Celebrations

Mark and I celebrate 10 years together

Here it is the middle of May already. How time flies!

We've spent the last two weeks visiting with family -- first with the Hoffmans in Valdosta, Georgia, then with my sister and her family in Lake, Mississippi.

In Valdosta, we camped at a military-owned campground south of the city that is open to the public. We arrived on our anniversary, so before we did anything else, we got ourselves all spiffed up and went out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We ate at the Steel Magnolia, on their rooftop. This year we celebrate ten long and mostly happy years together.

The first few days we were there, we drove over to their house and visited, where Mark enjoyed the swimming pool (I didn't go in). Then on Monday, Melanie brought the trailer and the youngest of the kids and parked across the road from us. James had to go out of town on business and wasn't able to join us. There wasn't much to do. Ironically, the only swimming pool was at their house, so the all went back one of the camping days to swim. It was about a twenty minute drive. The weather was hot, but not too humid most of the time.

It was a milestone visit for me: I reached out my arms to Olive, and she came to me for the first time of her own accord, allowed me to pick her up, give her a big fat smooch, and carry her around for a good long while. (No pictures to prove it - you'll have to take my word for it.)

Mark won her affections in exchange for yogurt. It was a price well paid.

In the evenings, the boys came over and watched movies with us. We said goodbye on the 10th and headed toward Mississippi, arriving in Lake in the early afternoon of Friday, the 12th.

While we were there, we also had the driver's side of our windshield replaced. On our drive to Gainesville the week before, we were the unhappy recipients of a rock kicked up by a passing car. We'd already had a few chips in the windshield, but that impact was apparently the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. We didn't even notice it until he stopped for fuel and cleaned the windshield. In any case, we were back on the phone to the insurance company, and made arrangements for a replacement while we were stopped in Valdosta. Now we have a beautiful (though leaky) new windshield ready and waiting for the next rock to fly.

If you look close, you
 can see the shiny crack

It was tricky getting the motorhome onto their property. They have a narrow drive with a ditch on each side. But with Carey's help, Mark managed it with no mishaps. The next tricky issue was finding a mostly flat spot. It took a while, but eventually we found it.

The girls and I attended a Mother's Day Banquet at her church that evening while the menfolk patronized the nearby Popeye's Chicken establishment.

Celebrating Mother's Day at Salem Baptist Church, Lake MS

Saturday, we all went out for a steak dinner to celebrate Mother's Day as a family, avoiding the Sunday madhouse rush. And Sunday we went to church with Doreen and enjoyed a lovely service honoring moms, as churches commonly do on Mother's Day.

Joy and her two kids are living with their mom these days while she gets on her financial feet, so we got to visit with them as well. Hannah is going on 11 and we celebrated Micah's 6th birthday on this past Monday. Joy took us to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and then bowling, something Micah loves to do. Neither Mark nor Carey (Doreen's husband) felt very well that evening, so they stayed behind and missed out on the fun. It was ten o'clock by the time we all got home, and wisdom required that we wait until the next day to have cake.

Micah's birthday dinner celebr

In all, we had a very enjoyable visit there. It was too short. Our original plan for ten days ended up shortened to a bit over five days, due to delays on our part and schedule conflicts on Doreen's. She had made arrangements to visit David in Washington DC, plans that were more or less in stone. So we said our goodbyes Wednesday night and left on Thursday morning, headed north.

Today we're in South Memphis. I've picked up a cold or something and have spent the day laying around in my pajamas sucking on cough lozenges and drinking tea with coconut oil. I have no elderberry syrup in my "medicine" chest [Note to self: keep a stock of it!], so I'm improvising with coconut oil, which (as everyone knows) is a magical cure-all. I can hope.

Tomorrow we're on the road again - next stop: Sikeston, MO... and maybe a little less heat.