I'm Relaxing!!

I have been away -- busy having a BLAST! This is my first time to sit down and relax in almost a week. I've been having fun, so I'm only a little bit exhausted.

I got to see my great-niece and give her the quilt I made for her!

We were up at the lake, and the leaves were ON FIRE. They were the most bright and glorious I can ever remember up there in over 40 years. Wowsers!!

A bunch of cousins got together. It was great fun!

This one is my mom, siblings and me. We don't get together often, because we live in three different states.

We had a great book discussion.

They threw me a birthday party.

Sunday morning we went to this little rockin' country church.. very lively, and look at the size of their choir. Amazing!

My sister showed us this beautiful, hidden cemetery.. mostly Finnish names on the gravestones. It's tucked back in the woods off a quiet country road. I had no idea it was there. Fun to stroll around here.

On Monday we went to the town where we siblings grew up. This is Mom in front of the house we used to live in. We got to go inside and look at every nook and cranny. Such memories, and funny to relate stories of what we did here and there. The kitchen is still pretty much the way my mom designed it when they did a re-model for us in about 1960.

We had lunch with a bunch of old friends.

Me with two of my classmates. We hadn't been together in 48 years. Wow! They are really nice, fun adults.

We went inside the church where my dad was the minister from 1958-1964. I had forgotten how beautiful it is inside. They have a ton of gorgeous stained glass windows!

The organ is new since we lived there. My sister, a very talented pianist/organist, sat down and played this organ so beautifully. I'm very proud of her talents.

This is one of two HUGE stained glass windows that took my breath away.


It was a lot of driving, a lot of visiting and laughing. When I came home I had to work two days in a row. Today after work I finally got to relax. Hubby and I sat outside on an absolutely glorious fall afternoon. I read, he doodled on his job plans. I fell asleep and snoozed in the sun. Couldn't be better. I feel great and am blessed to have had such a fabulous few days with great friends and family. I am so lucky!

P.S. I don't know if you caught my funny word choice, but I did, so I am clarifying. When I say, "when they did a re-model for us"... what does that mean?? Well, my father was the minister, and this house is the parsonage. The church owned the house; we did not. Therefore when it needed remodeling, it was the church ("they") who arranged it for us, not we ourselves. :-)