more parties and ticks

Last thurs eve i had the priviledge of hosting my mom and her cousins for another birthday supper/celebration. This group of ladies have been going out together for years for each other's birthdays. they often celebrate 2 people at a time, so they don't go out 9 times a year! i told my mom i'd like to host it some year when it's her birthday, so she thought we should do that for her 60th. These ladies are so fun!

4 hours prior to the supper, i had no idea how i was going to make the table look. i put some things together and it worked out nice. The napkins look kinda red on the picture, they were more of a burgandy, like the rosehips.

Bet you can't tell they are related :)

Sunday eve we had a family reunion here, my grandmother's side of the family. There were around 50 people, the weather was so nice, praise God!
Some of the Stoltzfus gang.... Rod is working on perfecting his chicken BBQ. It was good! he discovered the longer it sits on the roaster after being cooked, the more tender and better tasting it is.
I so appreciate Rod's help these last couple weeks, i couldn't have done it all without his willingness to be with the boys, and help in other areas (like the dirty floors).

on to the ticks.....Earlier this summer, Ben had a funny looking 'rash' followed by flu-like symptoms and the dr. diagnosed him w/ lyme, which comes from deer ticks. I'm sure it was an accurate diagnosis, as none of the other kids got his "flu", and the rash and symptoms both cleared up after being treated. So now Friday night i spotted a deer tick on me, i saw it early in the day and thought it was a scab (in between my fingers). Then in the evening i was itching it and thought it felt different. It wasn't until i looked close that i saw legs. Deer ticks are about the size of a flea! they are so so small. Rod pryed it off of me right away and burned him. i gave it a couple days then went to the dr., it is 'puffy' where the tick was embedded. She gave me a one-time dose of something that is supposed to prevent you from getting Lyme, if taken within a certain window of time. The night before this happened i was talking to mom's cousin about ticks/lyme (she lives near the woods too). I think it was God's timing that this all took place after listening to her stories, i might have ignored the "scab" if she hadn't said that deer ticks look like a tiny scab.

Hope i didn't make anyone paranoid with that! It's good to be aware of it, i guess.

Blessings to your week!