REUNION!!!

Oh! What a glorious family reunion! It was so nice to see everyone. Each family pitched in and created wonderful food. Ricky Patton especially made such delicious guacamole. Jonathan said, "This is so good my taste buds are doing a happy dance!"

Monday was the morning service project. It took fewer people than anticipated to move the bridge. So we had more volunteers that weren't needed. The "come along" did a lot of the work as they tied it from tree to tree and moved the bridge back into place.

After lunch all the sibs and Jim went to visit mom. We practiced a few songs to sing to her. One of them was a lullaby that she used to play on the piano after all of us kids were in bed, "Sleep my child and peace surround you all through the night." It was emotional for me as I realized the song had come full circle from mom lullabying us to us lullabying the mama. It made it hard to sing. Susie said I couldn't think about it, I just had to sing it... and don't look at Mom. We did "The Lord bless you and keep you," with a 7 fold amen. And "Lift Thine Eyes." Sally joked that we were singing three songs, but she only knew two of them. The tenor on the Amens was very tricky for her.

We visited and sang the songs. Mom seemed to be doing better, but not her cheerful self. After visiting her, Cynthia and Jim went back to the reunion to work on dinner. Steve, Sue, Sally and I went to look at rehab centers for mom. It seemed best to have her go into one to get stronger and healthier before she flew back to California as she was not doing much walking at all yet. We liked the first place quite well. We went to visit two more, and decided that the first place was best.

We were looking forward to Ricky's pulled pork sandwiches but we were late for dinner. We got a text that all the pulled pork was gone. We were so bummed! We spent the next half hour trying to repent of bad feelings. The feelings were unjustified. They had saved back three little sandwiches for us. It was delicious and enough and I were happy!

Tues was a rainy 4th of July. 22 of the reunionites went off early and ran in a 5K race. They all did well and had a fun time, although the uphill ending was challenging. The youngest of our runners was under 10, I think, and Tom was the most senior runner of the 144 runners, except for one 73 year old.

I gave a class on cryptocurrencies in the afternoon and we had a talent show in the evening. Some people went to see the fireworks display. It was too late for me.

 The talent show.

It was fun to see family members teaching other family members. A group of interested teens surrounded Steve Horman as he taught about fishing. Crocheters listened and learned from Deborah and Kathy. Some of Sally's kids taught exercise classes in the morning and Aaron offered a night sky class with his fantastic telescope. Kristy's class on personalities was a big hit and others enjoyed Dan's class on wills and trusts. Kristy also offered several archery classes.

Kristy brought some large Legos and they entertained kids for hours. They built towers up to the ceiling. They had to climb on stacked chairs to reach the top parts. Others occupied themselves with Lincoln logs. We brought the plastic beads you arrange on pins and then iron to melt them together. Every day kids, teens and adults were at the bead table where large pans of beads covered the table. We melted together creations of stars, dogs, circles, names, trucks and cars and all kinds of other creative things.

One afternoon the kids did bubbles. One day they had water fun with water balloons, slip-and-slide and kiddie pools. While the weather got hot during the day, it cooled off for evening events. And although they said ticks were bad this season, I only heard of one person getting a tick. That's a miracle.

Kids went swimming most every afternoon. Some went to ride the paddle boats. I mostly stayed inside. We worked on jig saw puzzles and chatted. We finished two or three puzzles. Then Mom wanted us to do the puzzle she brought. It was a 1000 piece puzzle of impressionistic houses and trees. Wow! Was it hard. Truly the puzzle from hell.

 Every piece put in was celebrated as a victory. We finally got most of the houses put together, but not the central tree and dabbled sky. When it was time to put it away so we could leave, I thought we could donate it to the retreat center. Sally said, "I'm throwing this thing out. No one should have to go through that!" I was easily persuaded.

We planned pancakes and muffins for breakfast. Wednesday was Sally's family's day for food and it was a great choice. They looked at all the leftover food and said, "We can use this!" They made breakfast burritos for breakfast with leftover baked potatoes, bacon and unused tortillas and eggs. They whipped up relish trays for lunch and dinner and used up extra broccoli, carrots, celery, and ranch dressing. That went along with the potato salad and worst (hotdog) dinner.

Tom brought some clocks for Steve to work on.  He was explaining what needed to be done to this clock work.

Wednesday night everyone helped clean up. We did the last clean up on Thursday morning and were out by 10:30. Various family members had gone to visit Mom during the week. Tom and I visited with her on Thursday on our way out of town. She'd been moved to the orthopedic ward. Along the window ledge we counted 30+ cards the kids and grandkids had made for her plus a few store-bought ones. The nurses said they'd never seen so many cards before for one person! That's our Mama! We love her! She got moved to rehab later that day.

We drove home and got home about 7:30 pm. We stopped at the orchard and bought a lug of peaches. Then we had to unpack suitcases, extra food, the blankets, towels and sheets we'd brought etc. We had piles of laundry to do! And Rebecca sent some of her laundry with us as well.

So Friday we spent unpacking more and doing laundry and folding sheets, towels, clothing, etc. I also picked up the pieces of the copyediting of the financial book and researching Initial Coin Offering (ICO) white papers. Rebecca and crew arrived later in the afternoon and the fun began.

Saturday I drove with a friend to Harrison to be with her as she went to a hypnotist. It was an interesting experience and I learned a lot, even as it took up the whole afternoon. Tom and Rebecca worked on making 4 batches of peach jam. That should keep us in jam for the next five years. I went to bed early again. I think I have some sleep deprivation from the reunion I am still recovering from. 

We are not doing choir practice through the month of July. It feels a bit odd coming to church close to 10am instead of 9. We had good speakers. I may post some notes I took from one of the speakers about Satan's tactics and how to combat them. Tom had BYD and had about 20 teenagers in the discussion. Rebecca made peach cobbler on Saturday night and Callie made a cake. So that plus ice cream kept them happy.

It's been a great week with many happy memories.