Birthday Blessings

Warning! Photo Overload!  This was a BIG weekend for me and so as you well know when you are dealing with me, "a picture is worth a thousand words"...so I will try to limit my words and just show you pictures of this wonderful birthday weekend.  I am still feeling overwhelmed with joy and blessings from so many who took the time to wish me a happy birthday on Facebook...that's truly one of the "good things" about social media...the way we can bless each other on special days and lift up one another during the difficult days. For that I am truly thankful.  And so, without further adieu, let the pictures and story begin...  

This butterfly started our day out when we took our early morning walk at Dixie Cottage.

My real birthday was on Sunday, but on Saturday we drove about an hour + to my home town to meet my sister and her hubby and my husband's brother and his wife for lunch at a fun restaurant on the shores of Lake Dora.  My little old hometown has turned into a kind of tourist destination for seaplane enthusiasts, where seaplanes can land on the lake and people can "fly in" for lunch at several different restaurants along the shore.  

Anyway, before we got to our destination we took a scenic route along the "Lake Shore Drive" of Lake Eustis...yes, there are many lakes in the area of my old hometown, because it is actually in "Lake County"...and there are lakes every where you look.

There are many lovely old oak trees lining the shore...

And in the distance you can see many sailboats...there is a sailing club in that area and I guess they were out enjoying the beautiful day on the lake...

We finally made it to our destination, and here is the view from our table:

It was a very special day as there was an event scheduled to have a group of retired Army Rangers parachuting down from planes onto the lake, and then boaters would come and pick them up.

This went on for several hours...

It made for a very interesting and entertaining lunch with our family...

Speaking of "entertaining"...

My brother in law loves to cut up...but you can see below he's really quite handsome, like his brother (my hubby). Can you tell they are brothers?

And my pretty sister Doris was enjoying the "entertainment"...

While her hubby tried to maintain his stoic composure:

And my lovely sister in law just beams...

And here I am with my hubby and my sister...I call her my "little big sister" because she's my "big sister", but she's much littler than me. LOL.

Now here Peggy and I are trying to figure out how to light the candles on the apple pie that my sister Doris brought. There was a fan overhead and it was blowing out the candles as fast we could light them, so we just gave up...

And they sang to me without the candles lit:

Happy Birthday to me..

And the BIG BLOW! LOL.  We have to have one of these pictures every year. It's a family tradition. Even if the candles can't be lit...

So that was that, and then on our way home we drove by my old "Alma Mater".  This building of my high school hasn't changed much, but the rest of the school is totally different. I'm glad they saved this historic building...

Speaking of history, my sister brought this old book to me that she found among some boxes from our parents' home that she has stored in her house and is gradually looking through...

This little devotional book was a gift to me from my Pastor and his wife for my high school graduation. I was so happy to get it back after all these years.  Pastor Parsons was also the pastor who married my husband and I 53 years ago.  He was a very strong and godly influence in my life and I am very thankful to God for bringing him and his family to our church when I was a teenager. I once even wrote a theme about him in high school as my most memorable character.  I may share that with you sometime, but not today.

This inscription means so much to me...

And now moving right along to Sunday, my "REAL" birthday!  Of course we went to Sunday school and church and it was a blessing as always.  These sweet little children from our "children's church" sang a song for the congregation, "I'm In the Lord's Army"... They were marching as they sang:

"I may never march in the infantry

Ride in the cavalry

Shoot the artillery

I may never shoot for the enemy

But I'm in the Lord's army!

I'm in the Lord's army!

I'm in the Lord's army!

I may never march in the infantry

Ride in the cavalry

Shoot the artillery

I may never shoot for the enemy

But I'm in the Lord's army!"

I have very sweet memories of my own sons singing this song in church when they were quite small.  This brought some tears to my eyes.  (happy tears).

And speaking of my sons...Here we are after church and lunch, which we had gone out to eat together with a few of our church friends as well, but I forgot to get a picture of that...but afterwards just the boys and us came home to finish off that apple pie.  My sweet DIL Rose is out of town currently, visiting her family up in Minnesota.

And hubby was there too of course...

And this time we really were able to light the candles:

It was a wonderful celebration and I am so very very thankful to God for my family and friends...and for all these years of blessings and good health and home, and for YOU.

And now we are getting things ready for the potential hurricane that may be coming up our coast later this week. We are pretty far inland and north and are praying that we will not have much of a bad impact here, but you never know with these storms.  They still don't know for sure which way it will go, so we have to be ready just in case.  And so with that I will say so long for now and will keep you updated as things "develop".

Thank you for visiting today, and I hope to get caught up with reading your posts throughout the week. It's been a whirlwind of activity these past few days so I've been a bit behind.  Sending love to you all. Bye bye for now.