I have the best mother-in-law anyone could have. She is so generous as to have shared her birthday of September 1st with me ever since Roy and I were dating. Over the years, we have had some great celebrations together. We are so blessed that both sides of our family get along so well. The times our extended families have gotten together, it’s clear that we don’t just get along well, but we enjoy the company of one another. We share the laughs, the stories, and life together. As time has gone on, we aren’t able to have group celebrations as much, but we still try to keep up the best we can. When I first met Roy’s family and spent some time getting to know them, it was clear that one of their strengths was their sense of humor. The whole family. It didn’t take long for me as shy as I was then to loosen up around them and enjoy being with them. They reached out to me and made me feel a part of their family from early on. I didn’t realize just how big a blessing that was till years later. A good sense of humor can get one through a lot of things. Our families have celebrated Thanksgiving together, also. Our house is about halfway between where Roy’s mom, and my parents live, so it made it easy to meet here in the middle. All of our get-togethers are at least part potluck. We coordinate it as best we can just so we don’t double up on something or find ourselves missing something. Our families have about the same taste in food, and we happen to all be from the south, so it’s easy to please everyone. Everyone brings something to contribute. It’s part of the sharing of our families with one another. I have loved the times we had our house full to over flowing with family. One of my favorite get- togethers was on my 40^th birthday, and Kathleen’s 64^th. She has tried several times over the years to make the birthday just about me so I could have my own. So far I have thanked her, and managed to see that she be included anyway. Leading up to this particular birthday, I was trying to cover all the bases to throw her a surprise party; not an easy feat since it’s on the same day as mine. I was doing really well, and she didn’t know about it, yet. I made the birthday cake, and put her name on it, and kept asking Roy if he was sure she didn’t know about it. As he assured me my secret was well kept, everything was on schedule the day of. Then he made a slip of the tongue. I don’t remember what he said, but it rang loud enough that I had to ask, “OK, so do I need to add my name to this cake, or not?” He couldn’t hold it anymore. Kathleen and I had been working with our families to throw one another a surprise birthday party. It was so much fun! We had a huge balloon bouquet, cake, grilled chicken, burgers, hot dogs, sausage, and all the trimmings you can think of, and the birthday cake we shared. I have a lot of great memories from over the years of my life. I’m happy to say that a lot of them include my birthday partner, my mother-in-law, who I have so much love and respect for. I’m truly blessed to have her and the rest of Roy’s family as my family, too. I’m looking forward to many more years to make a lot more memories.

Be very blessed, my friends.

(I will post a picture by tomorrow of that 40th birthday, or one more recent.)