Labor Day, Laughing and Great Fellowship!

We had a great time over Labor Day in Birmingham.  Saturday I spent with my brother, John and his wife, Elaine.  Kaitlin, Jennifer and Taylor took Jennifer's three daughters to the McWane Center that is downtown while all the rest of our boys were at the AUBURN game in Atlanta.  Lots of laughing, visiting, and more laughing.  Saturday evening my nephew, Charlie, and his wife, Sarah, and their children came for a visit.

My brother, Charles, and his wife, Frances, also came over for supper.

Charles and I had a good conversation about friends and folks we enjoyed being with.  Charles pointed out on Monday at The Color Run, in the pouring rain, no one in our group was mad.  We just laughed and had a good time no matter what.  What a blessing that is!

In fact, we laughed and had a good time all weekend long!!

Elliana needed to get in the photo of the guys getting ready to go to the game!

Katherine meeting Katherine.  We got to meet Jennifer's newest daughter who is 5 months old.

At the McWane Center.  The two K's.

Taylor and Emma

Elli and Diego

Sarah is taking a picture of Violet and me.  Her picture is further down.

Elli telling Andrew all her problems



These next three pictures are my favorites!!!

Carl and Elliana and their happy faces.

Carl and Elliana and their silly faces

Violet loves sunglasses and needed me to wear a pair with her.

Want to feel better about yourself?

For my birthday I got an Ipad.  I was thrilled but overwhelmed.  I am not that technologically savvy but I know I need to expand that area of my brain.  All my tech support was at work and I wanted to download a book and I thought, any idiot can do this right?!? HA!

I wanted to pick a book I could read again and again.  I found John Piper's book on marriage and thought to myself  'that's it'!  So I went through the steps to download my new 27.00 book.  After a few minutes everything was complete.  How exciting!  I touched the screen to begin the book and ....It started talking to me....what ????? who is talking to me??? then I realized... I downloaded an audio book.  That took some real genius!! I was stunned!!

 I think I shall wait til my tech support is home before I try another book.

One good thing is I usually don't make the same mistake twice so stay tuned for new ways I have done interesting things on my Ipad.  

Roswell, New Mexico

picture of hot stone massage but not me because of the hair, you will learn about that soon enough.

While Kaitlin and I were in Santa Fe, we got a hot stone massage.  Oh, my! I got chills as I wrote that down.  It was wonderful.

We made our appointment on Sunday and were given a tour of the spa area.  Monday at 220 we made our way down from our room to the spa.  Soon we were wrapped in thick robes and resting in the relaxation room. Picture a room where the lights are dim, lavender is a faint but wonderful smell, the sounds you hear are a quiet water fall and enya music being played.

 We saw a woman that looked really strange, her hair and her eyes, there was something not right about this woman. She was wandering around the relaxation room. I thought that since we were in NM that maybe she had wandered in from area 54 and had seen an alien.  No lie, she looked really spacey!

We soon met our masseuses and were ushered back to our room.  Our massage lasted an hour and a half.  It was a hot stone massage plus we threw in a scalp and foot massage.  Words can't describe.  My only complaint was that I had to walk when it was over.  I needed a gurney to wheel me right up to bed.

I do have one more complaint.  My hair.

I didn't brush out the hair spray before the scalp massage.  As she massaged my scalp, my hair grew and grew and grew.  It didn't help any that I was on my tummy with my head face down in the loop that holds your head on a masseuses table.  Kaitlin gasped when she saw my hair.  The masseuses took a step back from me.  There is no picture on record of it because we were encouraged to not bring any valuables down with us.  Let me just say you are either very sad or very happy there is no picture.  When I finally saw myself in a mirror I died laughing- it was wild.  When we got back to the dressing room we were looking for a bag for me to put over my head because we had to walk back into the motel to get on the elevators to get to our room.  We found brushes and other accoutrements that we might need after a massage and did as much as we could with my hair, inbetween fits of laughter.

When we calmed down just a bit and saw ourselves in the mirror, we also noticed that our eyes looked just like area 54 lady.  She hadn't seen an alien but was just really relaxed.

As we walked out of the relaxation room for the last time we saw a lady in a big comfy robe.  We knew what she was in for.  We told her that we had just had a massage and that she was in for a treat.  We realized very quickly that she didn't make eye contact with us and hurried past us.  Yup!  We had the area 54 look plus my hair didn't help any either.  In a few short minutes she will be joining our ranks, she just doesn't know it yet.

Below is what my hair looked like!

picture from google images of Phyllis Diller

I didn't have on a head band but you get the idea!

Laughing is inner jogging

Hebrews 10: 24-25 has really been on my mind in recent days

And let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Yesterday was a wonderful, soul enriching day for me. I felt like I had been to a great feast. I laughed, learned new things and was loved on. I was with friends.

Heather and I started visiting in the morning. She and I visit every week. When we don't meet for a week or two our next visits are more than twice as long because we have lots of life to catch up on. We talk about books, life, children, church and we laugh about most of it. She gives me lots of insight into those around me and I like how she views life.

