Week (and weekend) in review

Last week I received some swag from Samford - I'm going to be honest. I was a little giddy! Never in a million years did I dream that I would possibly some day (in my old age) receive a degree at all, much less from an amazing university like Samford. I'm registered for two mini terms this summer.

Our daughter sent us this photo on Thursday morning. I bought these two pieces of clothing from our church consignment sale - Lil Lambs! I knew she would love it!

Back up a day to Wednesday -- I worked at The Hub, which is our church's outreach center. I've written about it before -- we feed over 600 families a week; ESOL classes on Monday night; and so many other good things. It was Staff Serve week so many of our church staff volunteered - we actually have a day or two built into our PTO for service opportunities. My job was to sort linens and package them into sets.

Here I am with two of our regular volunteers.

On Thursday night, we met 8 friends at Seasons 52 for dinner. I had shrimp and grits along with a Cosmopolitan! The photo below is the only photo I took!!

On Friday morning, I finally had time to get a pedicure and it was much needed. I actually studied while I was there. It is so nice that I can access my textbook on my phone.

On Friday night, we headed to MJ and Dan's for a dessert party. We now have at least 12 couples/families who live in our neighborhood and who all go to Trinity UMC. Trinity is located in Homewood which is about 15 minutes away. MJ said she would host if I would help her get the invitation list together. I also made a fruit tray and dip.

We had a great time! Several of the couples are in the same Sunday School class that Mark and I are in and we've traveled with quite a few of the other folks. Several of the folks work at the Hub during the week so Mark knows them. We had a great time.

The weather was so nice that we drove the golf cart to their house. We could have walked but it would have been hard to juggle that giant tray of fruit. Look at the moon! It was gorgeous that night.

Saturday brought the threat of bad weather and lots of tornadoes to our state (and other states). Our oldest grand celebrated her 9th birthday. We were supposed to meet them for dinner but cancelled due to the threat of bad weather.

To make up for missing her dinner (which made me very sad), we have plans to take her to dinner on Thursday night and it will be just the three of us.

James Spann is our local celebrity weather man. He keeps us all informed. At one point, a tornado was headed straight towards our son's community. We called them and they were sheltered in their basement room. They are safe and the tornado didn't touch down near them but there were other communities in our state that suffered damage and loss of life. Most folks in our neighborhood have more than one car and due to the threat of large hail, etc. most everyone took their extra cars/Sprinter vans/etc. to the Galleria parking deck. It is less than 10 minutes away. As soon as the main threat was gone (about 9:30 p.m.) I drove Mark to get his vehicle because I go to work so early on Sunday mornings and we didn't want to have to cram one more thing into our Sunday morning time frame.

Sunday morning found us both at Trinity UMC. I worked and taught Sunday School and Mark went to worship and Sunday School. We are trying to continue the family Sunday lunch tradition and everyone came to our house for Chicken Spaghetti. We talked through Bill's memorial service which will be this weekend. Alice had bought a giant bag of Gummi Bears for Bill and he died before they were opened. He loved Gummi bears! Susie, Alice, and I put Gummi Bears into tiny bags and we are going to have them in a basket to give to people at the end of the service. Mark's mother always loved a party favor. Mark walked into the dining room while we were putting the bags together and said, "Seriously - are you making party favors for the funeral?" Later I was telling our son and he asked, "Y'all made funeral favors?" I don't know why I find this so hilarious. I guess it is the body, mind, and soul's way of coping with grief. Sometimes things are just funny.