... another month almost gone!

"Days fly by faster as you get older," my mother used to tell me that when I was a girl... and I would think... YEAH, RIIIIGHT! LOL Sometimes I wonder... if I could have that young body back, and keep my experience...? ahhh, what a dream~

Once you grow up and have kids of your own, a home/hubby to care for/about... maybe you have a very different kind of life from mine, but still... doesn't it "seem" that the older you get the faster the days pass?

Life in my personal little Hooterville (AKA "SmallTown" AZ) is settling into a reasonable routine. The in-laws have adjusted to life in this DRY southwest region, instead of their previous more humid part of central TX, where everything was green, and grass did not have to be watered. Notwithstanding, it's been a relatively uneventful adjustment for both. The hardest part is that they are no longer able to be together. Mom lives with us and Dad is in a end of life care facility. He is stable, for how long is anyone's guess.

Mom is stabilizing too, and it honestly feels like a privilege to be of service to her. If someone had told me even 10 years ago that someday I would be helping to care for my MIL I would have called them a liar! We had, what I can only term as an "interesting" relationship for most of my marriage, but in my world and from my belief of family, this is what families do. They love and support one another through all stages of life, and mom needs people and stimulus. In a care center she would shrivel. The longer we care for her the more convinced I am of this truth. Another surprising fact is that through this experience my love is growing exponentially. So as long as mom stays relatively amiable, we will keep her here, with us.

I can honestly say that God holds us in His hands continually as we attempt this path. Often I feel His gentle encouragement to not loose my cool, in the moment ~ when challenges arise. At other times I KNOW that my sense of humor has been given a gigantic boost and I simply feel the urge to laugh rather than respond in a less appropriate way to difficult situations that come to our lives.

A side benefit we really never thought about, is that our children are getting to know the grandparents who they have not seen and rarely heard from for the last 18 years. It's a sweet, unexpected blessing. For the first time in 20 years hubby spent a short time on father's day with his father...

We are all trying to gather as many happy moments together as we can... for later when memories will have to do.

finally, pictures of our 2010 family reunion

Starting out in the van the first morning of the trip... here is our cute Princess Bride and her Sir Knight (it is hard to believe they have been married 2 yrs!)

This is where we stayed... it was very nice, and was right across the street from the beach.

here PB and SK are again after we got to the condo and walked to the beach

Son2... it was a beautiful evening and the kids enjoyed stretching their legs after the long car ride.

loving my hubby is really easy, cause he is just a wonderful, caring and handsome man!

The first two days we went to Knott's Berry Farm, San Diego Wild Animal Park AND the Zoo, had such a great time, even with a little rain in the afternoons...

Every night we had beautiful sunsets, and every morning we had gorgeous sunrises...

After Son1 and Sweetee joined us we went to Sea World

Here are the kids, all lined up, waiting to get WET! LOL

and of course these are the performers ~ taking a final bow

There was plenty of silliness and smiles...

(Son2 is taking the picture in the third shot above...)


Some of the kids went Sea Kayaking... (a great workout, I am told...)

and boogy boarding... also not something "I" participated in... LOL

We had GREAT meals together at the condo and sometimes at restaurants...

On Saturday, Son1, Sweetee, hubby and I went to the San Diego Temple...


All in all we really enjoyed the wonderful scenery and had so much fun being together and playing hard, whether it was for 4 days or a week it was so worth the energy we put into making time for each other. And then of course we needed a vacation after the vacation... LOL

Because our sons have joined the Navy we have no idea for sure when our next reunion will be, but we ARE "planning" one, and we will manage to have some family gathering every few years at least.

It was so great to spent time as a whole family.