not much going on...

except for:

1. fishing trip on Saturday morning: took my oldest son and four of his best friends out on the boat (along with MDB of course! I feel naked without her and she's my best friend EVER). MDB caught the most keeper fish, and what we caught was a mixed bag for sure! 3 keeper speckled trout, 6 or 7 sand trout, 3 whiting, 1 golden croaker, and 1 vermillion snapper. We had dinner plans to celebrate RDA's graduation at 6:00, so it was nearly time to get showered and dressed when I finally finished cleaning fish and cleaning everything else! Wooh!

2. When we got back to mom's after dinner, we spent several hours just talking with mom. Mom lives alone and gets little contact with anyone in her family, so I like to spend as much time with her as I can. She's 78 and won't be around for much longer, so I want to cherish my time with her as much as I can. I'm so blessed that MDB understands and allows me to spend so much time with her without saying anything or making me feel like I'm ignoring her by spending time with mom! MDB is such a blessing!!!

3. Sunday morning is time for church! We go to sunday school first and then church afterward. Sunday school starts at 9:30 and church wraps up at around 12:00! After church today, we had plans to meet mom for lunch with my sister. Mom invited us to go along for a couple of reasons. First, she wanted my sister to be able to meet MDB! (so thoughtful and sweet!) Second, since mom and my sister have been somewhat "estranged" for several years, she wanted us along to sort of "buffer" them in case things didn't go well. Well, everyone was in very good spirits and the lunch went great! At dinner the previous evening, mom had said something about the news about Ted Kennedy, who, unbeknownst to me, had experienced two or more strokes and was in poor health. Not being a big TK fan, I made a remark about it. Anyway, before my sister showed up, I told mom that she'd better not mention TK just in case the mention of politics would add fuel to the fire. Well, apparently my sister is not a big TK fan, either, because when I repeated the comment, I thought she was going to fall out of her chair! Here's how the original conversation went:

Mom - Did you hear that Ted Kennedy is in the hospital?

Me - No....what happened? Did he drive off of a bridge?

Mom - What!? That wasn't very nice! He had a couple of strokes!

Me - Strokes, huh? How could anyone tell the difference?

Mom - That's terrible! The man had strokes! He's been through a lot! He may be in a coma!

Me - That's nothing new, either! From what I've heard, he pretty much does the coma thing every night!

Well, my sister corrected me on that one. She said that he goes into a "stupor" on a nightly basis. I said that I thought "stupor" was his normal daily condition and that "coma" was what he did after consuming as much alcohol as a human can do without reaching fatal toxicity! Oh well...enough Kennedy humor. I hope he gets well, soon. The People's Republic of Massachussetts deserve his representation as much as any state I can think of!

4. Back from lunch, time for chores! We had to get some "picking up" done and get "mount wash-day" folded and put away before our small-groups meeting this afternoon.

5. Small groups! Our "small groups" group is really good! We have some good discussions and our group dynamic is friendly and informative!

6. More chores when we got home! I had to get some mowing done, so I did that and then checked on the dog (who was barking incessantly for some reason). The dog has been digging holes all around his kennel, so his latest effort caused his food bowl to drop around 18" and fall over. He wasn't happy about the results of his actions, so I had to fill all of that in again and refill his bowl! After the dirt work, I picked the garden and turned on the water.

7. Now I'm blogging. It's 10:25 and I still have to make my lunch for tomorrow and get ready for bed.

Now you can stop asking what I do in my spare time! Here's the common denominator: MDB is the most wonderful woman EVER!!! She fully understands me and supports me! She loves me unconditionally and makes me feel like a king! If I make her feel half as happy as she makes me, she feels AWESOME!!!

May God bless you if you're reading this and may you find as much happiness as God has given me! - Dan