back from pennsylvania... feeling a little blue... it's hard to say goodbye to the family and yet i love my life here in florida... it's a dilemma... i still think one day i'll become like the snowbirds and head up there in the summer and down here in the winter... that would be awesome... anyway, it was a week full of the usual family stuff... staying with my mom was great! haven't done that in awhile... my little nephews are adorable, of course... the littlest is almost 2 and he speaks in 2 word phrases ... my brother turned the big 4-0 and we had a gathering for that... also spent the 4th at his place for walmart fireworks (i'm surprised they don't use the backyard walmart fireworks display on blue collar tv )... saw my ex husband for the first time in a couple of years... he was drunk as usual... and while i don't want anything to do with him anymore, i do feel some compassion toward him now and pray for somebody to reach out to him to knock some sense into him before he drinks himself to death... seeing him also reminded me that i want to just forgive him the money he still owes in back child support... he has a 7 year old who could use that money more than i can... saturday was the annual family picnic, which i love and missed last summer, not planning to let that happen again... the weather was perfect and the traumas were a little dramatic, 2 kids got stung by bees and 1 kid fell and broke her collar bone! and lastly, the plane ride home was uneventful until we got to the airport and couldn't land due to severe thunderstorms... the plane had a near miss with something on the runway that wasn't supposed to be there and it felt like we were going to crash! just reinforces my desire to never fly again... all in all it was a great week and i have only God to thank for it... He never left my side... He is my rock and my refuge... He is the One who puts the Spirit of forgiveness and compassion in my heart... He is the One who worked through those pilots to get us back on the ground in one piece... He is my everything and i love Him more than i will ever be able to express in a way that anyone who doesn't know Him could understand... praise God!