My date with Garth Brooks

The week before Christmas is always a busy and challenging one for all of us.  It was particularly so for me this season having just recovered from knee surgery, a wedding reception and trying to get Christmas shopping done!  Working around the crutches proved much more difficult than I ever imagined, but I was fortunate enough to get to walk free of them the Monday before Christmas!

Steve and I had gotten tickets to see Garth Brooks in Nashville as he worked to raise funds for the flood relief there.  Trisha Yearwood, his wife, joined him for a few songs.  I think if she had not shown up, he would likely have asked me to join him on stage.  I got to meet him several years ago at Southside and had my photo made with him.  If I can find that later (running a search on my old laptop) I will add it to this post.  It's been a long standing joke between Steve and I that he would let me leave him for Garth if I would just mail him a check every now and then.  Funny.

I should explain this next photo....when we went outside at my parent's home (in the country) to leave for dinner, there was an opossum in the carport.  And yes, he played "possum" in hopes that we just wouldn't see him.  I can't say that I've ever seen one of these things alive so close!

 My Dad loves to put up Christmas lights outdoors.  It's really a funny thing too because he doesn't even care if they put up a tree indoors or not.  But--those outdoor lights will go up!  He's 85 and still gets them out there every year stringing around those blasted pine trees that I grew up mowing around.  He also lines the front of the house with lights.  Very pretty!

 A quick photo of Mom and Dad at Mike's Steakhouse.  Yummy food and a good visit too!

 Stanley Bennett lived about a mile from our home when I was growing up.  His younger sister was just about my best friend when I was young.  He worked on the farm for my Dad for what seemed to be forever to me, but apparently it was just for a short time!  We both have changed a bit since then, I think.

We left on Tuesday afternoon and traveled to Wynne to spend the night with my parents, go out for steak and see some old friends.  It was great.  

We had reservations close to the Arena near Vanderbilt University at a Holiday Inn.  It was very nice and offered a free shuttle to and from the concert.  The problem was that most of the folks staying there seemed to be going where we were that night!  We had delicious Italian food at Amerigo's Restaurant and as we left there, I turned down a one way street the wrong way.  Oh well.

I had something really smashing to wear, but it was cold as blazes so we both went for warmth and were very glad that we did!

 Nine straight days of two concerts each night.  Packed every night.  Not sure how he did it!

 The problem was that as the first concert full of 18,500 people were trying to leave from the 6pm show, that SAME amount of folks were trying to go in!  Talk about a near-riot situation!!!

We returned home on Wednesday night to find that Greg had indeed kept Koko and Zoie alive....even though I think he really wanted to open the door and let Zoie just leave..haha.   Steve shopped for groceries the next day while I went into full gift wrapping mode, while watching Christmas movies.  Fun!!!  

Time for the Ho Ho Ho

It seems that Christmas week is here.  Talk about a month flying by like none other!  I can see now how making plans for a December reception kept us all so busy that we didn't even notice that half of December was about over!

I tried to get out this weekend to do some shopping but with the crutches found it absolutely exhausting.  I'm so tired of dealing with them...until I realize and remember that some people deal with them daily...for the rest of their lives.  Then I'm able to get out of my little pity party and move on.  We came home and got on the internet to finish things up.  We both agreed to start earlier next year and do it all online.  Really!  With free shipping and often no sales tax, you can really save some money.  I realized, however, that Steve shops online just like he does in the stores....he has to see everything in EVERY store before he can make his purchase....often going back to the thing he saw first.  You got to love him!  He's my gift wrapper and I'm the bow maker.  It's a good partnership.

On a side note, after 19 years after my divorce from Bill, we finally exchanged Christmas cards with he and Sherry this year.  That's quite a milestone, I think.  More than an olive branch...it's about a tree!

Guess I'm feeling sentimental today.  Most folks are not in the office, since we have the next four days off, so it is unusually quiet.  I could be getting so much work done, yet you see what I'm doing!  Mailed my package to Chris and Rachel this morning, hoping it gets to them before Christmas.  It was a bit hard to do, I admit.

Christmas cards also go in the mail today.  We tried to cut the list down this year, but ended up adding others so the list is about the same!  I love them.  I decided to send them to most of my clients at my practice for this year.  I hope they appreciate that effort.

Steve and I leave at noon tomorrow for Wynne to spend the night with my parents.  Then we are off the next day for Nashville to do some shopping and seeing a Garth Brooks concert.  I'm sure Garth will be calling me up on stage, so I got a mani/pedi this weekend.  haha.  I've never seen him in concert, so I'm looking forward to it.  We will get back just in time for Christmas Eve.  Greg is going to house-sit for us.  Then Mary Beth and Jon and two of my grand-puppies will be coming in on Christmas Eve.  We are planning to go to the Candlelight Service at the New Life Church that we have started attending.  

We are also planning to bring my computer into the family room and Skype with Rachel and Chris on Christmas morning--so we will be bringing them into the room with us for gifts opening and all!  

Will take photos and add them from our trip this week.  Until then, enjoy the holiday!

Surviving crutches and having a weekend to be excited about!

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip to Marco Island for Rachel and Chris' wedding.  It was the day after the wedding at the home of some friends there on the island.  Happy is the one word I think about when I see it.

As I've been preparing for this weekend's reception in Fort Smith, I have had some time to think about why we do the things we do.  I have been slowed to a turtle's pace with the knee surgery, canes, crutches and physical therapy.  For Heaven's sake, I have even ridden on one of those motorized things for the elderly at the stores!  Yes, that was me you saw scooting across Wal-Mart the other day!  I have been driven to doing things I thought I would never do!

Yet, in all of the craziness that is so often my life, I have had moments of real joy and clarity.  I have found that when you love people you do what you do and overlook the rest.  It is strange to have my children growing up and becoming so independent that they don't need me to make decisions for them like they once did.  I worry less about them.  Maybe that's a bad thing.  But, I think it is just that I have had the chance to think about what great children they are....or adults, I should say....and that even in the face of mistakes, they will survive.  I have helped to give them those skills.  They've had to take the good genes with the bad.  There have been a lot of wonderful people surrounding them physically and prayerfully all of their lives.  Many of those people joined us for Rachel's wedding and many others will be at the reception Saturday.  It will be a happy occasion.  It is a celebration of how Rachel and Chris came together and have become a family.  It is wonderful to watch love.

And they are loved.  Now I have five children...all loved.  My love for them may sometimes seem odd and old fashioned, out of date and silly.  But it is love for sure.  I never would have thought I was capable of so much of it.  But here we are.  With busy days ahead until Saturday, I want to soak it in and enjoy every minute of it.  

This year has been a bumpy one for me personally, beginning with January 17th when I found out that the job I loved and depended on for financial security would no longer be mine.  I have rocked and rolled through one of the wildest rides of my life, even having never been on a roller coaster in my life!   It looks like it is going to end well.  

And for anyone, that's really all that matters.