My Birthday!! And the day after......I'm still basking in the glow....

Yesterday was my 71st birthday!

Summer picked me up here at the ranch and we spent the entire day together.

We were heading to a tea room for lunch when my oldest son called to wish me a happy birthday.

We had the nicest chat! Jesse is a coffee lover and explores the world of great coffees like some people love great wine.

I knew I would love this place as soon as I saw this sign!

Summer always smiles even though she wants to cry.

She was in pain but managed it as well as possible and pushed through it in order for us to have our day together.

There were so many things to chose from on the menu!

I went with a Greek Salad and Summer had the fruit salad with cottage cheese.

It was such a fun place!

Quirky, ecclectic and it had a charming ambiance.

We spied this as we were being led to our table.

Since we ate such healthy lunches - we opted to share a banana pudding!

The tea room is surrounded by all sorts of small shop like places.

Little halls and alcoves and such are filled with charming clothes, candles and all sorts of things.

I loved this tea towel!

Summer bought this for me as my birthday card.

I have placed it beside my chair here in the camper so I can see it and remember our day.

I am so thankful that she is proud of me!

Of all the ones in my family, Summer is the most gracious.

She remembers only my good traits and forgives and forgets all my faults.

I want to be more like her!

After our lunch we drove around Waco doing a few errands when we saw this cool vintage Gulf station. As far as we could tell, it's a place someone bought and restored to keep their antique things in. It's not a business nor a residence. It would be fun to research this a little more and find out if they rent this out or is it a personal place? Whatever it is - it's very cool!

While we were out and about, Amber and the kids called. I answered and they all started singing Happy Birthday to me! How sweet was that? Amber told me she had wanted to pop down here and surprise me but, alas, real life situations got in the way. I totally understand. I have had four birthday parties in my 71 years. Three were given to me by Amber - one a surprise party on my 50th birthday when she was only 14 years old. The fourth was my 65th birthday party given to me by Summer!

Next up?

Downton Abbey!

I got a free popcorn for my birthday and Summer had credits for a free Coke!

We settled back and thoroughly enjoyed the movie!

Everyone in the audience did!

We all laughed and clapped throughout the film and at the end.

As soon as we got in the car - Rayne and Sabrina called me and THEY were singing Happy Birthday!

It was so sweet to hear from so many friends and family throughout the day.

It was time to head to our monthly bee meeting and Summer and I met up with Sherry there.

We transferred my shopping things to Sherry's truck and Summer went back to Linda's (a family friend here in Waco) to rest and recover from being out and

about all day.

I will just give you a brief update on Summer since so many of you have been praying for her over these last three years. She visited her doctor who did the epidural that gave her six days of pain free living and then slowly shifted back to the condition she was in before. They can do one more injection. Then that's the end of the road. The one and only option that is available at this time - and was NOT even available a year ago - is a surgery that will work kind of like a ...well....I don't even know how to explain it. The surgery was designed as a last resort for situations like Summer's where there has been so much nerve damage and there's no way of locating it all.

There is a chance she could end up in a wheelchair. But you know what? That's not as bad as it sounds. She could have a life again without all the pain. Lots of people have full and active lives in a wheelchair. I do thank you for all the prayers that have been prayed for her.

I trust that God has a plan and that Summer will once again have her life back!

In or out of a wheelchair. At this point - if she could live with just half the pain she has now - she would sparkle and shine in life!

I wasn't the only one having a birthday today!

The president of our Bee association turned 65!

He was surprised to find out there was cake and ice cream after the meeting to celebrate and honor him.

THAT is a perfect cake for Gary!

Sherry took me to Case Ole for dinner after our meeting and that made for a perfect ending 

to my 71st birthday.  I loved every minute of it from the moment I woke up that morning.

Thank you for all the happy birthday greetings on Facebook and in the mail.

I am so thankful for every single one of them!

We got back to the ranch about 10:00.

Dean and Louis Dean were sitting on the front porch so Sherry and I joined them for a little while before we all said our good nights and we came in and went to bed.

I slept so well and so long!

This has been a good Wednesday at the ranch.

It's our last 'normal' day here this month.

I painted the last of the projects I had planned on painting today and that was a good feeling.

They are not all finished but they are all right on schedule.

As soon as Sherry got off work today, she and I went down to do our September beehive inspections.

We got the smoke going before we donned our bee suits. It was in the 90's today.

Thankfully, the hives were sitting in the shade by the time we got there.

Louis Dean drove us over in his truck. Walking even a quarter mile suited up is not a good thing.

I was really looking forward to this because we were going to inspect the brood boxes as well as the supers. The top supers had been cleaned out and there were some bees up there but, according to Gary at the meeting last night, they are there to patrol.

The second super was healthy in both hives.

They are drawing out comb and there is honey in there.

This will be important to the bees this winter.

We went on down to the brood box and found everything as it should be there.

While we did not SEE the queen, we did see capped brood and evidence of the queen.

We saw brand new bees with still white wings. And we saw larvae.

Sherry brought a queen clip but we didn't get to use it.

The hives appear to be healthy.

We will be treating for mites in the next month and we hope to watch another beekeeper as he re-queens his hives. I think you typically re-queen every two years so it will be a good experience for us before we have to do it ourselves next year.

Tonight I packed up all my art to take back home and cleaned up the table.

I put the centerpiece and place settings back and my week of art is now over.

Tomorrow I will start at one end of the camper and clean all the way to the other end before going down to the front room and doing the same thing out there.

We leave here on Friday but not to go home just yet.

Louis Dean's great granddaughter Bella, is having her Two Year Old  birthday party on Saturday!

They live in Big Springs and we already have hotel reservations there so we can join the party!

We are looking forward to spending a few days with Chandy and her family.

I am certain she and her granddad are going to make some beautiful music together.

They always do whenever they get a chance.

I close tonight's journal entry with this pic of my grand dog Rufus.

He comes down here fully expecting an extra special treat and I try never to fail him in providing one. Even if I have to give him something I was saving for Louis Dean and a midnight snack.

I mean - just who could resist your GRAND dog???

Not I!!!

Goodnight, Folks!!!

Thanks again for all the birthday greetings.

Who KNEW getting old could be so much fun???