Celebrating! Friends, Birthdays and our Gazebo!

Friends are so very important and I am ever so grateful for all the friends God has brought into my life. One such friend is Dawn down in Florida.

It seems like I have known her forever but it's actually been since 2010 when I started my online journal blog. We have bonded from the very beginning.

Dawn sends care packages and birthday presents and 'just because' things throughout the year.

Look what arrived in the mail this morning!

For whatever reason, I have started reading books like a mad woman who just discovered reading for the first time. I am tearing through books like I have never done before.

This one will read before you can turn around good.

It's like I am hungry for reading.

The background is a couple of beautiful fall napkins that I am going to love using.....and maybe not for napkins. Alas, Louis Dean discovered the candy and I was forced to hide it before he could eat it all. Just so you know - I think he forgot the pie. Too bad because it was very very GOOD! 

Just saying.....

Brenda is another dear friend and we have been getting together for lunch every month for years and years now. I guess since 2007......if my memory serves me right.

For a couple of years I worked in the same State Farm office with her and when I didn't work there anymore, we started our monthly lunches. We plan these because they don't happen unless we do.

I made a Taco Soup since I had all the fixings.

I was hoping for cooler fall weather but that didn't happen!

It was an extra special lunch since another dear friend of both of ours joined us.

Shirley is on the left and Brenda on the right.

We all three go WAY back in our friendships.

Don't you just love friends that you have known for so many years??

And don't you love just as much the new ones God has given you?

We need both.......

Brenda gave me this gorgeous fall pillow......

and this fragrant candle.

I use the gifts I am given as prayer reminders.....when I light this candle....I will say a prayer for my friend.

After Brenda and Shirley left, I cleaned up the kitchen and started the dishwasher and then did what I seem to be doing every day now - I went to bed to read and nap.

It was after 6:00 when I finally got up -  after finishing one book and starting another.

Louis Dean said he had completed the wiring in the gazebo and had started working on the pond area.

I went out to see all his progress and said NO, he had NOT finished the electricity.

The chandelier was not up.

Well, he made short work of that!

All he had to do was climb up on the ladder and hang it on the hook and plug it in!

I put on my work clothes and went out to see if I could clean up some things.

I pulled up so much of this......it is edible but it had grown everywhere out back since all the ground cover had been tromped to death.

Then I looked over at the gazebo and thought, "Why not clean THAT up??"

And so I did! WITH the help of Louis Dean, of course.

First we took out the ladder and all the tools that were scattered everywhere.

He blew off the rug and we put down the new one on top of the old one.

We plan to buy new outdoor furniture but for now we will use what we have.

Louis Dean is my hero!

He is as glad to have the gazebo back as I am.

Our Cracker Barrel rockers have been out in the middle of all the mess around here and will need sanding and repainting. But for now they will do fine with the 'new' cushions I bought last week at the Goodwill. Do you see the moon up there? It is gorgeous tonight. Friday the 13th will have a full moon.....Harvest moon......I can't wait! We will be out there in the gazebo watching.....

The rain curtains and netting will go up tomorrow.....but I added some lights tonight.

The round table is back up after being dismantled and held in the storage building for months and months. I am so happy to have this gazebo back.

So why not throw out some lights to celebrate?

And might as well add some decorations.

Surprisingly, all the lights that have been piled up and sitting around still worked!

So this day is done and it was a good one. 

And now it is time to go out to the gazebo for our evening glass of wine.

It's been a long, long time since we enjoyed it out there.

I'll close tonight with the poem I have had in my mind all afternoon.......