O Happy Day!!!!

This morning when I awoke at 8:18 am I thought, this time last week Peggy and I were standing in line at the Southwest Airlines counter waiting to check luggage for our flight. Our trip last week was totally fun, but it was very nice to still be in bed this morning with a Saturday of no agenda or definite plans. There was a day that no plans would have me in a funk.

Yesterday, I had one of the most fun days I have had in a very long time. The past couple of weeks have been emotionally draining because of situations and circumstances that seem to have no end in sight. Cheryl brought to my attention last month that there was very little nourishing my soul and I wasn't replenishing my life with creativeness or reflection. That brings me to yesterday. Dena had asked me last week if we could celebrate my birthday on Friday. Sure... Her plans for our day would begin around 1:30, would that work for me? Sure.... She wouldn't give me any hints as to where we were going or what we were going to do. One birthday she gave me a hint that were we were going was biblical and I guessed Ruth Chris Steak House right off the bat. Since then, she refuses to give me hints. I will tell you this, I would have never guessed in a million years where she took me for dinner, but I am getting ahead of myself. So, she picked me up and we were off for adventure. Our first stop Sonic. Have to have a Cherry Coke and a Vanilla Diet Coke for the road. We headed out 290 and I kind of thought we would make the turn onto Highway 6 to Byran/College Station, but we kept on going and eventually arrived in Brenham where we stopped at Blue Bell Ice Cream. We were too late for a tour, but we were able to look through the museum and the much more interesting Gift Shop. Dena bought us Blue Bell Ice Cream and commemorative t-shirts.

Really, when you think about it, the tour would not add to my love of Blue Bell. It is kind of how I feel about electricity. Love using it, don't care how it works...it is the end result of the product.

Neither one of us have ever been to the little creamery in Brenham and we really enjoyed our time there.
We continued on into Brenham and made a turn onto 105. Then we turned on 50. I remembered this was the direction to the ranch Roy and I went to in April, then I saw the sign for the Brenham Airport. I jokingly said, so we are going to the airport and Dena replied, maybe so. And that is just what we did. Now here is the coolest thing, there is a restaurant there called the Southern Flyer. It is like a 1950 diner complete with jukeboxes at the booths and waitresses dressed in poodle skirts. It was awesome! We sat a booth and ordered fried pickles and onion rings for appetizers. Then Dena got the chicken fried chicken and I got the chicken fried steak complete with made from scratch veggies. We are planning a repeat visit to try the hamburgers cause we heard they are out of this world. Friends of Dena's who are pilots had told her about this and one even offered to fly us there for my birthday, but then we would not have been able to drive around the countryside. We ate until we didn't have room for one more thing. That is when a little blessing in disguise happened. We wanted to order Coconut Creme Pie for dessert, but it wasn't ready. In a conversation last week, I had heard about Bevers and the awesome pie there. So, we made a switch in plans and decided we would go there for dessert and the waitress confirmed to us those were very good plans. We sat on the porch for a bit and watched some planes land and take off. Dena gave me my birthday gift of beautiful jewelry-earrings, necklace and bracelet. They are amber and turquoise. Love them all! Since we had decided to go to Bevers after the dinner rush, we had a little time to look around. She had never been to Independence,TX. I wanted to go back and see what time the Baptist Museum hours were. I mean if you are Baptist and there is a museum dedicated to your denomination, one should make that pilgrimage. I knew it was just a piece up the road. As we began our drive, Dena was getting worried that instead of seeing the original site of Baylor University we would actually end up at Baylor University in Waco. Time mapping is not my best thing. We happened upon Independence just in the nick of time.

The museum was closed. Actually the museum seems to be the fellowship hall of Independence Baptist Church If the museum had been open we would have purchased the only thing available for purchase, hot pads with the embroidered inscription of Independence Baptist Church. Dena said that probably part of the tour involved an anciently old casserole in it's original Pyrex dish. I howled at that thought...note to self , Mildred and Gertrude should visit the museum with a video camera. There also was an old Post Office window inside. However, we don't know if this confirms or denies the endorsement of Baptists to play Post Office at youth fellowships.

We learned that both the mother and wife of Sam Houston is buried there, that Sam Houston was baptised at Rocky Creek just a few miles away.

We headed back into Brenham and drove around the quaint downtown square making note that we need to come back one Saturday and do some shopping in the cute shops. It was time to head over to Chappel Hill for dessert. Once we arrived, we did a quick drive through town to look at homes and churches. At Bevers, all the coconut pie had been eaten so we "settled" for lemon pie. We did a little shopping in the gift shop and we were on our way, but not before taking one last picture.

We headed back to Houston, nourished in body and spirit. Never in our schedule did we have to rush or have a deadline. All in all we had a totally Baptist night. We laughed, talked, prayed,ate, shopped and visited a few churches. It was a delight and total surprise to me in the sum total of our adventure.

Since becoming a Christian at 16 and the friends that God has brought into my life who have loved and challenged me have been some of the best people I have ever known. I have always said I have the best friends of anyone I know. Is that to say we always get along, no. Do we always agree, heeeeccccck no. Dena and I are total opposites and there have been times when the iron sharpening iron has created a few sparks. There have been rough patches along the way, but we have always said to one another even in the midst of a "spark" that our friendship was bigger than the problem. I think she would agree there were times we said that while we gritted our teeth. It has always been true...ourf riendship is bigger than whatever disagreement.

God knew all along how much I needed an afternoon and evening like I had yesterday. It fed my soul. I was replenished to come back to Houston and face the ongoing situations and circumstances that are my life right now. I could not stop thanking Dena for planning such a fun birthday and how much it has ministered to me.

When I hit the door last night, the first thing I said to Roy was, "I had so much FUN today." I began telling him about all our fun. I kept asking him, would you like to go there? How about Southern Flyer...etc...? I hit the bed last night tired, but oh so very happy. What a great day, what a way to celebrate a birthday!