Can't believe it but don't have any great shots of Carolyn and her family from a couple of weeks ago when Marylee and I visited them...I'll close with those...You have better pics...send 'em my way! please, Marylee or Carolyn!

Last night we celebrated Patrick's birthday ( and my mom's birthday too, actually) . James was off work, so he came too, and we all had dinner at Mijo's. (Mijo's is a favorite place of ours that we used to eat at once and sometimes twice a week. But it had, believe it or not, been 4 weeks since we have eaten out!)

That's as a result of our new "diet" and exercise program that Jim and I are now involved in. We had fallen into the habit of almost always eating out and that had added a little more of the dreaded "belly fat" to each of us! But now we are eating much healthier and enjoying a better fit of our clothes, so that is terrific! The diet is the same one that we sort of followed back last year before we left on the first cruise (Western Caribbean). That was very successful for as long as we stuck to it but this time we have the added exercise plan that we did not have the first time. It includes "interval walking" every other day...and then a total body workout on the opposite days. We need to get with it though with the exercising...kind of not quite in the habit of doing that yet.

James is working hard at his job---training for assistant manager---still paying us back for the money we've loaned him and walking the straight path as far as we can tell.

Patrick is back after a week in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he was the program coordinator (both curriculum and worship services with the senior high students each night) for their mission trip this summer. In a couple of weeks he'll be serving as the dean of the camp at Glen Lake for the senior high summer camp in Glen Rose. Other than that he's struggling with trying to stick to the 'part-time' schedule that he is paid on at the church. He really needs another job but he doesn't want to give up the church job and he really needs a degree to get one of the full time positions that are available every once in a while.

I'm really enjoying the scrapbooking hobby--too bad I don't get paid to do my own stuff...but I really enjoy it! Our friends the Parishes just returned from a trip to Colorado and the Hardisons will be returning from a Caribbean cruise on Sunday. Makes me wish I could go now too...but our next cruise will be after Jim finishes the job he's assigned to right now...He has already booked us for a TWENTY-ONE DAY Meditterranean Cruise embarking from Barcelona, Spain and stopping in Rome, Athens, Ephesus, Cairo, Malta, and back to Barcelona, then to Morocco, Canary Islands, Portugal, and Spain with two nights in Paris on the way back home....It is going to be so very exciting!