Life Celebrations! Both Different and Both Beautiful!

All six Bells headed to Boston on Saturday.

Hockey camp for Harrison in Boston and hocky lessons in Connecticut for the girls.

Look how grown they are!!

They will have a great week!!

Saturday was a true celebration for the life of Vernon Wendell West.

Louis Dean and I arrived and the street was lined with cars on both sides.

There was a canopy set up with grills going and chairs lined the driveway.

People were laughing and talking and smiling and there was so much joy and love even in the midst of sorrow.

I met many of my friend, Judy's, family I had not met before. Judy is to the left and her best friend is on the right.

Vernon and his wife, Debbie.

I met her through blogging and she adopted me into her family of girlfriends.

I love her and her mom like family.

She blogged for several years as Ladybug From Texas.

Debbie is a gifted photographer as well as worked side by side with her husband in their business.

To know this family is to love them and I do.

Louis Dean and I both agreed that this is the way we want to be remembered....

with love and laughter and joy and good memories.

The West family did it all right and was a tribute to a truly great man.

We had our Saturday night dinner and movie.

It's a tradition Ileeen and I started a long time ago and now Summer joins us so it's a bigger party and sometimes our friend, Shirley, joins us as well.

This is my all-time favorite movie.

I can quote nearly the entire movive by heart.

Our sweet Tabitha.

Summer brought lunch over for us on Monday.

Louis Dean was a happy camper!

He said, "LOOK! Even the hamburger is smiling!!"

In addition to lunch, Summer had researched online and ordered some Brod Bagert poetry books for him.

He was absolutely ecstatic!

We celebrated Ileen's birthday on Monday.

She has so many friends and here are some of them!

They all took her out for lunch!

Then we celebrated Monday night with dinner for her.

Ileen is such a good friend to me.

I tell her, "You make me feel normal."

And she does.....

It was a great evening.

Tuesday was an exciting day!

Muniz Tree Service arrived with a crew of five at 8:30 that morning.

They worked for three solid hours and worked magic!

They did a great job!

The canopy of both pecan trees were lifted.

We may not have a pecan crop this year as the trees may be in shock since we trimmed them out of season.

I think it was more important to get them done before storms bring down more limbs and branches.

Every time it comes a hard rain, the yard is littered with tree debris.

They even cleaned out our gutters and blew decks off AND left the yard looking better than ever!

The crew was gone by the time I left to thrift with Brenda.

I found some real treasures.

This is going to a special friend for her birthday.

I'm hoping these Sheetlock things work!

Most mornings I wake up and the sheets have come loose - on Louis Dean's side of the bed.

This candle smells delicious and has some bling in the soy wax.

Guess where I hung this sign?

YUP! Louis Dean's John Wayne style bathroom.

I scored big on the Lovery bath set and this will make a good Christmas gift for someone I know.

You can't have too many good books.

Brenda found this for me as well as a Chico's jacket that was 75% off!

To finish up my finds - a sweet lemon candle and fancy napkin rings AND a pair of classy earrings.!!

All in all it's been a good week and it's not over yet!

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers.

Some days are better than others but every single day is the day the Lord has made and we will be glad and rejoice in it!