It's a New Year: 2017!

How did I become such an inconsistent blogger? I didn't do so well in 2016, and the first month of 2017 is almost history. I guess there just hasn't been much going on......

Well, Cool did have her shoulder replaced, and two and a half weeks later she was back in the operating room under general anesthetic having her heart worked on. When I think about it, that was big news, and we were all concerned about her, covering her with prayer. She is doing well, which is not to say she did not suffer. But prayers were answered. God is good.

Come to think of it, Elletu had her gallbladder removed two weeks ago. She had been suffering a lot and hadn't mentioned it to us. I went to the hospital with her and got to meet her doctor. He handled things well, and she is now gallbladder-less and already back to work, which is not to say she did not have her tough times during her recuperation.

We had our monthly BVG night last night, and besides dinner and watching a cute movie, "In-lawfully Yours," we had a chance to catch up on surgeries, j's Christmas trip to Texas to be with her family, etc. Later, the BVB's returned to my house after their dinner prepared by 'Chef Bill-R-Bee' (Cool's husband), quite possibly the world's best cook. It always makes us Sisters happy to see how the guys have their special camaraderie. I know it means the world to my husband.

And then early this afternoon the text came from Cool---her mother-in-law had passed away just an hour earlier, at the age of 86. The rest of us have all lost both of our parents already. Bill's mom is the last. We all know the sadness, the emotions as his family (two sisters, one brother) gathers together to mourn the loss of their mother. Our hearts collectively go out to them, as we pray for God's peace to surround them at this difficult time.

I think back to my own mother's memorial service 35 years ago this coming August. My children were five and two. It was before I was pregnant with my third child. My heart was broken. I was emotionally drained. The service was held at my family's church in Seattle, and I played the piano for it, the very piano my mother had played the previous Sunday.

After the service I was greeting people who had come to honor my mother, and then there they stood before me, the Bethel Valley Girls. They came all the way from Port Orchard, and we hadn't even known each other all that long. The thing is, God already knew that 35 years later we would still be friends. Sisters. Family forever.

Now is our time to embrace Cool and her husband is the loss of his mother. We love you both!

May 1: Greek Easter, Our 40th Anniversary and a BVGO Reunion All Rolled Into One!

Much has happened since this photo was taken on May 1, 2016. I was hospitalized with double pneumonia and a severe asthma attack and have been slowly recovering during the past five weeks. The passage of time and all the medications pumped into my body have not dulled my recollection of the fun celebrations that preceded this untimely turn of events.

So, about this photo. It was taken at my daughter's house in San Mateo, CA, where my husband and I had gone to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Cool and her husband joined us in San Mateo, not only to celebrate our milestone anniversary but also to experience Greek Easter at our daughter and Greek son-in-law's house. Our two sons came from Seattle and North Carolina, and our Seattle daughter-in-law and their two children came was well. Our family actually had a week-long family reunion at our daughter's house. Cool's son lives in Sacramento, and he and his girlfriend drove down for Greek Easter as well, making possible another BVGO reunion. And that is what this photo depicts, my three grown children with Cool's oldest son (the tall one) after decades apart.

Time flies while life is happening.