Busy Life

Well, here it is.  The end of January.  Already this year is flying by us.  We have been a busy family.  Seems like everyone is going different directions. It's funny though....Jim and I have been the ones on the move...finally.  We left home Sunday the 15th headed for Destin, FL to catch a flight early Monday morning...destination....Las Vegas!!!  We spent the week at the World of Concrete convention and sightseeing.  This was not our first trip, so we decided to get off the strip for a day and go old downtown Vegas (Fremont Street, etc).  We toured the Mob Museum and walked Fremont Street.  Lots of "interesting" sights...lol.  We flew back to Destin Friday Jan 20 and drove to Ozark, Al to celebrate Ryan's b'day with a family dinner.  While there we learned that an old family friend had passed away.  Dr. Bob McLaughlin was more than a friend.  He was family and will surely be missed by all of us.  We also were able to see Larry and Kristy who are doing well and Uncle Billy and Aunt Merylon who also seem to be better than I expected.  We were unable to see Aunt JoAnn due to the fact that Jim became very sick while we were there. We left Sunday morning in search of a medical clinic to help, had to drive to Florida to find one (minute clinics are not allowed in Alabama and he refused to go to ER).  Got diagnosis of pneumonia.  I will forever blame this on a bacteria contracted through the CPAP machine he uses nightly.

We are on our way home (to show how sick Jim was, I was driving..lol) when storms erupted all around us.  The wind was blowing debris into the side of the car and the Interstate signs were flashing TORNADO WARNING...just our luck. We decided to stop in Quincey to spend the night and let the storms pass, but of course we lost power in the Hampton Inn that night too.  We FINALLY made it home Monday and Jim spent the rest of the week at home recovering.  I'm pleased to say that he is doing well and back to work.

We are preparing to leave again next week for Galveston but hopefully this trip will be a little less stressful.

 

Missing my friend

Sitting on my couch watching the National Championship game, looking around at my walls that now look bare thanks to taking down Christmas ornaments, and missing Daddy so much.  I have thought so many times to call him this past week to have him "whine" with me about Christmas being over.  It was "our" time of year.  We were "Christmas Buddies".  Constant Christmas music, shows, and movies.  Our favorites were A Christmas Story  and The Homecoming ( the movie that launched the Walton's series.  I automatically picked up the phone to call him while I was decorating and cooking only to be hit with reality.  He loved to hear play-by-play of the activity in our full house and the latest cakes or candies that had been made.  Mother always wanted to know if I remembered that the fudge would NOT set on a rainy day.  Even with her dementia, she remembered that :)   They will always be missed, but it seems the Holiday season is the hardest.

OCD

Walked into the bathroom this morning after Jim went to work and found this....This is a sign of a strong marriage....He took a towel from the middle of the rack and didn't fear for his life...lol.  Naturally I fixed it, but I have to wonder what makes someone want to do this?  Why the middle?  Why not the top...or the bottom...and why does this bother me???  So many questions...but the rest of my day was wonderful.  That is all.

28 years

As I am writing this post...I have laundry going, boxes scattered everywhere trying to pack up Christmas decorations, projects staring at me begging to be finished, and clutter waiting to be "decluttered".  It's been like this since the beginning.  28 years of marriage today.  When we first married, I didn't think I could love him any more than I did that day...boy, was I wrong.  Life has given us some challenges to deal with, but dealt with them we did.  Together.  I'm sure there are more challenges and adventures to come.  Life would be boring without them.  But I see our relationship as a recipe.  You start off with something that you love.  Blend in a few more things that you love (children, home, family),   some things that are needed such as jobs, FAITH (lots of faith).  You may even get a good "beating" with the beaters of life such as financial burdens, deaths, and teenagers.  But when you blend them all together, you get this wonderful mixture called Love and Marriage.  What we have endured in these years and God's help has made us a strong power to reckon with and as I said before, I was so wrong about not being able to love my husband any more than the day I married him. Our love will NEVER stop growing.  I know one day, one of us will face life without the other...but that is something that I can't even imagine.  So until that day comes...I'll be Scarlett O'Hara and I'll think about that tomorrow.  Happy Anniversary Jim.  I love you is an understatement.

New Year

I think my resolution this year will be to try as hard as I can to keep the blog as current as possible. --- Another Christmas has come and gone.  What a blessing for all of us to be together at several times during the season.
  Lately, I have been thinking about how mean, selfish and over saturated this world has become.  We have seen news reports of people having "breakdowns" because of the election...need "safe places" and therapy animals because not everyone agrees with everyone on how life should be lived. I also know that most of this is over exaggerated by the news agencies. But that being said, sometimes things happen in life that make you realized how blessed you really are. One of those things happened over the Holidays to my cousins daughter. Below is the link to her story.   Read it.  And the next time you "feel" like life is unfair to you because others don't agree with you, or someone hurt your feelings and you feel the need for a "safe place"...remember that this is true heartache..not some social or political hot topic that has hurt your feelings...this is real life...
http://solvingformyj.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-day-your-heart-stopped-and-mine.html

My prayer for my family is that we realize how blessed we are to have each other and thank God every day for the wonderful lives He has given us.