Happy Birthday, Dale!

This weekend has been spent celebrating my sweetie's birthday! Dale turned 44 on Saturday, June 9. We started the celebration on Friday night by going to Joyce's Restaurant in Fuquay with our best friends, Terrie and Roy. Can I just say "Yum! Yum!" Joyce's is a hole-in-the-wall place but the cooking is delicious! It is good ol' country cookin'!! Chicken pastry, fried chicken, collard greens, cabbage, string beans, corn, hush puppies, and the best candied yams I've ever eaten in my life! It is a family-owned establishment and they do a lot of cooking from scratch. It is delicious!! We waddled out of there and headed to Sunny Sky's Ice Cream in Angier. I didn't have have room at all but as we say here in the South, "the ice cream melts and fills in the cracks".

Saturday morning, Ashley and Jaclyn baked Dale a cake all by themselves--I knew nothing about it! They were tickled and very proud of their cake! It turned out very good!!

Saturday night we went to Dale's mom and dad's house to visit. Our family tradition is that the birthday guy or girl gets to pick where we go out to eat for his birthday. We rode over to Briar Cliff and spotted a Longhorn Steakhouse and pulled in. Dale was itching for a good steak. We were told it would be about a 10-15 minute so we stayed; however, the wait turned into a 45 minute wait. Dale's dad was getting antsy and even made a loop around the dining room to try to find out what was taking so long. When we were finally seated at the table, there was a complimentary plate of fried shrimp with peppers waiting for us. They were good!!

We had a good time, the food was great and we loved the atmosphere--it wasn't too loud. They brought Dale a huge dessert of something chocolate and we all dove it--it was big enough for all 7 of us. It was delicious!!

After dinner, we drove back to their house to finish our visit. About 9:30 we were getting ready to leave when a thunderstorm popped up and the electricity went out. It was pitch black so we began to feel around and look for matches, candles and oil lamps. As we sat by the glow of the lamp, the girls begged grandma and grandpa to tell them a story. We got a rare glimpse of their childhood as they each told a short story. Jaclyn said "this was a wonderful memory".

We got up today and went to church (Colonial Baptist--www.colonial.org). The music was wonderful as always and the sermon was excellent as always. Pastor Davey does such a wonderful job with his messages. After church, we drove to the "Cookout" and picked up hamburgers and hotdogs and went to the park for a picnic. It was a perfect day for a picnic! We had a great time swinging, playing on the playground and just enjoying being together as a family.

Now we are back home enjoying a quiet afternoon and I am reflecting. I am thankful for a loving, caring husband whose first priority is his family. He'd always rather be home with us then out every weekend on a golf course or have a career that takes him out-of-town every week. He loves me and his daughters so much; but he loves God first and I am so thankful for a Christian husband who leads our family according to the Bible. I am thankful that my in-laws adopted him 44 years ago and raised him to be such a wonderful person.

Enjoy your day with your family!
Love,
Glynis