Visit Home and Back

A short pause was placed on our blogging in June due to our vacation travels from Sweden back to the US.  We are now back in Stockholm and are providing a quick summary of our wanderings in the States.

Family Reunion

We timed our travel primarily to attend the yearly family reunion so we could celebrate Jay’s Mom’s 90^th birthday.  

Mom's sister Ginny, Mom and Ellen

Four generations - Oldest & youngest

We had cake, sang Happy Birthday and marveled at the sight of generations mingling with the family matriarch.   

We also gave Midge a birthday gift of a day of yard work.  Her mind is still sharp, but her body is no longer willing to participate in the stooping and pulling needed to beat back Mother Nature’s desire to grow weeds in flower beds.  Our restoration of a pachysandra bed around the stump of an apple tree that once provided shade and climbing joy for Jay and his brother Keith was greeted with hugs and an unending stream of “thank you’s.”  We were glad we could give her a present she truly wanted.

Home Sweet Home

After four days in New Jersey we headed to our home in Roswell, Georgia.   Here we had an opportunity to give our kids hugs and extend our many thanks to them for taking care of our two dogs and two cats.  It was nice to be back among family and friends and have our pets follow us from room to room reconnecting with us as though we had never been gone.

We conducted our own battles with Mother Nature regarding her weed growing and branch dropping habits, but it was nice to be back puttering about in our own yard. 

Choir members at UUCA

There were also several breakfasts and lunches where we had chances catch up with friends.  We happily accepted the many hugs at church on Sunday.  When asked, “Are you back?” we replied we still have a year to go on our Swedish adventure.

Even Janice, our friendly cashier at our local Kroger greeted us with a warm Southern “Hey!” and noted that she had not seen us for a while.  We shared our story about living in Stockholm.  As we finished purchasing our groceries for a family dinner she bid us safe journeys adding, “You two live a storybook life.” 

On Sunday at a family dinner, all our kids and grandson were with us and we held a combined celebration of Jay’s birthday, Sean’s birthday and Father’s Day.

On Monday bags were re-packed.  Supplies of vitamins, peanut butter, lotion and other day-to-day products that are just so expensive in Stockholm were strategically placed in our luggage, pushing our airline weight limits to the max. 

Many hours later, we opened our apartment door and were greeted by Millie, our landlord’s cat, who lives with us. She follows us about…but it’s just not the same.