Family Time

(written and posted on Saturday)

I came home for the night tonight.  Holly got someone to cover her shift at work, and we drove down to Swansboro this afternoon because the family was having a dinner for Mommom's birthday.  It's a really fast trip; Holly has to be back at work tomorrow at 3:30, so we're leaving in the morning.

The dinner was delicious.  My uncle steamed oysters and clams, which is one of my grandma's favorite things to eat, and he grilled chicken and beef kabobs.  I ate some of all of that.  Plus, there was salad, and rice, and broccoli.  I ate salad, and actually completely forgot about the rice and broccoli.  But it was good, because there was also cake.  Best food I've eaten since......well, since I was home for Spring Break, haha.  Seriously, though, a college student will take any excuse to get a home-cooked meal.

We hung out outside for a while after dinner, and let Blake run around in their soccer pen with a ball.  It was so we could get him all nice and tired. :p  Holly got in there and played with him.  I sat and enjoyed the fire in my uncle and aunt's fire pit and roasted a marshmallow. Then, I remembered I don't like roasted marshmallows.  (Smooth, I know.)  Then, I tried something I've never tried before, and I realized that I had just found a gift from God in food form.

NUTELLA


I know, what took me so long?!?! I wanted to say "Well, hello, darling, where have you been all my life?" (Okay, maybe not.)  When I go grocery shopping at the end of the month, I am DEFINITELY buying some of that chocolaty, hazelnut-y goodness. Yum.

Now for the not-so-good news.  Mom found out she's got Pernicious Anemia, which is when your body does not absorb Vitamin B-12 properly.  That explains why she's basically done nothing but sleep outside of work for weeks.  So she'll be getting shots for the rest of her life, weekly for a while, then monthly once they get her level where it needs to be.  It's also genetic, and her dad's mom's dad died from it, her dad's mom had it, her dad's sister has it, her dad might have had it but they don't know because he was never tested.  It's yet another auto-immune disease, which isn't all that surprising since we've said for as long as I can remember that Holly's the only one with a good immune system in this family.  (Ironically, she's sick right now.)  So yeah, if you could pray for a restoration of health for her, and for peace and strength because I can tell she's worn down and angry about all she's having to deal with health-wise on top of everything else right now, I'd really appreciate it.