The Best Date

Today is Mom's birthday, and how nice to have Uncle George with us on her special day.  I left work early to help celebrate, all of us going out to a place Mom's been wanting to return to:  Texas Roadhouse.  We all sat down at a table there, super close to other tables for no apparent reason given there was plenty of room elsewhere.  But other than that, it was a fine meal, and we had a great time.  Mom even got a 8 ounce steak versus the usual six ounce steak.  She's trying to get more protein and calcium in that diet, and that's going to be a theme for quite some as we attempt to build up that bone density.  I got Mom a few things for her birthday, one of them a container of a perfume that she used to have.  It was one she used when we were first seeing each other a few years ago, so I thought I'd bring back that fragrance.  Anyway, she had a good day.  

We dropped Maddie off at the church for FCY tonight, and she had a good time there with some of her taekwondo friends.  But as you can see above, she got to say goodbye to Tytus, who is moving down to South Alabama to work at a church down there, as well as a hospital. He's also got a little girl on the way, his newlywed wife now expecting soon.  It was a bittersweet goodbye.  But there was a moment of hilarity when Tytus had me film a special message for Maddie.  You see, over a year ago Tytus made the mistake of saying on stage, "Would you shut up!"  It was part of a skit, and he was supposed to say, "Please be quiet!" Or something like that.  But he blurted out the wrong thing, and it was a huge mistake on his part that Maddie had a recorded copy of.  She laughs at it all the time, so Tytus shared this special parting message for Maddie:

It was a funny moment!  We'll miss Tytus, of course.  But we'll see him a few more times this summer as he comes back for a few things like Forward and Summer Xtreme.  As for FCY, the theme of the month is about listening to the youth, so as you might suspect, the pastors are taking a small break from speaking to allow some youth to share testimonies and sage advice.  Maddie enjoyed the evening, of course.

So yes, it's Mom's birthday today, and we were recounting to her the story of her first date with me.  It was 1998, and I saw that she just wanted someone to take her out to eat for her birthday.  So I did, and I got her a rose, arranging for it to be on the table ahead of time.  She liked that very much, and in fact had prayed for just that - unbeknownst to me.  I was just doing the nice thing, taking her out to eat.  But over the course of that one meal, God arranged something wonderful, and finally put my soul at ease.  I wanted to see more of her.  We talked and talked and it grew late, and I went home a different person.  We dated a few years, and there was no on-and-off.  But it all started right there that night.  It was the beginning of a week where I think I saw her each night - there was going to our first movie together ("Godzilla"), and then heading to her place to just sit at the dock and go fishing. There was our graduation service.  There was a big fancy date night at Papadeaux's.  It was quite a week!  I was hooked.  So to this day, her birthday is not only a celebration of the day she was born, but it's also a celebration of that one amazing night - now twenty-four years ago.  Wow.

 

It was a good day.  I was at work.  Mom and Uncle George spent a good bit of the day with a lawyer, working out the correct and legal way to deal with the trust fund.  We weren't quite sure and wanted to do it right.  That is to say, we didn't want to get into trouble for something we had no idea how to do.  Anyway, all that's somewhat settled now.  We should be moving forward, and as a bonus, Uncle George was working out a few things too.  

Tonight he and Mom were watching Planet of the Apes movies.  He hasn't seen the last few, and so he did some catching up.  Maddie was at FCY, so he and Mom were reviewing the last few movies.  In fact, Maddie and I got home as they were halfway through "War of the Planet of the Apes." It's still a great movie.  Very emotional!

We read this evening, and we prayed too.  Maddie gets to sleep in again, so she's good staying up.  She's been doing virtual school all week, getting assignments done for various classes and staying on top of things.  She's also playing video games and watching videos online.  Nothing wrong with that!

After prayers, it was time for bed.  It's been a good day.  May the 8th is a very good date.  May 8th is the best date of all.