Karin's Birthday

Grant awakened me to recognize Karin's birthday! The first thing Kevin said to me this morning was, "Happy birthday, Mommy!"

The dogs continue their love affair.

This day was discombobulated. Certainly not as planned! My plan was to go to Michael's to buy flowers, prepare an arrangement, and place it in Karin's marker vase. Steve needed me to babysit the house this morning, as painters would be here again, while he accomplished another errand. I wanted to attend a make up at the local Rotary Club, and he needed to deal with issues about his car. So, I stayed home in the morning, he drove me to Rotary, while he hoped to accomplish his tasks. When he picked me up, he was a bit frantic. He had left his wallet and house key at home. Therefore, he could not order the new key for his car which needed to be done by 2:00 or it would require another day in the shop. He went home for his wallet, discovered he didn't have his key, and the painters, with my house key, had left the house for lunch. He couldn't buy lunch -- no money, no ATM card. He accomplished nothing for two hours! I had hoped to pick up Kevin from school, take him to Michael's with me and to the cemetery. Instead, I had to WALK to his school to bring him home, and we could not go to Michael's.

We had an "interesting" walk. I brought both dogs which was tricky since Jack does not know how to heel. There are no sidewalks for half of the walk, and I had to walk through tall grass. I was wearing Crocs, and my feet were prickly and stinging. By the time I reached school, I realized those sensations were from fire ants! We had no choice but to walk home that way with Kevin also wearing Crocs. We had a foot and shoe bath as soon as we were home!

I brought several books to Kevin from my attic; books that had been his Mommy's and Uncle Greg's. One is a Russian fairytale which we read after our foot bath. Once Daddy was home, there was no time to buy, then arrange flowers today and still have dinner at a decent hour.

Another time-consuming, gratifying, and comforting activity today was keeping up with the thoughtful messages on Facebook all day. Such dear friends to remember Karin on her birthday! A true blessing!

What a good boy!!!

Or is he??? He is holding one of Kevin's favorite stuffed dogs! tsk, tsk

Kevin looked out the window and saw kids riding bikes on his cul-de-sac, so we went out for Kevin to ride with them!


I had planned to go to Chili's, one of Karin's favorite restaurants, but Steve suggested an Italian restaurant she liked which I had never experienced. Karin had exquisite taste! It was very good.

And we saved room for dessert at Goodberry's frozen custard where Kevin loves to play on their pole handrails.