happy first anniversary!

one year ago we celebrated a new 
family in the making. 
our oldest daughter married the 
love of her life. 

it was such a fun celebration.
maybe we could get everyone 
together again sometime.

happy anniversary bride and rmg.
 

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

it's a great day.
thank you.

phone calls from kids,
flowers from kids,
lunch with good friends,
many birthday greetings via card, email, facebook.

i am a blessed woman. 

i know earlier this week i mentioned 
not feeling like celebrating.
perhaps some people might think i am
unhappy more often than i really am.
life is a gift. 
i know this.
and i live with the glass half full.
just once in awhile grief sneaks in
and slaps me in the back of the head.
not often, say every few weeks or so.
and that folks is just how it is.
it's normal, and to be expected.
this is what grieving is like.

95 % of the time i walk about
with my head held high
and my heart full of joy and thanksgiving.
i KNOW i am blessed.
amazingly. 
good hubby,
healthy productive children,
good home,
plenty of food.
all our needs and most of our wants.
loving family members,
great friends who will drop their agendas 
if needed to help others out. 
and those friends aren't just in my town.
they live scattered across the nation. 
wow!
all these gifts are possible because of 
Jesus.

i know this.
i am blessed. 

oh and there's also YOU.
see, i am blessed.
 
 

coming through loud and clear

sometimes i get weary.
weary of all the have-to-dos of life.
lately i've been weary of elder people care.
yes, my mom is gone, but there's still dad.
and mom's sister.
although she's not as needy.

yesterday bird and i took our aunti
up to put flowers on the graves of her mom,
son, grandparents, and baby brother.
it's 90 miles from us. 
we didn't get to do that last year because
we were waiting on mom to feel better. 
(she never did feel better)
plus i did have a backyard wedding that 
kept me hopping.
this year, we made it a priority. 
and it was a good day.
we know how to have fun regardless
of the scenario.
we had lunch, my aunti bought mine 
in honor of my birthday.

today bird and i take dad
to see a doc, who is 60 miles from my house,
so 2 hours from dads. 
they will come here for lunch
then off we go.
gonna see what a specialist has to say 
about his shoulders and neck.

all good things to do.
but sometimes you just wanna stay home
and ....????
work in your yard.
plant flowers,
chase the daughters dog out of the 
flower bed where the zinnia's just came up.
or read a book, magazine.

this morning my devotions were on task for me.
"do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,
but with humility of mind regard one another as 
more important than yourselves."
Phil. 2:3
going on in verse 4, different version,
"don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested 
in others too, and what they are doing."

coming through loud and clear God.

bleh..

i have a birthday this week.
i don't feel like celebrating,
i miss my mom.

makes me sound like a child.
well i am.
i'm the child of my parents,
who's heart is broken.

the wind began to blow..

brown-eyed-handsome-man and i made the 
cross state trip this week.
the pick-up was loaded. 
which gave the wind a great "handle" 
to whip is about for 3 hours.
but we made it safely.

our return trip we battled wind ..
again. 
however living in the 
"south wind people" state 
this is to be expected.

a few hours from home we had
entertainment from the sky.

first we saw a small funnel forming to the south.
but it went back up, 
then came down,
did this several times.
pretty soon a funnel formed to the north.
this is it in the next pics.

 

 it's more to the left of this pic. just in case you don't know what to look for.

 getting longer and lower to the ground. also a rain cloud got in 
between us making visibility more challenging.

heading back up.

 and it went back to the 'dark side'. okay the dark center of the clouds.
 

 and it left. thanks God.


meanwhile we also had the south funnel
playing games.
for a brief few minutes i wondered
which would land first?

 of course, this one seemed closer, and we continued to drive towards it. 

 getting a longer tail.

 oh my! by now we've reached the town and i'm hunting a safe place to get out of death trap pickup and inside a safer walled building.
we found one and waited this baby out.

 to my knowledge it never touched down.
thanks God. 
it returned to the clouds, so we returned to the road.
however....
we left our shelter only to hustle again under a gas station awning 
because rather large and heavy hail stones followed the funnel.
after another 15 minutes and the sky was clear and safe.

those are the longest tailed funnels i've seen 
with my own eye.
and those were sufficient to last me the 
rest of my life. 
 
 
 

just in case you wondered....

...there is such a large hole in my heart.
i sure do miss this lady.

i called dad recently.
he wasn't home so the answering machine got it.
got to hear my momma's voice again. 
i knew it was there.
i just forgot.

bitter-sweet.

not the best day for a grief-burst .
is there any good day for that?

however i am doing what my mom did 
so generously and often.
gonna do stuff for and with my youngest child.
and i'm happy to do so.

my mom taught her youngest child well.
 

birthday girl

today is our youngest childs birthday.
she is 23.
she made her own cake,
from scratch.
it looks great.
i get some tomorrow, hopefully.
 
she's packing up her stinky apartment
in prep for a move soon. 
we are packing up a pickup load 
to take to her soon.
sometimes this is how birthdays happen. 
life just keeps on going. 


this pic was taken just yesterday ....
or not.

 delightful daughter, 
i found slippers under your bed this morning.
not these, sad to say.
i also found the american girl bedding, etc.
did you want me to bring it?

: )