Monday, Monday

Good Morning my friends. After a long stretch of sunshine and hot weather I woke up this morning to raindrops on the roof and temps in the 60's. The rain is much needed so no complaints will be heard here. The weekend was absolutely gorgeous. Hubby and I spent Saturday and much of Sunday at the lake, coming home to sleep because we didn't want to chance anything happening to our Granddog that's been stayng with us for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I'm driving back to Portland with Polly to reunite her with her Mom, Dad & Piper. They've been in Nebraska for Brad's brothers wedding and so we've been babysitting Polly. Chloe will be lost without her as they are great friends. I'll be in Portland so you know what that means! Lunch with Gracie, Teresa and Taci on Thursday just before I drive home the same day. It will be a fast trip with lots of driving by myself.

Craftwise this weekend I did manage to make four dishcloths. I'm going to try to make about 20 our so and take them to the place that did my cardiac stress test. The nurses showed interest and practically begged me to bring more up to sell to the staff. (Still no results from the test, so I'm assuming all is well.)

I sang on the praise team yesterday at church. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. I sing a lot at the evening service and used to sing every week in the morning. I gradually stopped the mornings over a couple of years and now it is mainly the younger people. The evening services are much more relaxed and I enjoy them, but there is talk about not having a regular service in the evening starting in the fall. It will be more of a small group Bible study so my days of singing in "public" are likely coming to an end for the most part. That's okay. On my road trips, I crank up the C.D. player or radio and can sing as loud as I want!!! :-)

After church we went to Shakey's Pizza with our best friends Neal & Jenny and two of their four children and two grandchildren. We've been best friends for almost 20 years now! Since none of our kids were able to be here for Mother's Day, it was nice to spend time with kids that are almost like our own. Alex called twice from Japan on facetime. Gotta love facetime. It's free and we can see each other. Plus it's on our phones so we don't have to have a computer in front of us like on Skype. He called Saturday night because it was Sunday in Japan and he wanted to beat Mandy & Jamie!

Looky what Miss Piper sent to me.

Mandy made the chalkboard with a picture frame and chalkboard paint. She usually has it hanging in the kitchen with an inspirational quote on it. I just love this photo of Piper. Look at those little toes! And the card is amazing. Notice it says "Grandma Queen". That's me!!!! Our last name is Queen. I love this entire card. It's written like a fairy tale by a GRANDDAUGHTER! Perfect.

I thought I would be fine since we kept so busy all day, but I have to admit it. Holidays without our kids are really, really hard. I miss them. I don't ever want any of them to feel guilty for living their own lives. And every holiday I say, "It will be fine". And I really try to make it fine, but somewhere within that day, the sadness always creeps in. I hate that. I pray. I cry. And then I feel bad for feeling the way I feel. Does that even make sense?

My own Mom has been gone since I was 29. I'm 53 now and I still never go a day without thinking of her at some point. So here I am today. A little down. A little sad, but okay in the end. After all, life is what you make of it and tomorrow evening I will again see Mandy, Brad and Miss Piper when they fly back into Portland. Thursday I will have lunch with my new blogging friends who are beginning to mean the world to me. And when I arrive home Thursday night, Dennis, the love of my life, will be waiting impatiently for my return. I know that my Saviour loves me and cares about every step I take and every tear I cry. I can't ask for much more than that now can I?

Here's one more picture of our Granddog Polly. I think she's missing her little family too.


Have a wonderful day my friends. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of love and laughter.

Blessings,

Betsy