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Dear Reader:

While I was working on Mandy’s birthday card message yesterday I came across this poster on Pinterest and the more I thought about it…the more I liked it. Perfect for a benchmark 40 birthday!

“This journey is yours: Enjoy each and every step”

Yesterday seemed like a deja vu moment preparing for the birthday party (I have actually been preparing for two weeks) as it brought back so many memories.

As I mentioned in an earlier post… the Dingles were throwing me a big 40th birthday with all the food and trimmings…They, too, had prepared for weeks ahead…only to have Hurricane Hugo blow all those plans  and celebration away.

The storm hit on the 22nd and by my birthday on the 24th…the post-misery of the storm had hit…no electricity, it was hot and sticky…the food was rapidly deteriorating in the hot refrigerators…the potties didn’t flush….it was not exactly what I thought my 40th birthday would look like.

Yet, today, that is the most memorable birthday of all…crises do make for great stories (later.) Even if we don’t enjoy each “step along our journey” at the moment we are climbing…we can always look back on that step as a teaching lesson in life…if nothing else.

*We only had one minor crisis with Eva Cate waking up not feeling good yesterday morning…but Tylenol kept things at bay long enough to party on.

Here are the “calm before the storm” pictures ….the good pictures with food smeared on faces, dropped plates, bumped up knee children…will come later in the blog…

I found this saying on Jackson’s refrigerator and took a photo of it… how true.

It is nice to have a clean house (though it won’t last that long) but it is just a clean house with no breath, no life…if there is no one in it to mess it all up again. So Part I of the blog is finished and I now await the party crowd…our wonderful, messy party crowd…Let the Party Begin!

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And the gang’s all here….Rudy and his brothers joined us in the celebration too…we all loved seeing Rudy!

Everyone had just gathered when I was told there was a policeman at the front door who wanted to see me. A big gulp but the nice policeman, along with others, was canvassing the neighborhood to meet the people and introduce themselves….isn’t that nice?

Rutledge and Eva Cate thought it was more than nice…Rutledge kept hugging his leg…a real policeman….Wow! Right up there with trucks…quite an honor!

Everything turned out just perfect! Even the weather cooperated….we didn’t get a little shower until we were all back inside getting ready to cut the cake.

The highlight of the party for me, however, was when Eva Cate and Rutledge went running to the front porch to announce that it was raining to everyone eating cake inside. They kept announcing the rain as if it was the greatest thing to happen and couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t put their dessert down and rush out to watch it.

In the end…it was God’s gift of rain that bestowed the most wonder and awe in his smallest children.

So until tomorrow…Thank you Father for benchmarks in our lives that bring family and friends together to recognize the distance we have journeyed along our paths. Happy Birthday Mandy…you have traveled well!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I think Lassie’ s housewarming card expressed the double celebration perfectly last night…you don’t fix up a house to stay a house…you fix it up to make it a home for everyone to enter and enjoy!

Besides beautiful mums…I got some more adorable Boo’s….THANK YOU’S!

* I want to take a moment and thank all the “elves” for making left-over food, plates, and trays disappear like magic. The side dishes yesterday were spectacular!

*Honey…did you recognize the green outfit Rutledge was wearing? It came from you! Mollie said that you sent quite awhile back…it was a 3-T and Rutledge has just grown into it…so cute!