Good morning to you all! Today is Jack's birthday so we are meeting Kelly and family at Olive Garden for his birthday dinner. Since I bought his birthday presents early for him, I just got him a card and a package of white chocolate Lindt chocolate balls. He loves white chocolate and doesn't get it very often so I thought he should be treated on his birthday.
Susan: So glad you had a nice birthday and nice plans for the weekend. I take Zantac for any heartburn flair ups. Do you have things that always give you heartburn? I always get heartburn when I eat jelly or jam of all things, tomato based products almost always do it, like pizza, spaghetti, lasagna and such. I rarely if ever get heartburn from very spicy foods though like things with jalepenos on it or stuff like that. I have Prilosec upstairs that I probably should start on as I hear it works pretty well.
Jean: Oh, it will be so much fun to have all your kids together this weekend. I am sure you will enjoy it even though the little ones will poop you out. They can celebrate your birthday with you if they are still there on Monday. I can knit by feel but I have to go slowly so I would say I knit looking at it. I am always afraid I will slip something or split a stitch if I knit without looking. I imagine I will start the next hat today. I usually give myself a rest day between them because it will make my hands hurt eventually.
Say a prayer for my nephew and my sister. He is the one that has prescription drug problems and supposedly been sober for awhile, but he hasn't been home since last Friday and he won't answer his cell phone and when my sister texts him he won't tell her where he is. That family is under some huge pressures of late and my sister now has some serious health problems with cysts on her ovaries and they found a spot on her uterus. Worrying about him will not help. They are in deep financial trouble and my bil has taken on a second job, but he has diabetes and he will be standing on his feet constantly as he is going to be working at Penneys. He is about 50 lbs overweight which won't help either.
Well, I need to get up and going. I have lots of chores to do today. Faye
to Jack! I think the kids will probably want to stay at the waterpark most of the time. Check in time is supposed to be 4pm, but the lady said to try around 2:00. When Bob called to confirm the reservations she said it wouldn't be full and they could probably get in before noon. They charge $5 if you just want to go in and watch . . . I'm hoping we can just go in for a few minutes to take some pictures w/o paying. Our tax dollars helped pay for the joint in the first place! I will keep your sister and her family in my thoughts and prayers. I can't imagine what it must be like to have an adult child addicted to drugs and not know where they are or how they are. I hope your sister and bil will be able to get through this without any major medical problems brought on by the stress. They have enough on their plate as it is. Living far away from them is hard on you too. 
from Iowa!
It's nice to see that instead of the "ho hum" attitude that some kids have. It's too cold to be outside in water. There is a huge outdoor waterpark (which closed before Labor Day when school started) connected to the hotel/indoor waterpark. There's also a big outside playground, a lighthouse ($5 if you want to climb to the top!), and a newly landscaped beach area where they had to cut down some really nice old trees. That set a lot of people against the whole project. We got state/federal money to fund this project, but it's also costing the local taxpayers too. It's been known that some people come once and then won't come back because there is nothing to do other than the waterpark and shop at WM! We are an hour away from a huge tourist attraction of two big lakes with lots of motels/hotels/condos/houses, an amusement park, fun shopping, and lots of eating places. That is where we have our cabin although we don't do the touristy stuff very often.