Baby, I'm Back!

Oh, how I have missed blogging! In spite of the fact that I needed to eliminate the time it takes to consistently post for the last couple of months, I really missed it and all of you who faithfully read Mimi's Garden. I did steal a few minutes now and then to read some of your wonderful posts.

It's been an incredibly busy and though happy things have happened, stressful summer. I love summer and long for it so much over our long northern winters. I love sunning and walking and traveling and cooking out and just relaxing and enjoying our short window of summer. But life happens and you have to do what you have to do. Our sons wedding was wonderful but I was so exhausted by the time it was here that I was just ill. Everything was perfect and the reception was SO much fun! We danced and danced and just enjoyed being together for one of those rare family moments you know you will always treasure. I am incredibly proud of my son and daughter-in-law. They did created a fabulous wedding reception almost entirely on their own with great success! I posted pictures of the preparations, the wedding, and reception in early July but lots of you have asked to see wedding pictures so I re-posted them yesterday for those of you who missed them the first time. The kids left for their honeymoon several days after the wedding. They flew to Rome for several days of sightseeing and then took a week long Mediterranean cruise to Greece, Sicily, and Turkey. They had a fabulous time and did some wonderful shopping! While they were gone. Hubby and I still had my family visiting all week - my parents, my sister and brother. We were just thrilled that my parents could be here for their grandson's wedding, but it was just so sad for all of us to see my father so much worse than he was at Christmas. It was an ordeal that took us months to iron our the details for us to get them here with his medical needs (and gladly done I want to add) and a terrible ordeal for them to fly here alone. The day my family left to go home, Thursday after the wedding, I had a treatment. Hubby dropped me off at the chemo clinic and then went back to take them to the airport. I had a day or two to lay low, then we left on Sunday for Florida. Now this was definitely the highlight of the summer, as it always is for us. Sandy (Hubby) and I had a wonderful, wonderful three weeks on the beach. With none of our kids and grandkids with us, we walked on the beach and rested in the sun. It seemed so different than it usually is because we were alone. We missed our family and talked a lot about the things we have loved doing with the grandbabies, but it was wonderful and good for us to have this down time together. As they say, all good things must come to an end. We came home from Florida and barely had time to sort our mail and do our laundry before we left for Tennessee to spend about ten days with my parents. My father is in the final stages of pulmonary fibrosis - a terrible, terrible disease. Our daughter and granddaughters spent the time there with us. Our son-in-law had to drive home after the first weekend there in order to work. So Julie and the girls rode home with us usually an 8 1/2 - 9 hour trip which turned out to be 12 hideous hours! Little girls just need to stop a lot when traveling by car and then of the babies started throwing up about half way home. Oh, my gosh, what a trip! But we're all home now and everyone is well. We're full circle, back to treatment day today!

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I've gotten a few wonderful gifts this summer that I'm excited to show you:

During the winter Sandy and I joined a gym and he wanted an armband style radio to wear while exercising. I bought him one of these handy dandy little Sony numbers. He LOVED it. So just before we left for Florida he went out to do errands and came home with one to match for me! It is fabulous and we both used them a lot while on the beach and even at night in bed. We had to laugh at ourselves, finding good stations and telling each other "go to this station", "listen to this" every few minutes - while lying right next to each other!

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While in Florida my sweet husband bought me this beautiful silver bracelet. It has lots of charms and glistening beads dangling from it.

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When we were all home from our respective trips after the wedding our son and daughter-in-law gave us the gifts they brought us from the Mediterranean. A gorgeous watercolor of the Parthenon from Athens...

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An pure white alabaster statue of the Athena, Goddess of Wisdom from Greece (wisdom...think they're trying to tell us something???)

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This gorgeous plate came from Ephesus, Turkey. How did they know I just really NEEDED another plate for our lavender guest room!

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An eyeglass case beautifully stitched with colorful and gold threads from Turkey for me...

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While in Tennessee I needed to find a gift for one of our nephews who recently graduated from college. Right next to the leather store I was shopping in was a Coach store. Now I have never had a Coach product before but my friend CeeKay is a Coach magnet! She has encouraged me to join the club for years. So when I saw the store I immediately decided to treat myself to a replacement wallet for the one that was falling apart in my purse. I found a hot pink (what else?) wallet and withing 10 minutes I was back in the car with my wonderful purchase. Proud of me CeeKay?

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Finally, what every blogger girl needs! My husband surprised me with a wireless laptop! Blogging joy everywhere I go!

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Now that I am back home for the foreseeable future I plan to gradually get back into blogging. I need to do some serious cleaning up of my page and stop by to visit each of you!

May each of you have a perfectly wonderful new week!