Wonderful Surprise!

Hello everyone! I started out the day like usual. I got up. I decided to make breakfast for my parents this morning. I made fruity baked oatmeal, fruit smoothies, and fried eggs.

We went to church this morning with the Sierra Vista congregation. What an awesome service! I didn't realize we had 5-6 families converging on Sierra Vista! We had Audie and Heather Click and their family, Jimmy and Daniela Raney and their family, Zachary and Carmen Huff, and Monica and Brad Hazelton and their family, plus the normal congregation! I got to see my really good friend Kathy Anderson. What a time we had!

After church let out, we were all just hanging around visiting when I heard someone say, "We'll, there's Joe." I didn't think too much of it, then I heard, "No, that's Joe Casey!" Joe has been one of Nathan's best friends since sixth grade. We haven't seen him in about six years. We had absolutely NO idea he was going to be there! Joe doesn't go to church with us. He happened to read on Facebook that we were in Arizona, and he knew we would be at church, so he parked his car and waited outside for our service to end. It was such a blessing to see him and Nathan get to see each other again and get caught up.

I guess the Filipino culture is very different from the American culture. When a Filipino invites someone for lunch, it is socially acceptable for that person to invite someone else and just show up with whoever happens to hear the invitation! In the Filipino culture, this is totally cool. Well, Nathan (my extremely "American" hubby), finally pulled a "Filipino" on my mom and invited Joe and his two kids over for lunch! I think being around us for almost twenty years is finally rubbing off on him, lol! Nathan has never, I truly mean never, has understood the Filipino custom. My boys then invited their friend Carter for lunch as well. My sweet mom was gracious and hospitable as ever! She had no idea four extra people were coming for lunch, but she was the perfect hostess and welcomed everyone with open arms. I'm truly grateful to have learned that from her!

My mom made an amazing soup for lunch. After lunch was over, the people from church called in impromptu singing at one of the church member's house. We went and sang for a couple of hours. We could've stayed longer, but we had to get home and cook supper for my dad. We had plenty of left-overs, but my dad cannot eat anything with salt and he didn't have any food for him prepared. Mom and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and fixed African Chicken (one of my day's favorite dishes)!

After supper, mom went for a swim with my boys. Then they soaked in her new hot tub that Nathan set up for her yesterday. Nathan and I got in our swim suits and joined them in the hot tub. What a wonderful way to end such a beautiful and perfect day.

God's peace be with you all!