babybloomr

Catching Up

So… how’ve you been? I’ve missed you guys!

I’ve been traveling– to Arkansas for a family wedding, and also to visit Mom and help clear out her house, then up to Indiana to spent a few days with the Gaithers. The Arkansas trip was difficult. The wedding part was wonderful, Bud and June’s (Russ’ “family of choice”) granddaughter Mandy married Danton, and it was just beautiful. (Bonus: I got to see my sweet ‘Bloomr reader and niece-by-love “Blondie” and her sister Erin!)

But the difficult part was that Mom is having a lot of adjustment issues. She has moved to a really lovely ‘luxury senior living’ place called Fox Ridge, and though she chose to move there, the reality of the change has been very hard on her. She keeps insisting that she would still be perfectly fine living alone back in her house, but despite all of our best efforts to keep her there as long as we possibly could (it’s been over a year since Daddy died), it became glaringly apparent that it was no longer safe or wise for her to live alone. And let’s just say… acceptance is not her strong suit! So between weathering Mom’s tumultuous transition and actually closing out the home that Mom and Dad lived in for so many years, it was a really emotionally grueling trip. Endings are hard. THANK GOD for my brothers and sisters and their spouses and children– I have never been prouder or more grateful to be connected to these people, and I love them with all of my (aching) heart.

The Indiana trip, however, was wonderful! It’s been a while since we’ve had some good ol’ hang-out time with Bill and Gloria, and the entire trip was so relaxing and much-needed. B and G are such gracious friends and hosts, and the setting is just beautiful. Madi celebrated her 20th birthday while we were there, complete with one of Gloria’s famous raspberry cakes, which she loves.The girls and I were completely captivated by the swans in Gaither’s pond, and every evening at dusk we rode down with Bill in his golf cart to feed them. A pair of the white ones and a pair of the black ones both have babies, and they have to keep them penned up until the cygnets get big enough to avoid becoming turtle food. The little ones could not have been cuter, but the mom and dad swans did their best to look very intimidating every time we approached them. They arched their big swanny necks and lowered their heads menacingly while approaching the fence with their pigeon-toed, mincing little steps– which was actually more funny than intimidating, but hey, it’s tough to look like a hard-ass when you’re a dang SWAN, for crying out loud!

Bill loves to show off his beloved little Indiana town, so of course he made sure that we made a special trip out to see… The World’s Largest Ball of Paint! I am not even kidding. Not only did we SEE it, we added a coat of paint to it– and we have the documentation to prove it.

Behold the glory:

**First of all, Bill had to bust out the red convertible so we could go see the giant ball of paint in style. Madi is practicing her Royal Wave…

**Bill gave us the back story of the paint ball while driving past the endless Indiana cornfields–

**See? It’s the truth!

**They take their giant balls of paint pretty seriously around here.

**We’re all agog. OK, Bill and I are agog– the girls look a little skeptical. And yes, THAT’S the ball of paint, not the World’s Largest Lemon.

**But they quickly got into the spirit of the thing, and after we added a purple layer of paint (the 23, 269th coat) we each got a souvenir slice of giant paintball AND a certificate!