Reasons to Love Monday - Warm Fuzzies and Right Turns

I'm aching from every single joint in my body, partly from the move into the mountain house and partly from that ole nasty storm out in the gulf. I'm one of those people who feels a storm... and still, even though a long day is staring my painful body right in the face, I'm going to dig deep and find a few reasons to love Monday!

1. This was my blood pressure on Friday. It was the lowest blood pressure I have had in the four years I've been going to this doctor's office. They made me feel like a ROCK STAR and I've been riding the wave of that glimpse of what good health looks like and feels like all the way since Friday. My nurse asked if I had a camera phone and I told her no... but I did have a camera with me. She said, "take a picture" and so I did. It's not exactly practical to have a general practitioner who is ninety miles away... but... it's worth it to me to stay with people who understand the challenges I'm facing.

2. I loved spending time in the mountains this weekend... even though the mountain house has not yet achieved the place of rest and relaxation that we hope it will some day be... it was great to be there working together as a family to put things together. I spent Saturday night digging through a huge box of family archives from grandma and I found some really awesome things that she had written about our family history. My paternal grandmother liked to write. My maternal grandfather wrote a book that I've been eager to read and transcribe. My dad writes each morning. My brother writes songs. It's almost as if I was born to be a writer. I know that the mountain house will be a great place for me to exercise my creative abilities. I had decided that I was fine with being off the grid there... and it really was nice and peaceful Saturday night... yet, I think I might be able to accomplish more in the way of writing if I had access to the internet. Still thinking on that. At any rate... the only thing that was hard about being in the mountains over the weekend was missing my little Trouble kitty. I know this picture reinforces my "crazy old cat lady" status but I don't care. I love that cat!

3. THIS was the moment that I really felt the potential for our mountain home to be a wonderful gathering place for our family. In the lead is my brother Michael who has probably only appeared on my old blog way back in the day. I rarely see him or his boys. They are Jehovah's Witnesses so they don't do holiday gatherings. They live in Chattanooga so they are too far away to just "pop in", although, I will say that Michael is really good about visiting mom when she's in the hospital and things like that. He's the middle child and he has two sons and a step-daughter, Tiffany, who is as much a Gant as anyone born in our family. Everyone was running up the hill to get away from the lake because it was thundering. In the back is Jim and Angie (holding hands) my nephew Cory (Michael's son) is watching everyone come up the hill. There is nothing like spending time with family to give you the strength and energy to carry on with your life... feeling connected to something... gives me warm fuzzies!

4. Talk about warm fuzzies! Another really rare picture. The last time these kids were together was in March 2006. They are (l-r) Sarabeth (9) Matthew (12) and Cory (15). Cory was my first nephew. I have the family's first three grandchildren... so I waited awhile to be an aunt. I was so proud to have this little boy (who now towers over me) in our family. A few years later we gained Matthew (who really, really hates having his picture taken because his eyes are sensitive to the light). And, I had two nieces enter the family by marriage, Tiffany and Elizabeth (who is Matthew's age) but Sarabeth was the first girl born into our family since me... it was a 34 year gap between baby girls! She is such a beautiful girl... so tall and graceful. She has come a long way in breaking out of her shyness but this picture was a stretch... having to stand with boys she didn't know, even if they are cousins. It just did my heart so much good to see these babies together!

5. Another warm fuzzy... my brother Michael teaching my niece Jamie how to fish. Jamie had really no memories of her Uncle Michael but she warmed up to him right  away.

(I'm running out of time.. gotta put this on the fast track)

6. Reason to Love Monday - Republican Convention! I am excited to hear the speeches, get encouraged and enlightened about what the Republican Party has to say - to hear their ideas about getting us back on track. And... that Tampa Bay convention venue has an organ that my son installed. I don't know if they're using the organ for the convention but if they do... just know that MY KID did that!

7. During my trip up this weekend I got to spend a good bit of time with Austin. He is doing a few things that I'm not crazy about. He needs a haircut. He hasn't done laundry in weeks - their washer broke down. There's a laundrymat about a quarter of a mile from where he lives so he has the option to go there but just hasn't. I offered him the change... he said he had the money. It's a long story. He's not in imminent danger or anything... and he does seem to be working consistently... he just needs a mama still and it hurts me that I am not able to be there for him. My reason to love Monday? I'll be back up there in a few days and can do a little to help him.

8. My reason to love Monday is not that my eyes are closed in this picture... not that I'm hiding behind my mom... trying to hide half my hefty self...my reason to love Monday is the fishing lure that Jamie was casting that if you look very closely below my dad's ear, you'll see... right in the split second before it whacked my mom in the head. That was on Saturday night and it's still funny! You can tell that my brothers stole all the height in our family!

9. When I'm driving, I hate to make unassisted left turns. I hate that feeling of having to time things so that I don't end up in the back of an ambulance with my car on the back of a wrecker. I always choose the path of least resistance. When I faced the loss of my job, therefore the loss of my income, I was faced with a hard, blind, left turn. And I've got to tell you, I really grieved the loss of living in the mountains. I am perfectly happy, content, safe, etc here in the suburbs but at my heart, I'm a mountain girl. Being able to know that in a few short days, I'll be looking out at this same awesome view... makes Monday just the necessary evil that I must go through to get to my four day weekend ahead. It feels like I'm through with those awful left turns and am happily making safe, easy right turns now. It's gonna be a great week, y'all!

If you're in the path of nasty weather, please be safe! Love and hugs!