Birthday Weekend

We celebrated Emily's birthday this weekend. She had a friend party and a family party. Can I tell you how badly I hate planning, organizing, and executing birthday parties?! And I had six children. The poor dears!

I did *not* want to do a friend birthday party. I expressed my opinion (in other words complained profusely) to Steve and he offered to do the friend birthday party for me. What a guy! So he helped Emily make the invitations and thought up fun games and relay races for the kids and put on the party while I went to the church and ate dinner with a bunch of wonderful ladies and got spiritually fed too.

Today we had the family birthday party. I am so glad for family around to support my kids!



Jared went a little batty and climbed onto the rafters at the pavillion.



After we ate cake and visited, I took my mom home. It was so nice to be out at sunset by myself in the quiet. I took some pictures so that I could share the beauty with all of you!







I hope that you had a wonderful weekend with people that you love and beauty of the fall too!

Whoops!

Hey, here is a funny thing...


Yesterday my van was on empty, so I stopped at a place just off the freeway and filled up, then got back on the freeway. I was talking to my mom on the phone, but was unconsciously listening to my engine. My van has transmission trouble, in that it has a hard time shifting up when the engine is cold, but lately my van has been doing crazy things, so I am in ultra-paranoid mode when I drive.

So here I am on the phone with my mom, and I notice that the engine is not shifting up. I tell her I've got to go and hang up. I listen, but notice that at 45 my engine is revving high, so I get over on the shoulder and turn on my emergency flashers. As I creep along the freeway going 35 mph while the traffic is whizzing past me at 65 mph my mind was thinking this whole predicament over. "How am I going to afford 2 car payments?" was the reoccurring thought.

A freeway exit was luckily just a couple of miles down the road, so I signaled and got off. As I was stopped at the stop sign I looked down at my speedometer and noticed.... that I had accidentally put my van in 2nd gear instead of drive. Ooops! BUT! I was ecstatic that I didn't have to buy another van!

Silver Linings & Rose Colored Glasses

Have you ever gotten so entirely consumed by life that it seems that you are running in circles, either emotionally or physically? That is where I am at.

An emotional hamster wheel is where I spend my time.

And do you know what that *does* to a person?

It has made me an emotional basketcase. My mother started dialysis yesterday. My ulcers still tend to act up mid-day to midnight. And I feel taken advantage of by my family.

Have you ever *heard* me so negative?! I thought not.

I am sick of being down, and I'm going to change it.

From now on I am going to look for all of the silver linings to the clouds.

Today my mom went in for dialysis. Her bloodpressure dropped to 50/20. It went back up a little, but not much. So they sent her home and told her to take the weekend off. SO! For my first trick: I am going to show you the silver lining to that cloud. My mother was actually really dreading dialysis today. It makes her tired and sick. The silver lining: She gets the weekend off! She'll feel better for Emily's birthday party this weekend than she would have. It will give her a few days to emotionally prepare for Monday, and it will give her a few days physically to get feeling better before she has to go back.

I am feeling overwhelmed with the great quantity of ill-behaved pets I have. The silver lining? Josh took his dog with him to his biological dad's house for the weekend or perhaps longer! One down, 5 to go! Now if I could find someone who loves black labs who'd love my 3 yo spayed female I'd be feeling great! And someone else to take a couple of very cute cats that have accidents I would be feeling FANTASTIC!

My ulcers are, for the most part, feeling better. Why, probably 60% of my day is free of pain.

My garden is close to being finished. We harvested two melons yesterday: a crenshaw and a honeydew. They were very good. There are a few more out there just finishing up. There are several cherry tomatoes that are ready to go into a garden salad tonight. The cucumbers and zucchini have slowed down producing. The pumpkins are oranging up. The green beans have maybe 1 more meal left in them.

To be honest, I am ready for fall. I am ready to be finished working so hard outside. I am ready for the natural shift of coming inside. I need to refinish the wood floors in my dining room and living room. I am planning on giving my laundry room a face-lift soon, too. I am not necessarily looking forward to the work, but I will love having a more beautiful home!

Here is to rose-colored glasses!