Summer's Last Hurrah!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. We did! We left last Thursday morning and drove to Benton and spent the evening visiting with Warren and Linda. It was so good to see them. Our last visit had been at Ricky and Amber’s wedding. That’s too long! It was good to see for ourselves that Linda is doing ok. She still has a good way to go, but she is moving in the right direction. We are SO thankful that she is on the mend!

We drove on up to Russellville Friday morning and got there just in time to take Amber out for lunch. Afterwards, she took us to the house that they are fixing to move into. The duplex that they have been living in has a lingering cigarette smoke odor from the previous renter, so their landlord let them out of their lease. The new house is larger and will meet their needs much better. We set up the cradle Dennis made in Archer’s room. It was exciting to start making baby preparations! Just 12 more weeks! Amber is so cute with her baby bump!

The cradle with a few baby things I brought

Saturday, we went exploring north and west of Russellville. We headed up on Hwy 21 out of Clarksville. We saw some gorgeous countryside! Ricky knew about this little hidden gem of a restaurant near Jasper, The Low Gap Café. We stopped there for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the food! Then we circled around and took Hwy 7 back to Russellville. It was a full day and lots of fun!

We enjoyed assembling with the church at Clarksville Sunday. It was so good to visit with everyone! After the morning service, we went out to eat with Charles and Belinda, then spent the afternoon visiting at their house. After services that evening, a big group of us went out to eat supper together. We truly enjoyed catching up with everyone and sharing a lot of laughter together!

Monday morning, we and the kids drove up to Mount Nebo…such a beautiful drive! We did a little light hiking and then heading back down to Dardanelle for a quick lunch. We went back to visit some more with Charles and Belinda that afternoon, then they took us out for some delicious pizza for supper at the Brick Oven. We really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with everyone!

Yesterday morning we began the long drive home. Even though it is only supposed to be a 7 hour drive, we were on the road from 9 to 5. We like to stop every couple of hours or so to stretch and walk around a little. These old bones get pretty stiff and sore from riding! Then we hit Springtown right after school let out, so we were hung up in traffic for close to an hour there! UGH! That town has been a mess for a good long time and is actually even worse right now. We like to avoid the Metroplex by coming home via Hwy 51, but we may change that until they get the roadwork finished there!

It was great to get home! I love traveling…seeing new places and visiting with loved ones…but I always love coming back home. It feels good to get back into my regular routine and start eating healthier and exercising again. I really tried to eat smart on our trip and did ok (with a few exceptions), but it is hard to limit my calories when we are eating out all the time. Plus I couldn’t get my exercise in or get in my step goal with all of the riding around we were having to do. This is going to be a life-long journey for me, so it has to be sustainable…which means eating food that I enjoy that isn’t exactly good for me occasionally. I have spent my whole life dieting and losing weight, only to regain it and then some. I’m getting too old to continue doing that! I am finally resolved to eating healthy and being more active from here on out to try to maintain my health as long as possible. My weight loss program (Noom) encourages us to be transparent with our goals, so we are accountable to more people. So y’all are part of my support people!

My laundry is calling me. Take care, be safe, and be kind!