HOME FOR MY BIRTHDAY

Back home and so happy to be here. It was great to go visiting, but this is where I belong. Yesterday was my birthday (I can't remember which one) but we'll have the requisite party this weekend so everyone can come. Of course, I'd rather skip it and I'm not just saying that. Let's face it, I'm beyond the point of being excited about birthdays. But it's important to the rest of the family and I know it's good for the kids to have that continuity. So I'll be gracious and eat my fair share of cake and ice cream. My favorite cake is white with white icing. Just in case any of you decide to overnite a cake this way.

Beautiful hydrangeas from my precious daughter Amy. My favorite flower. While at my aunt's house, she cleaned out some cabinets of old dishes and lucky me, got to bring some home. There's a piece of carnival glass, a hobnail bowl and even a vintage little glass refrigerator dish (before tupperware). The red banded platter is from my grandmother's everyday dishes I remember from my childhood. What great memories!

Here's pretty much what the countryside looked like for much of the trip up and back. Acres and acres of flat prairie land with fields of corn and sometimes, soy beans. Being from Tennessee where it is very hilly, these flat fields were just incredible. I could see where a lot of the corn for ethanol is coming from. They also have lots of oil wells just drilling away in the fields up there.

Here is the welcome sign to the little town my aunt lives in. This is a very, very small town.

But I've been coming up here all my life, so it seems familiar to me and I don't think much about the size. While here with my mother, daughter Amy and two girls, Madison and Mekenzie, we took my aunt shopping and visiting friends and relatives. Had fun catching up with everyone and helping the little girls connect with relatives they didn't know they had.

Here's a picture of my aunt Maxine and my mother Joy. Maxine is 90 yrs old and my mom is 86 yrs. old. They look pretty good, don't they? It was a good visit, but let's just say my aunt who lives alone was just not used to children no matter how well they behave. But to be 90 yrs old, she is fantastic. I can only hope I have inherited her genes.

That's it for now, folks, I'm still doing laundry and catching up on emails. Luv, Nerm