Celebrations!

In the past week I've had several things to celebrate, so I decided to combine them into one blog. Sometimes we have big events to celebrate, and other things are just a bleep on the screen; but it is always good to celebrate!


Several days ago I had my first experience of buying on e-bay. I had set up an account and even set up a Pay Pal account, but was sort of hesitant to use it. However, I wanted the book "Idiot's book of Geography" for my son and couldn't find it in the book store. So I checked on e-bay, and found one being sold. I bid on it and won the bid (Not too difficult as I think there was only one other bid). But I was excited because I got it for a total of $8.50; it sells for $18.95 new. With this new-found confidence, I decided to check out a GPS system, as I was sort of wanting one. You can imagine how ecstatic I was when I bid on, and won this wonderful Garmin GPS. This had been a little more challenging, as there were several people bidding on it. Wow! A definite cause for celebration--my first successful e-bay experience! I tried my Garmin on Friday when i went to Ft. Wayne, and it works great. I especially like that it tell me the name of the street I'm going to be turning on. As you can see, it doesn't take much to get me excited!


Saturday, I had offered to help prepare food and help serve for a Graduation open house. Abbey is my husband's niece by his first marriage, and she graduated from high school this year. Her mom has a fatal lung disease, and is not physically able to do very much; she is on oxygen all the time. So Abbey's Aunt Jackie and I offered to help with her party. I went at 9am; the open house was from 12 noon to 5pm.

This is Jan, Abbey's mom. You probably can't really see it, but she has oxygen on with a long tubing connected to her oxygen supply. She's a sweetheart, and has always done things for herself, so this was hard for her. She was finally able to relax and enjoy visiting.

Here we are--the hostesses for the day. (Personally, I think I look more like a homeless bum, but I was comfortable). I couldn't believe the amount of food that we had! They had American food and Mexican food (Jan's husband and family are of spanish descent). Elsie Alvarez had prepared the mexican food on Friday--Home-made beef and chicken enchiladas, home-made chips and salsa, fried beans and rice. We also had sandwich meats, cheese, a cheese ball and crackers, watermelon and chex mix, plus soda pop and water. And of course there was a cake and home-made cookies--snickerdoodles and chocolate chip. I forgot to mention the relish plate. Anyway, these people really know how to celebrate!

As if all of that wasn't enough, they had a grill in the back yard, and 2 of the men grilled steak fahita (sp?) meat. I don't know what they used as a marinade, but it was to die for--so tender and absolutely delicious. Did I mention, we had oodles of food?!

At any rate, this too, was definitely a celebration! I didn't get home until after 6:00pm as I stayed to help clean up. We had kept dishes done through out the day, so it didn't take too long. We had help from the Alvarez ladies and the men also pitched in. It was a fun and interesting day; however, my body and feet were a little weary. Not to worry--I've re-cuperated.

This morning at church we had our annual 4th of July Patriotic service. It was absolutely wonderful! I love patriotic music, and our band and choir did such a great job! We also had an honor guard, with the flags of all the military divisions.

Some of you will remember the little girl I've sort of adopted, Sammie. They had chosen her to go up on stage and lead the congregation in the Pledge of Allegiance. She didn't really act nervous at all, just stood up there with her microphone and led us in the pledge. I of course didn't want to try to get a picture during the service, but I got her picture afterwards. She was so cute. I told her I was very proud of her! I love giving honor to our country and to the Godly principles it was founded on. Today's service was also a celebration.

My hubby and I went out for lunch after the service. We went to one of our favorites, Grant's Sunday Buffet. Linda Grant is a caterer and has a wonderful buffet on Sundays. When we got there this beatiful bouquet was sitting on the counter as we went in, with a sign that said "Buy me, $10." Lynn looked at me and said, would you like those? I said I would love them. (He has given me flowers on several occasions but he hadn't actually gotten me roses in a long time). He said, what will we say is the special occasion for these flowers? I thought a minute and responded, we can just say it's because you love me so much! As he was paying for the flowers, the lady said, this particular rose is called "Hot Lady". Lynn looked at me and said, then it's a good thing I'm buying them, because I'm married to one very hot lady! So, this was also a reason to celebrate--that my husband still thinks I'm a hot lady!

The color of these roses is just beautiful--it is sort of a very deep pink. They are on my dining room table, and I have enjoyed them all day!

I have really enjoyed all my celebrations this week, big or small. I think it's good to look for ways to celebrate. The last couple of days I've celebrated the absolutely beautiful weather when I went outside in the morning. It was balmy, and the sun had just come up and it felt wonderful. Isn't God good--to give us so much beauty to enjoy. Come on everyone--celebrate life!