WEEK-END HAPPENINGS!

Can it be that we are a week into Sept already?  Hope you all had a glorious holiday week-end.  Ours was just about perfect I have decided.  Sat. we spent a leisurely morning enjoying our coffee and conversation and decided to go to lunch and a movie that afternoon.  We had lunch at our favorite place (Market Broiler ~ such yummy fish) and then met up with my parents and saw The Help.  What a GOOD movie that was!  I just enjoyed every minute of it.  It does amaze me that such things were still going on in the 60's.  Such troubled times.  And then we went over to their house and played cards.  We had a really good time in spite of the fact the girls lost again...sigh.  My poor mom has really been struggling since she had her seizure a few weeks ago.  She has to remain on medication to prevent them, and it just leaves her sleepy, confused, and befuddled.  We are trying to get it adjusted, but it is a long process.  She is also almost obsessed with getting all of her "things" spoken for and taken care of.  This is frustrating for all of us.  My step-dad continues to have good days and bad.  He is in the process of testing and being checked by another specialist, so hopefully we will have some more answers soon as to how to make things more comfortable and easier for him.   In the meantime, I am there a couple of days a week helping out as best as I can.  I do soo covet your prayers for both of them.

On Sun morning we headed down to San Diego for church.  We hadn't been in a couple of weeks of course as we had been away, and to say I was looking forward to it would be a major understatement.  This would be the first week at their new location and I was both anxious to see the place, and find out if changing locations would bring about attendance loss etc.  Oh, and my grand kids needed some kisses from Grandma too, haha.   I honestly don't know if I can say enough good things about how it went.  First, the place itself was just sooo much better.   Parking was easy and there is soo much ground for the kids to run and play ect. after service while their parents fellowship.   And it was by far the biggest crowd I have seen yet.  So many new faces, it was just wonderful!  No one is really sure where all the new people came from, by I am VERY certain the Lord does and His Holy Spirit is busy at work.  James has been going through the book of Ephesians, and was on chapter 6 yesterday about honoring ones mother and father.  I thought the message was REALLY good and blessed me so.  If ever you would like to hear one of his messages, remember you can click on his picture here on the side of my blog and their web page comes up where you can quickly find the latest one.  After church we spent quite a bit of time visiting and catching up with everyone.  How I have come to love these people and how much I have missed some of them.  A dear woman who I had shared with about my breast cancer last year, made me a beautiful necklace and gave it to me on Sun.  Soo sweet!  I will say I do wish we lived closer as this would make it much easier to get more involved.  But for now, I am grateful that we are able to be there every Sunday.  After church we went over to their house where Larissa made us a yummy lunch and we met their new dog Bruno (soo cute, the perfect little dog for them) and then visited with them for a while.  It was good to catch up.  Then we left there and went back out to Ontario where we met my middle son and his girlfriend and family to celebrate John's 35th birthday which was on the first of September.  I honestly can't believe he is already 35 years old!  Doesn't seem that long ago that I was, haha.  Joe and his daughters Annabel and Lindsey were there as well, and it was a really good time.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and was able to catch up pretty well with all of them even though there was quite a few people there.  The girls are getting to be soo old.  Annabel starts high school today!  High school!  She is playing on the Freshman girl volley ball team and I am hoping to get to her game this afternoon.  How I love high school sports in the first place, but to watch her play will be priceless.   Now it really does seem like just yesterday that Mel was playing.  She is going to the same school she did so it will seem like a trip down memory lane as well for sure.

                                                                 Annabel & Lindsey

                                                                 Yolanda & John

Yesterday we decided to spend the day getting some extra things done around here that there never seems to be enough time for.  It felt good.  My hubby dug down all of my Fall decor boxes and I got all of them up!  I felt pretty accomplished I am not going to lie, haha.  I had told myself last year that I would get them up as close to Labor Day as I could so that I could enjoy them longer.  I love the Fall, and the colors and figured I might as well enjoy it all for as long as I can.  They will all remain until I decorate for Christmas.  WOW...did I just say for Christmas?  Surely it is not that close!  haha.  Anyway, he then shampooed all of our carpets and area rugs.  How wonderful they look!  I had no idea there would be such a noticeable difference after just one year in this home, but there really was.  I also washed kitchen rugs, bathroom rugs, and all of our throw blankets and pillow covers.  How fresh everything looks.  : )  And! we trimmed the palms on the front porch back (they are just getting huge!) and I washed and cleaned and hosed down everything on the front porch.  It was a LONG day but well worth the effort.  I am really pleased with how it is all looking.  Now George and his crew were suppose to come last week but I told them to wait another week as we had been away.  When I called him this morning to make sure he would be there, I found out that George has suffered a stroke and is still in the hospital!  I feel soo bad for him.  He is such a nice man.  Meanwhile he was supposed to get a hold of his crew and see if/when they will be coming.  My dilemma is that his workers never do as good of job as he does when he is here, so now I might be back at square one with needing a cleaning person as I don't know how long George might be out, or if he will even really be back.  Sooo, guess I will have to figure something out.  Wish my knees didn't keep me from doing some of the things that MUST be done, or I think I would just do it myself.  My hubby said he would do them, but I feel like he has enough on his plate.  I am sure it will all work out, but it is frustrating.   It is always comes back to the same thing...HOW much I miss Nina.  Unless I do it myself (which is just sooo physically hard for me right now) it just has never has been as good as when she did it.  I have had to lower my standards a little bit since we have moved and lost her, but I have found it is probably better for "me" to be a little less particular.  My kids would be laughing at this as I have always been such a fanatic, (and tell me not much has changed)  but I do my best, haha.

Ready for Fall  ~ my scarecrow made it another year, but he may be on his last legs, lol

Look at how big that Sega Palm has gotten!

Remember when I showed you a while back my area out front which had just been planted?  Well, here it is all filled in....I LOVE all the color.  

Mel went to the docs this morning and she is still doing great!  She is 35 weeks in a couple of days so they would no longer even try to stop labor if she were to go into labor early, so I guess that means she has officially made it.  How grateful I am cannot be described!  She will be given a pelvic soon to see what is happening, so I guess I will wait for that to try and make plans, but for now I am thinking I might head back out there on the 7th of October or so.  I do soo appreciate your prayers as we come to the end of this pregnancy.  She had some professional pregnancy pics taken which we are anxiously awaiting to see.  Hopefully I will be able to post some here when she does.  

It sure is hot here today...got to be nearing the 100 mark.  Hope you all have a wonderful week.