Happy Birthday, Mom!

I forgot to mention yesterday that our next Bible study topic is Patience…hehehe I noticed that after I had decided to write my little story about Tuesday night yesterday and how it relates to some thoughts on patience that I’ve been having. But then when I wrote, I forgot to mention how I liked that the next topic was on that same subject…hehehe I haven’t read the devotional or studied the passages yet. I simply noticed the title yesterday ❤️

Despite my lack of sleep, and the travel frustrations that caused the lack, I had a really good day yesterday. I managed to get through the workday and be productive. And then I spent the evening with my family. We had dinner at a place that was new to most of us, Rumba. As in rum-ba and not the robot vacuum 🤭 It had a sort of pirate theme…hehehe Hence rum, I suppose. I went with the salmon. It was all pretty good and a nice atmosphere. My sister and mom did the usual fighting over the bill. I’ve learned to not get involved or even offer to pay. I find the opportune moments to pay for things and just let them hash it out otherwise. I was hoping to pay for lunch today. But they all decided they didn’t want to come up here for Zen…LOL So I ate alone…HAHAHA I’ll meet up with them for dinner later tonight at Tarpon Turtle. That’s where Mom wants to have her birthday dinner. We’ll see who is paying…LOL I’m guessing it will be my sister again. She won the battle last night 🤣

After dinner last night, though, we went back to my sister’s place. We played Five Crowns; a really fun card game. I ended up winning 🤭 What’s extra funny about that is the fact that the very first time I ever played was exactly a year ago, to the day, on their last visit down. I won that round too 🤣 I rarely win, though. It is a game of luck more than skill. It has become my parent’s card game of choice for a little over a year now.

Today is Mom’s birthday! This is the first one since her cancer diagnosis. So it’s extra special. It reminds me of the first birthday she had after they discovered her other tumor just over 20 years ago. That one wasn’t cancerous. But it did almost kill her because of where it was. And she has been on a special daily treatment ever since that is keeping her alive now. I’m not good with the technical names for such things. But she has Elephant Man’s Disease. The last 20+ years have been special since she wasn’t supposed to live. With her having cancer 6 months ago as well, I’m so grateful she’s still here 🥹❤️

My mom is special to me. I’ve literally dropped what I was doing to come to her aid a few times. One time, my car smelled pretty bad later because I had just picked up some food when she needed me and it sat in the car all day rotting 😂 Not all moms are like her. She is far from perfect. But she is perfectly my mom…hehehe We’ve had many adventures together. One of which involved a tornado and a tire change…at the same time…LOL She accidentally poured the water from her umbrella all over me as I was changing the tire 😂 When my sister was being born, my brother and I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle. I was only 15 months at the time. I was one sad clown the entire time until I saw my mom for the first time when they came to pick us up. She was always the reason I was homesick when I was away as a kid. Although I grew out of that, I still light up when I see my mom on their visits here or when I visit back home in Indiana ❤️

Speaking of lighting up when I see someone…hehehe Trex was so excited to see Trexina when she stepped off the train Saturday. He did a little dinosaur leg kicking and tiny arm flailing in excitement 😂 This time, Cherie told me the car number she was on for the train. So I was able to know exactly which car she’d be stepping off of. I spotted her immediately this time and I was elated 🤩