It's been awhile!

Geez! It's been awhile!!!!! Busy BUSY summer , already, even though I don't have children at home anymore, it seems the summer has been ALMOST as busy as when I had 5 SMALL FRYS running around!!!! ....Everyone is doing great (despite a few grands being a bit puny, all are well now) and , even though the past few days have been VERY SOGGY,  hopefully, July sunshine will come back and activities can resume that involve being outdoors!!!! ....I'm just going to post some pix from the past month--I'll let the pictures "tell the story". I promise to catch up soon. Lots of folks emailing me about not posting! HA! So, I'll try to do better! Here's our latest: (in no particular order--nor are the pictures in order! LOL)....MISSING Kelly, Patrick, Ryder (hence no pix of our little San Diego Family! BUMMER!)/Kemp getting his Bible at church/growing lots of tomatoes & peppers/moved my craft room upstairs in the big computer room/created a new downstairs guest room (finally! so, come visit!)/ celebrated Brad's birthday/worked on a huge Disney order for a customer (let's just say it paid well!)/ celebrated Donut day with the Hornes & Cullens/watching ,(by SKYPE mostly, Ella Kate growing by leaps and bounds)/ enjoyed having the SMALL FRYS (aka Powell and Blakely over to spend the night)/went TUBING down the Cahaba River with the Hornes and Michael, Kadie and Lily (and a slew of others. YES, I ruined my iPhone)/enjoyed the 4th of July with ONE little person (Daisy) despite rain/ looking forward to some mini-vacations coming up/Made Mimi a "memory board" so she can remember who visited; what day it is and what day of the week it is (I will need one soon!)/ enjoying Big T taking off a bit more from work ! 
So, so far, a great summer. Wish I could have ALL my Small Frys/Hornes/Cullens together in one place but, not this summer. But, hopefully, by this time NEXT year! Patrick will be out of the Navy and hopefully, they will be closer to home. I miss the days when we could all go to the beach together in the summer (back a few years ago), but we're all still connected "heart to heart". Most people don't understand how HARD it is to: 1. have your son deployed where you cannot talk to him for days on end and really not even sure where he is at times(it's a scary feeling) 2. have part of your family in another city : SAN DIEGO!!!!! And Huntsville! (Madison is only 2 hours away, but, you can't hop in the car and get there ,in a minute, either,! Plus the fact, Katie/Jon haven't lived by us since they were married except a brief time! I know it's hard for Katie and Kelley being away from family! AND it's hard on the grandparents as well!!) 3. have your mom across town--Mine is! (takes 30 minutes to get there and back,ugh).But, I can at least get there when needed....Now I promise to stop WHINING, there are those who have ALL their children in another state, (that would be the WORST),so just thankful for those we do have here and for those that are NOT, they are always in my heart and mind as well! I'm truly THANKFUL for the peace only God can give knowing some of my children are living away. Thankful for SKYPE and INSTAGRAM and other social media where we can stay connected most of the day. you People who have all your kids close by? Be thankful!....Having said that, LOVE Hoover/love our little lake and love living where we do. We talked about moving (which is why I started cleaning out all the bedrooms! LOL), but after looking around, decided we would ADD on/do some fun new things to our house. KEEP CHECKING BACK! Hopefully, we will have some new things to see this FALL around the FRY CASTLE! HAHA!....As I read my devotional book today I was reminded how blessed I am. Truly blessed. With a great hubs/great kids/precious grands/sweet doggie/living on our little lake: LIFE CAN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS!
"I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."  (Genesis 28:15
 God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.