Poppop turns 80 and other celebrations!

Sounds kind of like a Curious George episode doesn't it? :) I haven't posted in a while and have lots to catch up on! So, here goes...we'll do this in chronological order...

Happy Birthday Debbie!

My sister, Debbie, had a birthday on July 3. I don't really know how old she is and even if I wanted to sit here and figure it out, I'm sure she appreciates me not announcing it to the world on my blog. Not to mention, I saw here (and much of my other family last night) and didn't bring her Thailand souvenir or her birthday gift. I'm such a loser! She brought my gift and it turned out to be the book by Randy Alcorn entitled "Heaven" which I had in my hands to buy yesterday afternoon, but didn't. Little does she know it was a book Steve had gotten interested in also, so she actually killed two birds with one stone! Anyway, Happy Birthday Debbie! Sorry it's late in coming (on all accounts).

Happy Birthday Steve!

As many of you know, Steve's birthday is on July 4, so I had the privilege of having the day off with him (as I do every year!) We started our day in Pegram where Deanne (Steve's sister) lives. We saw the parade and that's a big hit with Jenna...always getting a bagload of candy...we also had baby Gage with us which was nice for a change. He spent the night on Tuesday, so that was fun (he sleeps through the night of course!) Here's Jenna, Steve and Gage getting ready for the parade.

After leaving Pegram and dropping off Gage, we headed downtown to Riverfront to watch the big fireworks spectacular down there. We sat on the lawn of the Titans Stadium (more recently named LP Field). My former boss, now co-worker, Sherri invited us to join her family there. The fireworks were absolutely awesome. I got some unbelievable pics...But trying to fight the traffic to get out was almost unbearable. The fireworks ended about 10pm and my head hit the pillow at 12:01am. So, you can tell how long it took us to get out and get home. I think we'll probably stay at home next year (after Pegram), cook out with friends and watch the pretty spectacular fireworks from our deck. We did that last year and discovered our neighbor in the next subdivision does a bang up job (pun intended) on his fireworks display.

Happy Birthday Poppop!

"Poppop" is what Jenna calls my dad. Several of the other grandkids call him Pappy and a couple more call him Granddaddy, but Jenna wouldn't do either. She picked Poppop. Poppop turned 80 YEARS OLD on July 5! And to be 80, he has very few health problems (hence living till 80!). He has the run-of-the-mill "old folks" problems like aches and pains, bad teeth (but still his!), shortness of breath (from COPD...smoking most his life, though not anymore) and forgetfulness. But to our knowledge (and trust me, he's see ALL the doctors) he has no heart, blood pressure or stroke problems. It's slightly amazing if you want to know the truth. He's not really taken care of himself that well over the years. But he's made it to 80 which I think is a true milestone! We had dinner with him on Friday night. It was so nice to see him in good spirits and Jenna just loves her Nana and Poppop. We don't get to see them nearly enough. Anyway, it was a nice evening and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Anything else?

Not really. Steve is starting to prepare for his Moldova trip. He's 2 weeks out now and he's starting to realize he needs to be getting ready and packed. Yesterday we went to BassPro to pick us a gift certificate for Jim (my neice's husband) and since I had "Boat Fever" we looked around at the different boats and compared prices etc. OK, so now STEVE has boat fever too! :) It's not something we want to do this summer, or maybe even next, but perhaps something for the future. Who knows...but it sure was a lot of fun looking for them. We stopped at the book store to see if we could find a "Boating for Dummies" book, but we couldn't, however, I managed to spend $50 on books for me (as if I need more). I bought a couple books that I'd seen on a friend's website. "The Chronological Bible"...it's a read-the-Bible-through-in-a-year Bible but it groups chapters, verses, books together in the time they actually happened. So, the story of David and Bathsheba would be grouped with the Psalms David wrote during that time. I haven't cracked it open yet. It's NIV and I was thinking I might want the NLB or some easier to understand version, so I'm debating on taking it back. I don't think they had anything but NIV at B&N, so I am hesitant to return it and then get a refund and go elsewhere to find it. I also bought several other books and have started reading them.

Oh, and we are already planning our vacation for 2008...A CRUISE! We've been wanting to do this for a while and we have always chosen something else. But we are really planning ahead this time so we can be sure to get it paid for before it's time to go. The best part is that part of my family who lives in Jacksonville, FL are going to most likely join us! We have vacationed with them before (mostly down in JAX) and I can say without hesitation, we enjoyed EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of it! We don't get to see them as often as we'd like and so Steve's about to come out of his skin with excitement at the prospect. I think they enjoy spending time with us too...I know she (Tracey) reads this, so I'm going to wait for an email or comment saying they do before we get too excited! :) Anyway, we are planning for the Western Caribbean in August 2008. We haven't reserved it yet because it takes about $1000 deposit, so we are waiting unti the summer is over to commit to that.

OK, well, it's time to get the rest of the family up and ready for church. I'm showered, dressed and ready to walk out the door (as usual) and neither Steve or Jenna has rolled out of bed yet. Hope you all are having a good weekend and I'll be back later. I'm trying to figure out uploading video from my digital camera, so I'll be back to test that.

And a special parting message for a reader... TATTOO!!!!! You know who you are!