes are interesting and always keep us listening carefully even if "we have heard this one before". Everyone has birthdays, but this one was special, thus all this commentary. Happy Birthday, Larry. I hope this one is the best of all!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NUMBER ONE SON (#1) !!

Just to keep your birthday in perspective, David, today you are approximately 68 times older than your nephew Lucas and 18 times older than his brother Eli. You are 55 times older than your sister's youngest and 4.75 times older than your youngest daughter. You are about 3 and 2/3 times older than your oldest daughter and she's soon going to be as tall as you are. You are almost 3 times older than your sister's twins and close to 1 and 1/2 times older than your brother's wife.

Now you are in the group closest to you: you are 15% older than your brother but only 5% older than your wife and your sister. You are just 4% older than your sister's husband, and finally there you are at par with yourself, no matter how young or old you feel!

In an ever closer relationship with your parents, you are only 2/3 rds of your sweet mother's age and roughly 63% of my age. In one final leap of reality, you are mighty close to half of your grandfather's age today.

It's time we had a talk and that I told you what my Dad once told me.

(No, not that!)

He said that every day you get up, something different is going to twinge, and a new pang or ache is going to nag for your attention. Things are going to begin to be higher up, further away, noticeably heavier, and everything is going to take longer. Light bulbs are going to be dimmer, voices softer, food is going to be blander, and there will be more hulls in your popcorn. It will be further to the mailbox and to the store, prices will always be higher than you thought they were or should be. You will remember when you could get a good cup of coffee at a fair price, but you will have to check on when your anniversary comes. It becomes easier to wear slip-ons than to tie your laces; indeed, you may have trouble even finding decent laces for your dress shoes because China or Bangladesh or someplace somewhere stops making them. It will be more difficult to take all your pills in one handful, you will think twice about which "hot" sauces you can safely use, and most of your clothes will shrink. There will be a new, similar list like this every day.

You get the idea.

However, you are becoming wiser, gentler, more thoughtful, more compassionate, more generous, and you more deeply appreciate it when young folk step aside for you or let you go through a doorway first. And call you "Sir".

You are going to find that the calendar has really lost dimension, 'cause in what will seem like only a couple of years, you will be fifty years old. So, Son, enjoy your youth while you can, and be assured that the best way to spend your time - the most valuable way to invest each hour is to spend it with family making memories. Those are times you will never regret, especially if you can remember them. Ain't it the truth!!

Happy Birthday!