55 years old!

The church that we've been going to for 10.5 years has a group that for most of the years we've been attending there was called Best Year's Fellowship. They changed their name a couple of years ago to Classics. The minimum age requirement for joining the group is 55. Our kids have been frequently reminding Paul how many years he had until he qualified to join the group. We became eligible this fall because they let you join a few months before your 55th birthday. Most of the people our age don't have kids as young as we do so we're going to hold off on joining the group albeit almost all of the people in our Sunday School class are in the Classics. The age when you are eligible for a senior discount varies from place to place, but the lowest minimum age I've seen for a senior discount is 55 so Paul will begin to be eligible for a senior discount from time to time. One disadvantage to turning 55 is the amount we pay each month for our medical sharing program is dependent on the size of our family AND the age of the oldest member. Our premium has gone up this month because the price for 55+ is higher than what we've been paying. Paul and I started dating shortly after he turned 27, so we've been together for more than half of his life. Paul says he didn't feel old when he turned 50, but he thinks 55 is another story. Maybe it's because now he's closer to 60 years old than 50 years old? Praying that God will give him good health for many years to come! 

To celebrate his birthday, I tried to serve some of his favorite foods this week. I got a pizza from Aldi yesterday. I had a taco salad instead. All four of us had Georgian egg and cheese bread on Wednesday night, which Paul likes just as much as pizza (which is a high compliment as he would happily eat pizza every single day for weeks on end). Oliver and Ian each made him a birthday card. Oliver bought him some Twizzlers and peanut butter cups at Surplus Outlet. I gave him the option of choosing the menu or picking a restaurant for his birthday dinner. He chose to eat at Texas Roadhouse. We picked Nadia up from Camp Susque a little after 3:00 before heading to the restaurant. Nadia tried something different (salad), but the rest of us got what we usually do at that restaurant - chicken tenders kid's meal (Ian), macaroni and cheese kid's meal (Oliver), steak (Paul), and sweet potato (me). We all love their rolls! Paul also loves that they give out bags of peanuts that you can take home. It was his turn to pick what we did for a family fun night tonight, and he chose watching one of the Mission Impossible movies. Finally, we picked up donuts to have for breakfast tomorrow morning. 

Paul has had a cough for four months. He went to the doctor for it in November. The medications he took at that time did bring about significant improvement for a time, but it never completely went away and flared back up again in December. He went back to the doctor on Monday night. The doctor gave him a different medication to try, and he had another chest x-ray. We're assuming it was normal because they didn't call him with the results. His lab results weren't good in terms of his triglycerides, good cholesterol, or bad cholesterol. I'm hoping those numbers improve before his next physical, and we're praying that his cough will totally go away as soon as possible!