Okay, finally here we go...

Okay, we'll skip step one which was getting everyone here in town which, as you can see, eventually occurred just not as originally planned.

November 2nd is my sister, Valori's (left) birthday and also good friends Glynnis (right) and Phil (obvious). The really fun thing that Glynnis and Phil have in common other than their birthday is that they are both Welsh; Glynnis by heritage, Phil by birth. Phil and his wife, Christine, live on a boat-cruisers, boat people. Christine is from England and they sail to and live in and around the Caribbean usually no later than September. I begged and pleaded so much that we were finally honored that Philly and Chris bought a small r.v. in Florida and drove up on November 1st. All these favors...my family coming from Oregon and Texas, Phil and Christine coming...were given to me by way of blackmail as my 50th birthday was on November 5th and I used that to no end to get all to do whatever I asked!

My biological west coast sister and my east coast soul sister finally meet after too many years of just hearing about each other, what a special moment it was!

Maya learns to cook under duress...cook or we don't have anything for our guests to eat when they arrive or any time thereafter. Below is "Lutus" and Maya, how did they go from riding on the Playskool bus and Little Tots scooter around the house to this so fast? Maya's holding her sick-son-the-whole-time-they-were-here, Ben.

Bottom left is Christine of the afore mentioned Phil and Christine.

Justin is top left, Maya's husband, Eder, top right. Below, Glynnis' mom, Ann Marie, and my mom...sis with candle in her eye. Now you see why I've procrastinated so long about posting these photos. A lot of my pics stink, great example, this one of the candle poking my sis in the eye. MIA the whole time are Matt and Aaron who were inseparable alone in Matt's room the whole visit. Christine took great pics but they'll have to be mailed from some island way down south but I promise to add them when they arrive. Until then you can get a pretty good idea that I make really great demands when I have the chance.

Yes, it's nice to be home and yes, I want to move to Nebraska

Boy, the timing of my family's visit was perfect. Well it was planned for mine and my sister's birthday so I guess the luck was with the weather. I was so glad that the leaves were still on the trees and my flowers were still growing and blooming. The leaves had still been green until I came home from Nebraska. I took this picture on Wednesday... ...and this one the next day on Thursday. What a difference a day makes!

There has been some clamerage about me not having posted either my birthday or trip so I shall get started next. Next post is going to be birthday gifts and Silver Bella souveniers. Then I'm still waiting for others who took pictures of birthday and SB to get their photos to me before I post them, but it should be soon. I promise.

Quick Check In

Hi, I've gotten a few comments and emails about where I am...I'm here, driving around Nebraska. No, I'm not lost, I'm getting to have the most fabulous experience of going to the homes and towns where my grandparents and great-grandparents grew up. It's amazing to meet folks who knew them. Yesterday I met Wesley Larson who had his hair cut by my great-grandfather when Wesley was a child, remembered my grandmother, etc. It was wild. Stromsburg, Nebraska...God is here and, apparently, so is my soul. I've been having those, "I belong here" feelings ever since we left Omaha. I see why my grandparents loved Texas so, it reminded them of here as here reminds me of Texas. I had completely forgotten what a sane pace of life was like. I don't feel like crawling under the covers for two days, I feel like I can breathe. Oh, did I mention that my muthur is with me? Not looking for a place to dump the body yet but stay tuned...

When I get home I'll be blogging for days about the last couple of weeks so rest up!

Halloweiners

Our friends, Ron and Glynnis, had their annual Halloween party last night. They LOVE Halloween and Glynnis has spent many years amassing the most fabulous collection of Halloween art and decorations. Their whole house is dressed to the nines with cobwebs and orange and black. This year we have so much going on that we really didn't start thinking about costumes until the night before. I rifled through our box 'o costumes and found the Napoleon Dynamite wig Paul wore last year. I popped it on and thought, "who do I look like". Well Little Orphan Annie came to mind. I had all I needed and Paul just got the bald thing, monocle, and bow tie and we were Annie and Daddy Warbucks. Matt snapped this of us as we were leaving. It didn't get many party pics while I was there 'cause I was, well, partying. Dancing, drinking, fun games, great food, and cool prizes. This is our hostess, Glynnis, darned if I hadn't already gotten a dress for my birthday party...

Had to get one of the three witches with their heads together on the couch. In the middle is Ann Marie, Glynnis' mom, and flanking her are Glynnis' cousins, Jane and Shirley. They were all too cute in their wonderful hats.

And again, Glynnis, but you get to see just some of the plethora of Halloween decorative beauties. I hope yours is a treat like ours was.

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Oh boy, we had so much fun celebrating our 12th anniversary on the eve of. Paul was leaving for a business trip early for a golf tournament, so we went out the night before. Most wives would not have allowed this behavior on their anniversary except I had so much to do (see previous post) and needed the space. Paul has a bad habit of looking dreamy-eyed because he blinks when he has his picture taken when I'm the one who was just finishing my THIRD French Martini~I was buttery-toasted. We went to one of only a handful of chi-chi restaurants in Columbia, had a great meal, martoonies, and they even had Creme Brulee which is our favorite desert and what we shared on our wedding night so all was perfect!