My Glad!

How many of you use the term "My Bad" whenever you make a mistake or mess up?! Well, this is a take-off on that.

Here's a Glad (gladiolus) from our rock garden out front, blooming as we speak. It represents My Glad as we prepare for an overnight with Nicholas tonight (giving Dennis and Amy some alone time after he flies in from LA this afternoon) and then our annual drive to the Hart Family Cottage in Michigan tomorrow evening.

Since we will be in Amsterdam on Nicholas' 7th birthday (July 12), we will celebrate with him tonight and then again at the cottage. Once we get back next Sunday, we'll take him to Medieval Times for dinner and the show. He has been begging us to go there for ever, so finally we will go! He will really be birthday-ed!

The very next day, on Monday the 9th, Donica flies to Hannover and I fly to Amsterdam. So let's just say a lot is happening all at once.

Because of a terrible Internet connection at the cottage and wanting to give all my energy to family, this will be my last post before we return on Sunday. Tomorrow will be my last post on Shutterchance as well, with a variation on today's theme.

And I am very GLAD! We love this annual trip to the cottage each summer!

Have a great July 4th holiday, you who celebrate it. Traveling mercies to us all!

The Weekend with Nicholas

I can't believe it came and went! It was so chockfull of so many things and we did them all in the short span when Donica was home, before flying off to Barcelona on Sunday evening.

Besides the birthday and Father's Day late celebrations, we had Nicholas for an overnight! We miss that little twerp when we're not home, so we just totally spoil him when we have him.

It's way too hot in Atlanta to play outdoors these days, so we took Nicholas bowling...a year after the last time (when split happened, remember?). What a riot!

It tickles the heck outta me to see him bowl and love it. A year ago, it was all he could do to get in two games. This year, after 2 games I asked him if he wanted to play a third? YES! What a difference a year can make. He's a bigger, stronger boy!

And just for the record, this "old lady" still knows how to bowl! My average was 144 after those 3 games. Well, that might not seem much to you but I was tickled pink. When Donica and I bowled on the same team almost 10 years ago, she says my average was 139. So there. I guess we do get better with age. HA!

After the bowling, Nicholas knew we'd hit the arcade games, just like last year. He and Donica go at it, sometimes side by side. G'ma watches and takes the pics. :)

That was Saturday morning...all 3 hours of it! Later in the afternoon we went back to Amy's for the gourmet snapper dinner she cooked for my birthday celebration. That's when she showed me the SEVEN pages (count them) of Nicholas' birthday wish-list! His first ever.

A couple weeks ago Amy told me that Nicholas started telling her what he wanted for his 7th birthday (July 12). As he rattled different things off, she told him that he needed to write a birthday wish-list. THEN when she saw how long it was, she had to tell him that just because he wished for all those things didn't mean he would get them all. She wanted to prepare him. And I piped in to tell him that Donica and I had already bought him his birthday gift before we had seen the list. So don't be disappointed, in other words!

What would we ever do without our kids and grandkids! You tell me!

So now we wait expectantly for almost a week of togetherness as a larger family in Michigan next week!