Reunion Sunday

the family homestead... my parents house on the left... Cody and Marquee's house on the right. As usual... my mom's car is parked in Cody's driveway because any chance he gets, he prefers to drive hers!

the front of their little house... it's really cute inside...

dinner last night at O'Charley's with Cody and Marquee

random spring color shot... loved the vivid purple of this tree against the bright blue sky. I normally adjust color in my pictures - or increase light or whatever, but this is exactly as it looked in real life! I love spring! (sorry for the run-on paragraph... I tried several times to separate the paragraphs and it kept defaulting to one big blob...)

We traveled to the Southside of Atlanta yesterday through much rain and much pain to be here for my mom's family reunion. Actually, if I'm totally honest... the drive wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. We took a break at the halfway mark and made decent time, despite some traffic and minor flooding on I-75 in Atlanta. (clean out the storm drains, already!) I was able to have dinner with Cody and Marquee and since my fabulous daughter in law has recently had her 21st birthday, and since Cody was driving, she and I enjoyed an adult beverage. Don't worry... I was unmedicated so it couldn't affect me any more than usual. We had a nice dinner... bad service... but good food. Then we went back to their house to hang out and watch tv. I don't get a lot of time with those two so it was a real treat. I slept better than I usually do away from home... despite the horrible storms we had over night (or maybe because of them)... didn't wake up until after 7 and the coffee was already waiting. Not as strong as I make... but still good. Had breakfast at IHop in Riverdale with Austin, Cody and Marquee. Ate too much but I've counted all my points. Looks as though I'll be on a straight fruit and veggie diet for the rest of the week because I will have used up all my extra points before the weekend is out. Unfortunately... the community center where we were going to hold the reunion had a tree fall on it during the storm! Our reunion has been relocated to my Aunt Ginger's house which is nice... but it's going to be a bit more crowded than what the community center would have been. Ok... a lot more crowded. My mom is number 6 of 7 kids born to Clarence Burl Pennington and Virginia Flossie Jackson Pennington. They had four boys.... and then three girls. I'm not sure of the ages of the uncles but my Aunt Ginger was born in January of 1947, mama in September of 1948 and Linda in February of 1950.... three girls in the space of three years... Granddaddy passed away in 1978, Grandma in 1998... but they left behind a huge family. I think there were about two dozen grandkids, the youngest in that generation is in their late twenties so everyone has married and had kids... I couldn't even wager a guess at how many great-grandkids there are now. A lot of my generation won't be there today... I think out of my four brothers, only one is coming... but we are a large family. I'm guessing we'll have 40 or 50 people there... which means seating will be limited and my back is already killing me. Yesterday was a good day for me pain wise but today I feel like my spine is about to explode.... and I won't be back home and comfy in my nest until later this evening... after a two hours drive. Oy. Anyways... got a little time to kill between now and the reunion. I'm going to go to my favorite thrift store down here and pick up a few things... I like to buy pieces that aren't terribly size specific like sweaters and scarves and such. For me, I just like the whole retail therapy aspect at a bargain price. Hope you all have a fabulous Sunday! love and hugs!