I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that stopped by last week to wish my mom/hunting mentor a happy retirement. I am also glad that so many people enjoyed reading one of our classic family stories!

And thanks to all of her coworkers, the party was a huge success as well. I truly enjoyed getting to meet everyone that she works with and talks about, and I can’t thank them for giving my mom such a wonderful sendoff.

It was held at Whitey’s fish camp in Orange Park, so there was a ton of great seafood. It was fried, but my mom was roasted. She has worked with her company/state-funded agency for 18 years, so her friends and coworkers really know her. And boy did they let her have it about everything from being tight with the budget (her job) to accidentally showing up on a Saturday (Friday to her) and being upset that no one else had come to work!

They also sent her off with some very nice gifts in appreciation for all of her years of hard work. The gifts included a HUGE basket of books and books on tape (she loves to listen while on the road), a rocking chair to sit with her grandboys and a giant flat-screen TV (so the boys can watch big buck videos in style when she babysits).

Of course, since my mom loves to tell stories about me, they were also not surprised that I was late for the party. However for once it wasn’t my fault. We had to sit on I95 for over an hour watching firefighters use the jaws of life to cut some accident victims out of their truck and then load them in to the lifeflight helicopter. But while that did put us behind, all of the action did keep the kid’s from getting restless during our wait and give them something to talk about. (fortunately the news said that everyone survived)

And Matt did hit the nail on the head when he commented that he hoped that my mom didn’t read my blog since it said that we were going down to surprise her. She, just like my wife, hardly ever reads it since she has to hear about all of my adventures anyway, so I didn’t think anything about putting that info up. However she “accidentally” clicked on my blog that morning, so she did know we were coming… but she says that it didn’t take anything away from us making the trip down.

As for us, we made it back home and are all now recovering from getting sick. The kids picked up something last week from daycare, and it has made its way through everyone including me. I did nothing all weekend but rest, and unfortunately I am still trying to shake it. I believe I will survive, but I hate being sick.

Please check back again tomorrow for some more important updates on us that I have.

Jeff

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!