I didn't realize I have so much to say

The two houses I lived in until I was married

I really didn't think my life was so busy. So many things I want to write about since my last post. I started this blog so that I could tell the grand kids stories of my past (while I could remember them) and my present is so full I really haven't had the time.

First I want to just thank Jennifer for the completion of a wonderful Easter. She hosted a perfect dinner and organized a fun filled egg hunt for all three grand kids. It was so relaxing to sit around and just visit at ease. This was all after they and Charlie, Michele & Wyatt went to Easter mass with us. I usually get teary at church but I was so proud and happy all I could do was smile. A great new beginning.

Tom works from home on Mondays and also worked from home Tuesday filing his travel paperwork. He was still so exhausted from the last two traveling weeks that he decided to take the rest of the week off. He was having a lot of pain not only because of the travel but the VA had a shortage of Percocet and would only give him 10 days worth at a time and needless to say with all his travel it wasn't real convenient to drive out there every 10 days. He still enjoys having the grand kids around and he volunteered to have Jack spend the night on Wednesday.

I spent the week going through my parents old pictures and scanning them so that I could take the originals to my brothers & sisters when we visited them over the week end. I only went through the 70's and found only FIVE of me. They enjoyed getting them but my sister in law kept commenting how many of my brothers pictures had his girlfriend in them (they are still friends with her) Here is a picture with Cheryl Ann, Matt & Cookie in 1974 and one with my brother Mark & his 57 ChevyTom and I went to Ohio Friday morning. It was the anniversary of my father's death and I just felt like I wanted to be there. We went out to their local bar for drinks & burgers. Strange thing though the waitress brought my brother Canadian Club (which our mother preferred) instead of his usual Southern Comfort by mistake and an order of breaded mushrooms which no one ordered and were our dad's favorite. For whatever reason it happened it made us smile. On Saturday my other brother and sisters and their spouses came over for a cook out for my 50th birthday which is next month. My sister got me a beautiful leatherbound copy of "A Purpose Driven Life" which I own in paperback and tried to read with some people at work a while back. I I'm really looking forward to getting back to it! It was so relaxing, we ended the night around a campfire. I took the camera with me but it just didn't seem like the right time. On Sunday we went to Tom's dad's church. He and his wife were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary with a renewal and official exchanging of vows in church since they were married civilly. You can listen to the whole service here http://www.streetsborolutheran.org/audio.htm On a story telling side note when Tom & I were stationed in Germany the first time his parents were still married to each other. When we returned home for a visit a year and a half later they were divorced and each remarried, his brother had met a woman and married her and my parents had moved from the home that I spent most of my childhood. I had two new nieces and a new daughter. WOW. Life goes by too fast. In the two years since my father passed I have two new grandsons & another granddaughter on the way, my daughter and her family have gone to Kansas (Iraq) and have returned home and I have completely changed my lifestyle by quitting my job. My nephew got married, another nephew joined the Air Force and yet another nephew has a new daughter, my niece came out of the closet, another niece is having her second baby and yet another one had a baby yesterday, Jillian, isn't she a cutey!

Here's to all the extra "gravy" Dad!