There's No Place Like Home

It seems as if no matter where you go, how long you are away or how much fun you had while there, it always always feels good to be back home again. With my second knee replacement surgery ahead of me on September 13th, we had a lot to do  still ahead of us and not a lot of time to do it in. 

Our first order of business on returning home was to get the house up for sale. With a little tidying up, yard mowing and cob web dusting done and we were ready. Before we knew it, the Realtor that would be handling the sale was at the door, the contract was signed and a 'For Sale' sign that had taken residence next to the mailbox.

Taryn's birthday dinner was next on the agenda. This of course was a special year seeing as she turned the dreaded 13 and became a teenager. She got her Pandora charm bracelet for her birthday and a few charms. That makes deciding on what to buy for future gifts a lot easier. Taryn had commented some months before that she would really like to have a cake that looked like a pizza for her birthday. Melody, being our talented cake creator fixed her right up with that request.  She did an amazing job as usual. The candles on her cake said 03 instead of 13 because I thought I had a 1, but didn't. I have complained for sometime about disliking the number 13 birthday because that seems to be the age when our sweet little grandchildren seem to just disappear on us and become people that we no longer recognize or know. This problem seems to worsen when the number 16 birthday comes around. It is coming up on 5 years since we first started noticing this pattern in grandchildren and we are still waiting for that first grandchild to be returned. We had another grandchild that turned 16 in August and sure enough...... "POOF" she was gone. Maybe in my subconscious I thought if the candles spelled out '03' instead of '13'  we will have found the way to break that pattern. So far so good.

       

We had been looking forward to our camping trip over Labor Day Weekend since we decided to do it. When the Grand daughters were young we would take the three of them camping on the 4th of July weekends. This year we rented two spaces next to each other and Chris, Mel and the boys joined us. Things didn't even get off on a good foot from the start. Although we rented two spots, what we ended up with was 1 1/2 spaces because the State Park didn't know what they were doing when they designated their camping areas. It is a long story that I won't get into the details of, but can say that they did offer to appease us by allowing us to use the 'Host' Campsite's entertainment area. We thought things were all ironed out until the last night we were there. I woke up hearing voices outside and seeing campfire flames that shouldn't have been there. When we went outside to investigate we found the tent moved from the 'Host' campsite entertainment area into our already crowded area and a campfire going next where the tent had been when we went to bed. It seems as if the 'Host's' mother and step-dad had decided to come visit unannounced and even though no one answered the camper door when they knocked, they went ahead and built a campfire not three feet from Chris' tent. It totally ran them out of the tent with all of the campfire smoke going directly into the tent.

Other than that we did have a really good time. We cooked all of the meals over the campfire. I for one love food cooked over an outdoor fire. One of our camping neighbors turned out to be Chris and Mel's next door neighbors from home. Sharyl, Brian and Kassidy added to the fun and good time. Riley pretty much spent most of his time going back and forth. Britt, now {{{17 years old}}} was working and didn't make it to the campsite that weekend. Theresa and Michael came out and spent part of the day with us on Sunday. I am thinking that even when you weigh the good times, fun and memories created against the hair pulling aggravation that took place that weekend...... Well, the fun and good memories would have to win out.   

  

The last event on the agenda was catching one of the soccer games before my surgery because it would be doubtful that I could walk the distance to the field for a while after the surgery. It was especially important to me that we do this because this was Seth's first year playing soccer. He had been wanting on that field for a couple of years now while attending Riley's games.  even when he was just a wee little guy, a few times he did make it to the field and was carried off kicking and screaming. Riley's team made the all stars this year..... YAY RILEY!! I enjoyed watching Chris coach Riley's team as much as I enjoyed watching the games.  I am very proud of the great job he does dealing with the kids and the fair and impartial way he handles his team by not showing favoritism toward Riley. 

Have a blessed day today and check back for the rest of the story.