It’s been awhile since I shared any family updates, so I had a few pics to share and thought it would be a good time to update on my family and Mark’s. Thankfully, the last year has been relatively quiet. One year ago on July 4th, we lost Mark’s mom, Joan, and that made for a very sad summer last year. Earlier that year, we had lost my dad, so 2025 was a year of loss. We lost Mark’s sister, Kim, 2 years ago in August, so that’s always heavy on our minds as well. We’ve experienced loss as a family several times over the last 6 years and now all of our parents are gone. We miss them all so much, but life goes on and children don’t keep. These little ones in my family and Mark’s just keep on growing, as they should.
We had a delightful 4th of July weekend at home, celebrating on Saturday with 2 of Mark’s girls and 7 out of 10 of the grandchildren in the pool. It was a fun and busy day. Mark grilled hotdogs and hamburgers and we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon in the backyard and when it was dark we all got chairs out and parked them in our front yard in anticipation of the fireworks that started around 9:30. Our town of Acworth, does a wonderful fireworks display every year at Cauble Park by the lake. We have been there several times, either walking or riding our bikes because it gets very crowded and you have to park outside and walk in to find a spot to sit. It’s a nice celebration, but we enjoy it now from our driveway.
On Friday, night, we went over to our friends’ house, Mitch and Rita, friends from church. They live in Brookstone, a big neighborhood and they also do fireworks, so we saw fireworks 2 nights in a row. We have so enjoyed our new church we have been attending 3 years now, Kennesaw First Baptist, and have made some dear friends there. That’s Philip and Cathy on the far end, also local to Brookstone and our church.
The fireworks were great both nights! I so enjoyed seeing the huge 250th celebration of our nation’s birthday all over the country and loved the pageantry and patriotism that was displayed all over social media. I would have loved to have experienced some of the bigger ones, but being home in our small town was nice too. I’m just so glad we had a huge celebration this year for the momentous occasion of our 250th year of being a country. That is something BIG to celebrate, don’t you agree?! I’m not a soccer fan, but I sure did love seeing all the FIFA soccer fans coming to our country and experiencing it for the first time. They were raving about our country and I’m here for that!
We’ve had 2 little girls at our house for one day each week during the summer, as they are out of school and need places to go while their parents work, so Rose and Ivy have been over to swim in the pool. They, of course, love that! They are both growing like weeds, Rose is 8 and Ivy is 3. They had come from camp that morning.
For the 4th, we had 2 daughters over and son-in-laws and kids, so about 1/2 the Hendrix crew was there. The 7 kids in the pool had a rip-roaring time, as they always do in Pop’s pool. That’s what they call it!
We thankfully skipped the afternoon shower that we sometimes get during the summer and it was hot and humid, perfect for a pool day.
Count them, 7 in the pool, which makes for a lot of excitement and splashing. We have certainly enjoyed having this pool the last 4 years. This is actually our 5th summer with the pool open, which is so hard to believe! We had a 12 year old, two 8 year olds, a 6, 5, and two 3 year olds in the pool.
After we finished in the backyard, we all moved to the front, setting up chairs and one of the dad’s shot off some fireworks they had in the cul de sac, much to the excitement of those kids.
Then the big fireworks show started from Acworth and we enjoyed that big show as well. It’s always fun and this year seemed extra celebratory!
Meanwhile, my Louisiana crew spent the week of the 4th in Tennessee, enjoying the outdoors and seeing the sights in and ar0und Nashville. They first stayed in a state park lodge. I don’t know the name of it, but Lauren loved it. Her girls are getting so big! Parker is 12, Iris is 10, and Alex will be 6 next month. I can’t believe how big they are all getting. I sure do miss them and need to plan a trip down there again soon. I was there not long after my sister broke her femur in February, so I got to see them all then.
Update on my sister: I shared earlier this year that my sister, Renee, broke her femur, back in February, I think it was, so it’s been a long road for her of getting healed up. She’s been on a walker for months now and is just starting to put more weight on her leg. She had to go in last week to get some fluid material around her knee drained that had accumulated so she had another small surgery to clean that up. Now she will be healing again and we hope this time that it’s more speedy and she will be back up and going again before too long. She’s in her beautiful home by the lake recuperating, so it’s not so bad for her.
I love this pic of Lauren and family at the Gaylord Opryland hotel. I stayed here several times when I went to blog conferences back over 10 years so and loved it. It’s the coolest hotel! Yes, Parker is the same height as her mom!
Lauren said Alex loved sitting out on the balconies overlooking the gardens and all the people below. I remember that too!
They did some activities in downtown Nashville and said they had a great time. Lauren loves to travel with her girls and they have seen and done a lot in their young lives, which is great for them.
As far and Mark and I, we are enjoying our backyard pool and most days you’ll find us here, floating in the pool. I am known to take my book on the float too and enjoy reading. We’ve had some hot and humid days, so it’s nice to have a pool to cool off in, we are thankful we have it, even though it’s more work for Mark. He takes care of all our yard work as well as the pool, but we still have a pool company come in every 2 weeks to clean and check the levels for us.
As far and me and my hip surgeries, I’m now 1 year past the first one and 8 months past the 2nd, so I’m well on my way to complete healing. They say it takes a year to completely heal. I went to physical therapy for about 4 months for my lower back which was giving me fits after my second surgery, but it’s feeling so much better now. I am continuing to jump on my rebounder at least 5 to 6 days a week and love it! I feel like my legs are getting stronger and my balance is better too. I do 10 to 20 min. classes on my rebounder. I still go to the gym 2 or 3 times a week and lift weights for upper and body work, so I’ll continue to do that for now, but the girls I follow on rebounding classes, I Jump Instead, only do rebounding and they are both very toned 40 year old twins. So that’s encouraging to see they are building muscles too! I want to stay strong and have stamina, so that’s what I’m working on. Leg strength is so important as we age too, so that’s what I’ll work on as well.
Miss Daisy is 5 years old now and so rotten! She’s definitely a couch potato and I don’t make her go outside except later afternoon when it’s shady in the back, other than her walks outside to do her business. She continues to bring us daily joy and is a good puppy with an attitude.
She loves to watch the deer and other wildlife, so that’s why she wears this ball harness to keep her inside the fence. You can see why! She can slide right through that fence if she didn’t have them on.
That’s about it for us! We are heading to the beach in a couple of weeks, back to St. George Island with some of Mark’s family and we are excited about that. A week a the beach is always fun to look forward to, relaxing, reading, eating lots of seafood and just being together. In September, we head to England, Scotland, and Ireland, so we are very excited about that trip as well. It’s been over a year in planning and I can’t believe it’s finally almost here! We’ve never been to any of those countries and can’t wait to see them for ourselves. I hope you all enjoy a beautiful summer whatever you are doing. This is the time to relax and enjoy the season! I am loving the slowed down pace of life now and a relaxed attitude on blogging and social media. We love this stage of life!
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