Evening of Sunny and Jewel

Yesterday was Sunny's birthday so we celebrated by living the "Life Uncommon" by seeing  Jewel (our favorite artist) in concert here in Hotlanta! I felt so honored that my wonderful friend would choose me to accompany her to such a meaningful event - seriously, Sunny knows every song by Jewel (including never published ones and poems she's written) and loves Jewel more than I love Densel Washington.

It just so happened that Jewel was sharing the stage with Brad Paisley, whose name (honestly) I didn't know until we already had the tickets for the concert! Turned out that I do know several of his songs from listening to the radio. 94.9 The Bull welcomed us concert attendees with a plane pulled banner.

Brad showed off his good looking profile in the ATL sites during one of his songs.

Jewel sang one of my favorite songs "Standing Still." And, of course, for her #1 fan, Jewel sang "Who will Save Your Soul" which she never sings the same way twice. Her scatting, trilling, and "duet" with the guitar were more clever/artsy/amazing than what I expected. Unfortunately, the video I have of it is too long to post for you to enjoy. Next time we get together, dear Reader, I can let you view it on my computer!

Hearts

My Daddy came home from the hospital today after lunch!! He still tires easily and is moving slowly, but otherwise he feels great and is in good spirits. Even though heart attacks are nothing good, one positive event came from his...

The day of the heart attack, my uncle (who lives in China after recently marrying a Chinese lady) was extremely upset by the news. His wife was out of the house at the time with a girlfriend. When she got home and found my uncle in tears she told him, "No cry. God told me he not die. Jeff good man." When she said this, my uncle told her, "You know, you really need to ask God to live in your heart." She agreed and prayed right then! Praise Jesus! My new aunt is now a Christian. :-) 

Because of my dad's heart attack, he now feels like he has a new heart from so many stints being inserted into his arteries and my aunt now has a new spiritual heart. This wouldn't have been my choice of how she'd accept Christ, but it is beautiful how God used evil for good.

Update

Thank you all for your many prayers. My dad's stint procedure went really well without complication or problem. He is feeling great, walking around, eating, and in a regular room. His doctor told him that he'll be able to come home tomorrow or Friday! Praise the Lord!!

My Daddy's Heart

Friday morning as my dad awoke to prepare for work he had a heart attack. It was a major one, too. One artery was 100% blocked, which the hospital had stinted in under an hour, and two other arteries are still 95% and 75% blocked. Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning about 11am he will be having a procedure done to stint those other arteries. Please, be praying for him during this time tomorrow. Pray that the arteries are supple and able to hold stints. Pray that he won't need an emergency by-pass surgery. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

Jump 4 Joey

Magdalena, Alle, and Samuel are officially jumping buddies! Jump 4 Joey is a playland full of inflatables for kids to jump, crawl, bounce, slide, and go crazy on. Courtney, Jessica, and I bought the t-shirts for the little ones so that they can play for free every Tuesday. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful play experience!

Everyone playing and having a good ole time. :-)

Labor Day

Petr was off work on Monday for Labor Day, so we took a Sramkovi family trip to a state park in Summerville, GA. The park was quiet, very "tree-ey," and had great walking trails. We followed this butterfly down the lower lake path for a little while.

After lunch, we returned to the park for more fun and games - Bocce Ball! This set was his birthday present from my parents and he was raring to break it in. We all enjoyed playing the game, but I think Magdalena found even greater pleasure in photographing the experience. This was her first picture of her Daddy.

This was another she took of her Mommy and Daddy together.

Magdalena's first try at videoing didn't last long!

On our second hike, Magdalena refused to walk on the way uphill. So, Petr gave her a lift. While she was riding astride his shoulders she would periodically say, "I'm tall. I sitting on Daddy's shoulders!"

The pinnacle of the second hike was the Marble Mine (seen behind me and Magdalena). Not much to see - a small cave and a water hole, but Magdalena had fun peering over the rails into the water, tossing rocks into the pool, and getting "rained" on where water dripped from above into the mini-pond.

Belated Birthday Bowling

Petr's birthday was 2 months ago, but we finally got around to celebrating it as a family on Saturday! At Petr's request, we went bowling - Momma, Daddy, Magdalena, Petr, and I.

This sign was posted on the entrance door. We all found it quite amusing and had to share it with you, dear readers!

Magdalena watched us all bowl and would cheer for us, "Yay! It's Gigi's try!" no matter how many pins we knocked down. She, of course, had to take a break to clean up with an ever-present wipe. (Who needs toys when wipes are around?)

Daddy got the highest score on one game and Petr won the other round.

After bowling our hearts out, and Magdalena's patience off, we went home to enjoy a pizza party with Jessica, Casey, Samuel, Elizabeth, and Jonathan. Once the babes were in bed, we adults enjoyed a rowdy game of of Hand and Foot. The guys beat us ladies, badly...but, hey we all had fun celebrating Petr's 27th birthday.