Life & Changes

It's been a while since my last post and lots has happened. First, my daughter Candie came and stayed for two weeks. This will be her last visit without Thomas and we're all happy about that. Candie's visit was planned so that she would be here when my niece, Tina, gave birth to her first baby. Tina is my sister's daughter so that means my sister beat me in the "grandmother race".

Tina was due on September 20 but gave birth two days ahead of her due date, September 18. She had a boy, 7 lbs. and 19 inches long. They named him Daniel Michael after his father. Both the new parents are extremely happy and Baby Daniel is very, very loved by all the members of his family. It's been a while since our family has had a new baby and I'm already looking forward to the holidays!

The other big news is that my son-in-law, Thomas, is due to return from his deployment in Iraq. I am busily planning a long overdue wedding reception for them sometime in November.

Last but not least, I just observed the tenth anniversary of my late husband's death. It's hard to believe that ten years has gone by without him, yet my life has changed tremendously in that time. Sometimes I think back on my life while I was married to Dave and it's hard to believe it really happened. The young children I was left to raise by myself are now in junior high and high school! And, the teenage daughter I had is now a married woman! I thank God every day for the strength and guidance He has given me to raise my family. I also thank Him for bringing me a wonderful man to love me and my children and the happiness we share as a family. When I lost my husband, I was never scared because I knew the Lord would take care of me and help me whenever I needed it. My faith in the Lord has never failed me, not one time in my life.

I will try to keep up with my blog a little better. Please continue to pray for our troops in Iraq and their families. They will need extra prayers now that the holidays are around the corner.

Labor Day Weekend & Back to School

I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend. As it turned out, the 3-day weekend was combined with my usual Friday off, giving me a 4-day weekend. It was wonderful to putter around the house and relax for a change. The weekend started off with a Friday morning all to myself while Ray and David went fishing. Since it was so hot when they came back, Ray and I got into the pool and floated around for about 2 hours. It was nice to spend time floating and talking to each other about nothing in particular. We even held hands while we were in the water talking to each other. I got a giggle out of that because I could just imagine the kids' faces if they had seen us!

Saturday we did more of nothing much. It was our Saturday for pedicures so we went, then took our wedding rings in for polishing and inspection. Then I took off to visit my friend Marie for a couple of hours. We had a great time talking to each other and I've decided it's definitely something that we will do more often.

On Sunday we began preparing the kids for back to school. This summer was a very good one and one I hated to see end. Of course, it had to end and the kids started school today. I drove both of them to school and dropped them off before going to work this morning. I'm praying that this will be a good school year for them but, of course, I'm already counting the days until winter break when we'll be able to sit in front of our Christmas tree, maybe with the fireplace going. I'm cherishing every moment of these school days because I know they won't last forever.

Please continue to pray for our troops all over the world. Hopefully Thomas will be home soon.

God bless all the children returning to school and keep them all safe.