Happy Birthday, Birthday!

We have spent the past week plus celebrating birthdays.  Mom turned 90 years young on October 1st.  Thank you to all who responded to the call for birthday cards.  She was lavished with birthday wishes.  Well over 90 birthday cards arrived the weeks prior and up to even this past week.  She received several arrangements of flowers, a birthday cake, gifts, and a grand variety of cards in celebration of this milestone birthday.  She was treated to at least 6 meals in recognition of her birthday.  Many of the cards included notes with stories and memories of how she has impacted lives.  I think she felt well loved and I am so grateful for all who took the time to celebrate with her.

Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake provided by her neighbors.

Cards were displayed throughout the Living Room

Mom and I traveled to beautiful Ellijay on Saturday so 
visit one of our favorite people, Lequida.

This past Thursday October 8th we celebrated Peter's 28th birthday at Texas Road House.  He chose it for the ribbs and steak kabobs.  The bonus was that he worked there several years ago.  One of the servers, Jeanie is still there and told me that she has a soft spot for Peter (and Mom because Mom reminds her of her own grandmother.) Peter told her he absolutely wanted nothing to do with the saddle and singing from the staff. Jeanie honored that but went out of her way to celebrate Peter's day.  She made him a crown, brought him ice cream and took a selfie with him.  It was a nice little extra to his celebration.  On Saturday Peter and I continued the celebrating by meeting up at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Georgia - Alabama game.  Yes I was invited so I could buy his dinner.  It was good to spend some time with him.

Peter picked out a watch for his birthday
and was showing us all its great attributes.

He was giving me his "serious" pose.

Peter was offered a job by a logistics company to drive for Amazon.  He had his last day at CJ Logistics where he worked in cold storage this past Thursday and goes to orientation tomorrow for his new job.  Of course I have my aprehensions considering Peter's driving history.  Yet being on his own to work most of the day, may be the job he needs.  He is excited about it.  Thank you for praying for this transistion of jobs for him.

Bumps in the Road

I'm sitting at the car dealership having work done on mom's car. I'm approaching the fifth hour. When I arrived at 7:30 AM, I did not anticipate it being such a long process. Evidently I was not the only one who thought today was a good day for car service. I won't lie, I'd rather be at home on this Saturday morning. And yet it has allowed me the opportunity to get a lot of little stuff done that I would have put off if I was at home. Things like Bible study, writing notes, cleaning up my phone etc.

As I am approaching what I hope Is the last leg of this car service appointmenat, I thought I would take a minute to share a bit here. Mom and I got to spend some time at our local emergency room this week when food was lodged in her esophagus. Although food caught in her throat was not a new or uncommon experience for her, being unable to clear it on her own was. After three hours , we decided we needed to seek medical attention. It felt like an extremely long experience but in reality , we were in and out of the hospital in under twenty four hours. This include multiple test, an attempt to clear via help of medication and eventually an endoscopy procedure. Overall , she received good  and attentive care from the hospital staff. Except for some throat soreness, she seems to be on the mend. I'm grateful for those who took care of her and my extremely understanding work place which allowed me to stay with her.

Last night I received a call from Peter as he was headed home from work early. He was sent home after a verbal exchange with a coworker. He was told the HR person would call so the status of his Job is unclear. This has happened before , and he was able to return to work the next day.

 He talked with me for a long time and revealed to me how stressful the job has been for him.  He told me this morning that he messaged HR and told them if he was fired that was fine , and if not, he was giving them his two weeks notice. Of course this causes me some anxiety. His work record does not make getting new jobs particularly easy. And other experiences like this have led to mental downward spirals. However, I have to say in talking with him last night that although there is some grandiose thought and an overall lostness spiritually, there are a lot of things I am proud of him for. And honestly, his recognizing the stress that he is feeeling, is a good thing. Hard labor in a cold storage warehouse from 3:30 pm to midnight is more than many of us would be willing to do. He is currently applying to other jobs. As always , thank you for your prayers for God's provisions for him as well as spiritual eyes to be open.

To the beach and back!

We  made it to Orange Beach, AL and back, and had a grand time.  The weather was cooperative, the kids were fun, and 3 adults with 3 kindergarteners definitely made for good odds.  We spent a good bit of time on the beach as well as in the pool of the condo.  I provided daily craft activites and we ate the daily PB&J sandwiches.  We reprised a few of the traditions from last year's trip.  Wal-Mart delivery made muptiple trips to our condo as well as Pizza Hut stopped by one time. (Well now that I think of it the driver got the delivery wrong and actually came to us twice in one night.) We visited the Gulf Shore Zoo and this year we got to feed the giraffes. The last day we wrapped it up with traditional photos, beach volcanoes and ice cream.  Some of the new experiences this year included taking the kids out to eat somewhere other than Chick-fil-A, riding the skywheel and a shark siting.  Because there was extra adult supervision, I took a few more solo walks on the beach.  My monday morning walk was particularly delightful as I shared coffee and bagel with the seagulls, watched dolphins swim by, had my daily chat with Mr Crain, and photod a beautiful cloud enhanced sunrise.  I came home well rested. (My 5 year old roommate helped me get to bed early.) I have a sun glow but no burn!  I also have nicely exfoliated feet. I have become a bit of a collector of 5 gallon buckets (as well as 2 gallon and mini's) So I am delighted with my souvineir of a Red Buccee's 5 gallon Bucket. We discovered mulitple uses for it on the car ride home! It was a great trip and discussions about next year's trip have already begun.  

