ADVERB, ADVERB, PICK ANY ADVERB

Well, we are back home safe and sound from our trip to OKC … and I can’t help but feel a sense of deja-vu at typing that sentence once again this summer. I kept thinking I should update the site while I was home this past week, but we didn’t really do anything “journal worthy”, and it seemed a little disrespectful to try and make jokes about the funeral. It was actually a very nice service, and my family sincerely appreciated all the people that took the time to attend, send notes, flowers, make phone calls, etc, even signing in the guestbook here.

So I think this entry will instead be a hodgepodge of some of the emotions I felt this past week, and then after we get settled back here at home, I’m sure life will proceed as usual and we’ll find lots of insane normal things to talk about.

But for now, you can select the adverb *you* think I felt most strongly this past week.

Was it ……..

a) JOY, at realizing I would get to eat at all my favorite OKC restaurants (the ones we don’t have in Georgia) not once, but twice, in a two-month period?

b) GRATEFULNESS, when I realized that in fact, I wouldn’t eat at any of those restaurants, because it would take us the entire week to work our way through all the wonderful food and desserts that people were so kind to bring to the house for us? Seven grandkids are pretty much the equivalent of a swarm of locusts over a dessert buffet, and despite that, thanks to the generosity of others, my mom still had plenty for the guests and relatives that stopped by.

c) AMUSEMENT, after Kellen accidentally spilled his chocolate milk all over himself at IHOP during breakfast this morning, causing Blaine to take him out to the van, with our packed suitcases in it, to find some clean clothes into which he could change for the flight home, only to discover all of Kellen’s clothes were in the “dirty clothes” suitcase, so he wound up flying home in a bathing suit?

d) SURPRISE, when I realized that sometime between the beginnings of summer and now, Kellen has somehow, apparently, grown at least six inches, making the bottom of his swim trunks hit him about mid-thigh, which when coupled with the tube socks and tennis shoes he had on, made him look like a total dork. A pocket protector, or perhaps some glasses with tape holding them together, would have certainly completed the picture.

e) the ELATION I felt when I walked through the security checkpoint at the OKC airport today and they let me keep my shoes on ….. ON, people, ON! I didn’t even have to throw my socks away!

Or, f) the EMBARRASSMENT I felt when I tried lifting my carry-on bag and putting it in the overhead compartment myself, only to discover I am a worthless puny weakling, evidenced by the fact I dropped the bag on the head of the woman sitting in the seat underneath the compartment. Thankfully, it appeared the resulting concussion was a mild one, and she was a good sport about the head-trauma. Brayden made sure I didn’t injure any other passengers on the second leg of the flight, by yelling at me, from three rows back …. “Don’t drop your bag on anyone else’s head this time, Mom!!” Great. Nothing like a little public humiliation to end a trip on a high note.

Thanks, once again, for all your kind notes. While the week certainly wasn’t big fun, it was made easier knowing we had so many people; friends, family, and "internet friends" alike, keeping us in their thoughts and prayers.

We truly appreciate it.