After a few errands, I took lunch to my friend, Julie. Julie owns a store and when we share lunch we eat in her back room. She is always on duty so our visit is punctuated by her helping her customers. Julie and I also laugh a lot as we dissect life. We found out yesterday that we both love The Wall Street Journal and the moon. We tentatively planned a full moon party. Whoever built my house did an amazing job in many ways. One way is that only the late afternoon summer sun shines into my house but the winter sun shines in for the morning and early afternoon. This also means that the moon rises we can see from the house are breath taking. I invited Julie and her family over to witness one of these. I was excited to find someone else that loves the moon too. I bet not too many of you have thought about this and you are thinking right now- mmm we always knew Ellen was a a little strange- oh well!! Julie also shared that she had read a review in WSJ of a book that looked interesting, she showed me the article and I laughed. I have the book on hold at the library. It is The man in the Rockefeller suit : the astonishing rise and spectacular fall of a serial impostor / Mark Seal. We both just laughed then. We also cried during our visit because life is just hard sometimes. I regret that we didn't stop and pray but next time we will!!

I left so Julie could get some work done. We were both amazed that 3 hours had flown by so fast.

I joined Kaitlin at Panera so we could meet up with my friend, Donna. Kaitlin is designing a logo for a home school group that Donna is a part of. But really it was a wonderful excuse for two really busy friends to have a great visit and we did. I have known Donna for 21 years. She was one of the first home schoolers that I met when we moved to Arkansas. We also talked about life, books, friends, church, travel and children. (Kaitlin even managed to get a few words in edge wise asking about the design.) But most of all we laughed.

I know everyday can't be spent on the mountain top and great growth takes place in the wilderness but I am still basking in the refreshment of yesterday and thanking God for the gift that it was. I encourage you today to seek out a friend, spur one another on and share a good laugh too.

Clean as a Whistle!

One of the things I think sets 'old' people apart is when you hear all about their medical treatments and doctor visits. I plan to write about a medical treatment but just this once and I promise not to put this in my Christmas letter.

Last year when I turned 50, my cousin, Gary, sent me an article about having a colonoscopy and benefits and peace of mind it provides.

I was going to get to it one day.

When I went to the doctor this year for my check up, it was highly recommended that I do it now.

It was all set up for Monday at 6:30am. I was mentally ready. They called a few days before and asked could it be moved to Tuesday at 6:30 am. I had to check to see if someone could take me then and when Carl and KimT said that they could, I called back and said "Tuesday at 6:30 is fine."

I have heard that the prep is the worst part. I agree. Clear liquids on Monday. I had banana popsicles for breakfast with jello for dessert. I drank apple juice and sprite. Not too bad. For lunch I had chicken bouillon with more jello and now I moved on to white grape juice. Then the fun started... 4 pills to begin the cleaning out process. Not too bad, I could still function.

I need to say here that my family is amazing. They didn't eat any food at home on Monday. The girls took food as they left and ate their lunch before they got home. Thank you.

AT 1:30 I began drinking Miralax. I had to drink 8- 8 ounce glasses. The wonderful nurse the day before told me to mix it with different stuff to make it go down easier. I had it mixed with white grape juice, tea, and apple juice. I had to drink a glass every 20-30 minutes. The first three glasses went down great! and then.... The girls thought it would be good to watch The Gilmore Girls to distract me. It worked for awhile. 5 more glasses to go and I felt like Dumbledore in 'Half-Blood Prince' "Please don't make me drink anymore!" I got the rest down with the aid of chilled white grape juice. By now, I am a dishrag, on the sofa with Carl holding my hand.

I drank sprite and water til about 11:00pm. I could have nothing by mouth after midnight. The alarm went off at 5:40am. I kissed the girls goodby at 6 and we drove to the clinic. I checked in and sat back to people watch. Carl and I were sitting in a room with two other couples. We joked about all going out to eat together afterward! I was called back at 6:50. I had the nicest nurse. She was so gentle and the IV didn't even leave a bruise. She got me all comfy and even told me how beautiful my toenails were. At 7:25, I was wheeled into the procedure room. It was chilly- the nurse told me that the day before the air wasn't working and it was hot back there. I don't do 'hot' well so I was thankful that I had been postponed for a day. At 7:50 the doctor was telling Carl and me- I was still in laa laa land so I have no memory- that all was fine. At 9am I was tucked back into my bed at home and sleeping well.

I talked to a few folks on Tuesday. As soon as I answered the phone they all said " Ellen, are you okay?" My answer was " Yeeeesssss, (hear that in a very floaty sounding voice) I feel great!" I realize now that my family was home soon after that and I gladly handed off my cel and the land line.

One of my friends, who shall be nameless, got ahold of her cel phone on her way home from her procedure and she called people. Her message was the same from the office of her sister in a hospital to the place where she volunteers - She was Clean as a Whistle! She didn't just call them once but several times always with the same message.

Another friend thought it would be good to have it done during the Olympics so he could be distracted. He missed more of the games for those two days than he saw!

I was talking to Andrew before my procedure and complaining. He gently let me know that before he had his last x-ray he went through what I was going to have to go through plus even more. Oh, my.

My friend, Zach, who I have asked you to pray for, because his cancer is in his abdomen, has had to have several colonoscopies and he is 25.

If you are 50, get it done. Call me and I'll bring you some white grape juice and watch tv with you and give you lots of sympathy. I can highly recommend the clinic that did mine, call me and I'll tell you the name and my doctor.

Thanks Gary, send me the email again in 10 years!

I can so see myself doing this

This will make you laugh 

Let's shake it all about

It is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed. Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote 'The Hokie Pokey' died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.