Peter and mom did just fine in my absence.  Peter called often (more than when I am in town) and it was all good.  He decided not to take the Amazon driving job but to stay where he is at.  He made the decision without any imput from me for which I am grateful.  He continueously comes up against financial challenges.  And I have been impressed with his ability to manage it and take it in stride.  Mom has presently traded in her puzzels for crocheting to give her back a rest.  I anticipate it wont be too long before she has another puzzel out on the table.  

Going to close this with a few fun photos from the beach trip.

Cool Aunt Linda, Emily, Jeremy

Ryleigh Kate, Conner Bentley

early morning on the beach

Volcanoes on the beach

                                            

Karate on the beach

I was recreating pictures from last year.
In last years picture RK was crying.  
She wouldn't cry when I asked her too so 
the boys did.

RK drew a picture of us, beach roommates!

The Guess Who game tournament

shark sighting

the photo wouldn't cooperate and not sure this video will either.

I brought my inflatable shark costume to the beach. The kids didn't

think it was as funny as I did.  I had one random family on the beach

ask to pose with me.

Still here!

 yep we are still here! Thought I would take a few moments to recap and update.  

Since the big adventure with Mom to Kansas, we spent the summer doing summer things.  Mom worked a couple of big puzzle projects, tended flowers attempting to keep them from wilting in the heat, and continuted to bake cookies for Andrea's counseling office and her friends.  Peter worked 40 plus hours each week from 3:30 PM to midnigth in a cold storage facility.  He spent multiple saturdays at a local waterpark, included me in three Braves games, and took Mama Millie to church most Sundays.  I had a grand time "traveling" about the US with the kids at the preschool during our summer theme, Snapshots Across America. It was one of my favorite summers as I led weekly art and sensory activities as well as planned some fun sensory experience rooms and big events.  The Tea Party, Fiesta with Pinata, and the Annual Dayschool Dash were some of my favorite.  This year we added the ocassional visit of Inflatable Animals at some of our special days.  At the Dayschool Dash we concluded it with a teachers race in which all participants wore an inflatable costume.  I proudly came in last in my lobster costume.  It is NOT easy to run in an inflatable lobster costume!

For the month of August I spent my work time digging out from under the rubble of summer as there was not much time to "put things away" and process from one event to another.  I also spent a lot of time thinking and planning for this school year.  I have returned to visiting in the classrooms and love being with all our kids each week.  Outside of work I stay busy with family and friends, home care, life upkeep , and my yard. I grew Zinnias this year and have so enjoyed having fresh cut flowers in my house. At this point, the heat has about brought us to the end of "fresh cut flower" season.

As I have often said, I think of things regularly that I would love to share with you.  Many times I have started to write only to get side tracked or fall asleep.  I was determined today just to write a little something.  I am headed to the beach on Thursday afternoon for a long Labor day weekend at the beach with Emily, her fiance Jeremy and her 3 kids (now 6, 6, and 5).  This will be mine and Emily's 2nd labour day trip with the kids to the gulf coast.  We invited Jeremy to help us even out the odds so we aren't out numbered by them. I am looking forward to the trip.

Folks often ask about Prter and Mom.  I think they are both doing well.  Mom is quite independant  keeping herself busy and I am so grateful for her wonderful neighborhood of friends.  She will be 90 on October 1st and I have had to promise I would not throw any birthday party.  She says our June trip was her birthday gift.  When people ask about Peter I often say it is like watching someone on a highwire, tightrope.  He is managing his job, his car and his money.  Honestly he is doing real well.  And yet I see things and hear things that make me anxious, anticipating that the slightest slip could cause a devastating fall.  Currently he is considering a job change that might mean less coworker interactions (a  frequent challenge) but would mean fulltime driving. It does stir up anxiety.  I pray God's will be done and that Peter will be wise moving forward.  I am always grateful for your prayers for him.  Knowing others are praying relieves me of some of my anxiety regarding him.

It's time to run some errands and work towards packing for the beach - woo hoo! Thank you as always for being interested in us and praying on our behalf.

Mom just finished this challenging 1000 piece puzzel

Braves vs Mets

An evening at the local Botanical Gardens

Pete and Rufus' most excellent adventure

 One of the fun things about our trip, was traveling with Pete the Cat (my faithful travel compaion for many years) and mom's new friend Rufus.  When the trip was all over I made mom three photo print books to help her enjoy remembering and share the trip.  One book was all photos of people, one was of just random sights and selfies, and the others was the trip through the eyes of Pete and Rufus.  That book is probably my favorite.  So I am going to share some of those photos here.