A mother's love is warm and sweet..an everlasting spring...Ben Burroughs

This past week has been a very busy one, indeed. Last Saturday, we had a big birthday bash in honor of little grandson Jack's second birthday. It was a lovely party with balloons, a pretty M & M birthday cake, ice cream, and of course M & M's. Family and friends celebrated along with several other little children that will be Jack's little buddies when he gets older. There were three of them there, two little boys, and the cutest red-headed little girl you've ever seen. All born within one month of each other. This is the first time we had the opportunity of getting them together at one time. They were simply hilarious! Jack loved his cake and running around, but could have cared less about the presents, his mommy and daddy had to do the honors of un-wrapping his loot. He would amble up and observe what was being unwrapped and then would grab it, if it was toys, certainly not the clothes. Of course, the three toddlers always wanted the one toy that someone else had. M & M's were eaten by the handful. By the time the party was over, those three were so sugared up, I'm sure they were bouncing off the walls, but oh, what fun! It was decided that Jack would come to grandma and paw paws house for his nap, as mommy and daddy wanted to put away all the birthday loot. When we got to our house, we did a little relaxing and un-winding before I tried the nap, oh yes, we had a badly needed diaper change too. Up stairs we went and sat down in the rocking chair with blankie and tried to "rocky rock", as grandma calls it. As soon as his little head hit my shoulder, he started saying, "mama, mama". Then he switched to "dada, dada". Well, he wasn't having anything to do with a nap. I called mama and told her that her little birthday boy wasn't having anything to do with taking a nap. Too much sugar, I bet. The next day, on Sunday, there was another birthday party up in Pekin with the other grandparents and their side of the family. Jack has the privilege of being the first grandchild and first great-grandchild on all sides, so let's just say he got plenty of clothes and toys for his birthday. On Monday, the Radio Station took a bus trip to Nashville, Indiana. We left Gibson City at 6:00 am. It was raining hard when we left Gibson City and I know several of our "guests" were concerned that the day was going to be a "wash". We assured them that we had checked the weather forecast for Nashville and it was supposed to be a lovely, sunny day. We had a really great group of people that day that followed our directions perfectly, made it back to the bus when we stopped and made it back by 4:00 pm to travel back home. The day turned out to be just as the weatherman predicted, warm and sunny. Nashville is a beautiful, picturesque village with some quaint shops and restaurants. The town itself is very pretty and well-kept. The homes are old, painted very prettily and turned into shops. It is worth the trip to visit this cute little town. I managed to get a beautiful necklace and earring set for a steal and I also found the cutest Christmas outfit for Jack. We ate at a nice restaurant for lunch, had a delicious bowl of french onion soup. Mmmm good. The funny thing was, when we got back to Gibson City, around 7:30pm it was raining still. It was so nice to get away from dreary, rainy weather, if even for the day. Tuesday brought a busy day of work and I had Jack all day, when I went to take him home, I found two very sick people, named mama and dada laying about looking like death warmed over. They both had the flu, the achy, sore throat, fever, coughing, miserable flu, so back out the door I went with little Jack, he was banned from his home until his parents recovered. He spent the night Tues, went to my mother's Wed am, and spent the night Wed night, all day Thursday. His parents felt like they had re-joined the land of the living by Thurs. night. Grandma was bushed. Wed and Thurs nights I was in bed by 9 pm, I also had a ton of extra work and the station this week, so let's just say, it's been one mighty tiring week. We did manage to get Jack off to Paxton to get his flu shot this afternoon, so hopefully it will "kick in" a few weeks from now. This flu they had was bad, and so early in the season. I have since talked to lots of people who either have been ill with it, or know someone else that has had it. Anyway, we mother's do what we can to take care of our families when they become ill. Believe it or not, I very rarely get ill with anything, don't know if it's because I have taken care of so many "sick" people that I have built up immunity to it or just that the germs know they won't have a fighting chance on this tough mother and grandmother. No flu germs are gonna stop me. Or maybe it's because I just keep telling myself, "I can't get sick, I can't get sick." Too many people depending on me, gotta stay healthy. There is lots to do and I just plain refuse to get sick, of course, I do drink lots of water, get my rest and try to eat right. We mothers have to stay strong and healthy for our families. They depend on us. On the occasion that I am a "little under the weather", I don't let it stop me, I'm just like that "energizer bunny" that just keeps on "going and going". Here's to all you mothers and grandmothers out there who have tirelessly taken care of all the "ill" people in your households all these years. My only question is, just who's gonna take care of me, if and when I get sick? Knowing my luck, the rest of them will get sick at the same time and will be worse than me so I will be dragging myself across the floor to make them tea and toast. So, all of you mothers and grandmothers out there, take good care of yourselves, get your rest, eat your veggies, drink your water, take your vitamins, cause this fall and winter looks like it's gonna be a doozy and we are going to be real busy playing "Florence Nightingale".