Thursday, April 10, 2008

Happy Birthday! A few short years ago a beautiful baby girl was born. She was absolutely the most beautiful baby I had ever seen in my life! She was mine. The first time I went to the nursery (there was no such thing as having the baby in your room in Grand Island, NE) that beautiful baby girl of mine was propped up on her arms looking around with her chest about three inches off the bed. She was one very strong baby and to this day she is one very strong young lady! The next time I went down she was all cuddled up sleeping with her thumb in her mouth and was just as content as possible. To this day, there is nothing like a good long nap to make Melissa feel happy and content! Great memories of a great daughter! I've been working my self way too hard for someone that has only four days of freedom left. A week ago today Bruce and I drove to the lake after he got off work. After a long week of apartment shopping for me and a long week of working for Bruce, we were ready for some relaxation. I hadn't been to the condo since mid-September so when I walked in it was like entering a palace. I had a whole new appreciation for the condo. Friday we went to town in search of the perfect countertops and paint. It was always our plan that when we returned to the condo (whenever that would be) we would get new counterops to replace the very ugly blue formica and we would have the whole place painted. Friday evening we enjoyed dinner with four good friends from the complex. Saturday we met with the painter and gave him an idea of what we wanted. We also got to tour the Taylors and the Andrews condos. They've been remodeling and redecorating all winter and it shows. WOW! They used the same countertop guy and he's from Olathe (where we are living now) so we were set. We had a painter and a countertop guy. You see, most people avoid laborers from the Ozarks at all cost. Fishing, hunting, sleeping, drinking and whatever is almost always more important than working! Saturday night almost everyone that was at the complex for the weekend met at the clubhouse for a Final Four party. We had a great time getting caught up with lake friends. Suddenly it was Sunday and time to head back to the city. I can't even remember what I did Monday and Tuesday, but it was a lot. Tuesday night our whole family met at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Melissa's birthday. A good time was had by all! Wednesday morning we took possession of our new apartment and I started the process of moving in. I'm REALLY tired of moving! It was fun when I was moving Amy but it is NOT fun now. Amy came over last night and we enjoyed our first "home-cooked" meal in our new apartment. Actually it was frozen food from a bag that we ate while standing at the bar because we have no furniture! The best part is the two-car attached garage. We left the cad and the VW in the garage last night and used the Envoy to haul yet another load of junk from the motor home. It's hard to believe that we had so much stuff packed in that thing. Bruce says it is no wonder we get such lousy mileage. We're carrying around an extra 10 ton stuff. I'm scabbing Internet off of someones unsecured network at the apartment complex so I'm not going to download pictures but I actually did take some! Stay tuned.