Born to be WILD!!!

What a great weekend it's been!

Friday's golf outing was fabulous for Ron....he came home absolutely exhausted, but with a smile that lasted all day! It was so good for him to be out with his cronies and he did himself proud. He joined them in some chipping and putting and actually putted three birdies for the team. I guess he was feeling so good about his success in putting that he decided to tee it up and play an entire par 3 hole, which he made birdie on! Is that awesome, or what? Who'd-da thunk on his first golf outing in 20 months he'd do so well? But then, what do you expect, he's always one to hit those long odds, whether good or bad!

After spending the afternoon napping, we met up with the family for Mom Nordell's birthday dinner. I felt bad for Ron since we went to our favorite Italian restaurant, La Bistro, where we've celebrated the majority of our anniversaries as well as many other special occasions. He decided to live dangerously and ate quite a bit of my Chicken Jerusalem along with some bread and lobster bisque (he rarely tries to eat and when he does it's typically just a bite of something). After dinner, we went to Mom & Dad's assisted living facility for cake and ice cream in the gazebo, which Ron decided to partake of as well. I was anxious to see how the night would play out, and I'm happy to say there was no middle of the night yakking! Saturday he had to deal with some indigestion issues but jumped right back in and sampled some of the picnic fare and, of course, more dessert! Amazingly, he's tolerated it all pretty well so far, although he has decided to be sensible and get back to protein drinks. This weekend has given us renewed hope that maybe as the healing process continues, he'll find he's able to enjoy a little bit of eating; but in great moderation. It really excites me to think he might be able to enjoy some food while we are vacationing. You never realize how much food is a part of our socialization until you aren't able to participate.

The BBQ/picnic was so much fun! The Atria has a huge gazebo providing plenty of room for all the Nordell's; and the weather was perfect! It rained as we arrived then subsided providing lots of sunshine, as well as a nice breeze, for several hours before beginning again as we were wrapping things up! We enjoyed: lots of yummy food, watching G'ma and Papa play with the Nerf dart guns, competitive games of croquet and Bocce ball and then the hit of the party...the pinata! What a riot watching both G'ma and Papa swinging a bat at a huge candy-filled Nemo, after having been spun around in their wheelchairs. A great time was had by all! I'll send pictures after I get some from others...our camera bit the dust a while back.

I don't know about everyone else, but we've both been really tired today. We did make it to church this morning, but then Ron spent the rest of the day in the recliner dozing off and on through the Byron (as well as the LPGA). And, I confess, I did my share of dozing before tackling grocery shopping and laundry. I'm anticipating it will be a few more days for Ron to be fully recuperated from the festivities; but that's ok! I'm just thrilled he was able to participate as much as he did.

Now, on to wrapping up the last week of school and finalizing anniversary trip!

Still praying believing!
Christie

"What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see!" Hebrews 11:1 NLT

"For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.: 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NLT