Monday Monday!

 Okay friends...This is Monday, and it's not like any other Monday!! Not only is it my oldest son's birthday!!!, but we are also getting prepared for a big ugly hurricane that is headed our way in the next 48 hours.  So if you don't hear from me for a while, it may be because we either got blown away (trusting God that won't really happen!) or we may lose power for a few days and that would make life miserable...but better than being blown away!!  So if I am able to update you after the storm passes by, I will as soon as possible.   Thankfully we live pretty far inland, about and hour or more from either coast, but the predicted path of the storm goes right up and over our area...unless something shifts here in the next few hours.  So your prayers are certainly welcome and appreciated!!  We've been out this morning cleaning up stuff in the yard and making sure there are no "projectiles", and then we just stocked up on bread and water and other essentials...(toilet paper!)  We haven't been ordered to evacuate this area yet, so we are hoping we can just stay put like we normally do for a hurricane.  If not, we may go over to our son's house as they live in a concrete block home as opposed to our manufactured home.  Time will tell...we are about as ready as we can be...so just trying to relax and pray.

Meanwhile, thankfully we did all our "celebrating" of birthdays over the weekend and we don't have to worry about people traveling and gathering, etc. now.  If you are not a Facebook friend, you probably haven't already seen these pictures...and if you have already seen them, then you are free to move on to something else. LOL.  Thank you for all your kind words and Happy Birthday greetings for our son.  It's hard to believe he is 52, and that I am even old enough to have a son so old! LOL.  Something must be wrong...maybe he's really only 25 and we got the numbers backwards. LOL.  

We ended up with cupcakes because we had taken a LOT of cupcakes with us on Saturday for the family gathering, and they didn't all get eaten, so rather than waste them and make more, we were smart and had them on Sunday too.  Some of them were pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting! Yes, it's that time again...pumpkin this and pumpkin that...LOL

Of course my mouth is open saying something...or maybe I was singing...anyway, we had a good time.

This was yesterday, after church, and after we had a nice grilled steak dinner, thanks to Rose buying the steaks and Scott doing the grilling.  It was a wonderful treat.

As I told you in last week's Tuesday 4 POST HERE, we had planned to travel an hour or so to a restaurant on Saturday to meet up with our extended Florida family to celebrate August birthdays and anniversaries, etc.  And so we did...and here we are:

This is both sides of our family...my hubby's brother Bill and wife Peggy and their two kids Shannon (and her boyfriend Tristan) and Nicholaus, and my sister Doris and her hubby Art and their two kids David and Debbie (and her hubby and son Jack), plus our kids Benton and Rose. The only one not able to attend was our son Scott, as he had to work.  We were quite a happy big gang of people!

Peggy and Bill were celebrating their 25th anniversary!

Debbie and Darrell had already celebrated their anniversary earlier in the month, but we also celebrated Debbie's birthday, which is this week.

And their handsome son Jack is turning 18 in another week, so we celebrated his birthday too!

And then of course our son Benton and wife Rose celebrating his birthday...

And Billy and Peggy's son Nicholaus is also celebrating his birthday today, on the same day as our son Benton.  He is now 21, but still hates to have his picture taken!  Oh, and he is starting his Junior year at UCF (Univ. of Central Florida), having just graduated with his AA degree from Seminole State Community College. So we are very proud of Nick.  

And this is Nick's sister Shannon and her boyfriend Tristan. She is also attending Seminole State Community College.  

It's not my birthday yet, but my sister in law Peggy gave me this "Squishmallow" pillow as an early birthday gift (later in September), because she will be out of town on my birthday and wanted me to have it now.  I didn't know these special pillows had names and personalities....She picked this one for me because it's name is "Pama",  and her description says that "Pama reads so many books that there are stacks of them everywhere in her home! Pama prefers classic novels and short stories, but she will read anything if you recommend it. This "Mallow" even has a collection of encyclopedias she will sometimes open up and read just for fun!"   LOL.  That's pretty funny! I do love to read, and right now I have a stack of library books I am working through. I used to have encyclopedias that we enjoyed reading, but they became too outdated and are long gone...so now I just look things up on "Wikipedia" when I want to know something.  So this description was pretty appropriate for me...LOL.

And because it was Peggy and Bill's 25th anniversary, we wanted to give them something silver. I actually sent Benton out on a mission the other day while I was having my stem cell procedure done and he was killing time waiting for me to get done (Rose couldn't go with him because she wasn't feeling well that day sadly), so he went shopping and couldn't find anything silver that was appropriate (or affordable).  However, he did find these really cute little trinket dishes with what appears to be the ocean inside and little "silver" sea turtles swimming out to sea.  This was perfect for Peggy and Billy as their home is decorated with a coastal theme!  

She loved them!  (So did Billy, but probably not as much as Peggy. LOL).

Oh, and I wanted to thank all of you for your kind thoughts regarding my procedure that I had the other day.  I am feeling much better, but still it will be a while before my arm is completely healed. I am trusting God for healing and taking it easy and carefully one day at a time. I still have to wear the tummy pressure belt for another week, which is a bit uncomfortable, kind of like a girdle...remember those, ladies?  Does anyone wear girdles anymore??? LOL.  Anyway, little by little things are improving and I am very thankful. You are all the greatest cheerleaders, by the way. I thank God for you!

Well, as I sit here writing this, I have been hearing thunder. It's still too soon for Idalia to make her appearance, so this must be from that other storm out in the Atlantic.  Anyway, it is a warning of things to come, and a reminder that things could be getting crazy around here in a little while. So I will sign off for now and if I can get back to write again in the next couple of days, I will. But don't worry about us if you don't hear anything...just pray...especially for those closer to the coast who may experience much worse weather than we will.  We will hopefully be able to communicate again soon.

"Til the Storm passes by...."

In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face

While the storm howls above me, and there's no hiding place

'Mid the crash of the thunder, Precious Lord, hear my cry

Keep me safe till the storm passes by

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more

Till the clouds roll forever from the sky

Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand

Keep me safe till the storm passes by

Many times Satan whispered

There is no use to try

For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by

But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise

Where the storms never darken the skies

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more

Till the clouds roll forever from the sky

Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand

Keep me safe till the storm passes by