Last Sunday we hosted our first annual block party at our store. It was an amazing way to connect with customers in a way we don't normally get to. It was also very hot and we went home pretty tired.
Monday we got up early to get to the store in time to kick off our annual anniversary sale. It was a lot of details: giveaways and raffles, balloons and starbursts, etc., etc. We have fantastic managers who make all of this relatively easy, but it is still a lot to see to. And invariably something doesn't work or the ice cream machine refuses to actually let you get ice cream out or something.
Tuesday morning at 1:30 Keith and I left our house to pick up friends then fly to Georgia for a funeral. By 10:30{ish} I was hugging the friends in Georgia I could not wait to hug. We had lunch and spent time with the family of the 98-year-old saint, Thelma Yoder, who had passed away. Some seemed a bit confused that we were at the family events, but anyone who knew us when we lived in GA wasn't confused at all.
Within a short time of my family meeting Jerry and Thelma Yoder back when I was 10 or 11they told us to call them as Grandpa And Grandma Yoder. When we visited GA while still living in TX they had family gatherings as if one of the children had come home to visit, and when we moved to GA they invited us to every family get together and holiday. We were family, they were family. So when Thelma passed away many years since we had been to a Yoder family gathering, we slipped right back in, family.
Anyway, the rest of Tuesday was spent with the Yoder family. We stayed with part of the Yoder family who actually bought the place we lived in when we lived there. Keith and I skipped going back to the evening viewing and took a 4-wheeler ride around the old home place before going to bed nice and early.
Wednesday was the funeral, but first Keith got up and went to a Bible study with one of our friends there {the one who owns our old house and whose place we were staying at}, which ended up being a highlight of the trip for Keith. Then it was the funeral, which was such a sweet experience, even if the graveside service was brutally hot. One little girl fainted from the heat. I kept feeling things get fuzzy and my ears were ringing so I decided to go in before I followed suit.
We had to leave for home before the memory sharing had really even gotten started. I heard the Yoder brothers sang together after we left, and I am sorry to have missed that since it is something I always think of when I think of them. But I am just so grateful to have been able to go. My parents and oldest sister were also there, which was just an added benefit.
We arrived home at around 2:30 Thursday morning. Keith left the house at 7 to go to the store. I slept in a couple of hours longer, but made it there by 10:30 to be sure I could get the hotdogs ready to serve by 11 since we were offering $.50 hotdogs as part of our anniversary sale.
Friday and Saturday were insanely busy at the store, which we are so thankful for, but we are also just happy to be on this side of it!
After all of the crazy busyness it seems I have suffered a bit of a relapse in recovering from surgery. So it is back to bed for me for a few days, at least until my appointment on Wednesday. I'm hoping it is just a minor bump in the road!
