Girls

I had a great weekend with the girls. Laughed, ate a ridiculous amount of food, and listened to some speakers who all had good things to say (even the lady who took way too long and sang way too many songs). All in all, great fun.
The fam was happy to see me when I got back. They missed me even if they had fun, which is nice, because I missed them even though I had fun.
Olivia especially enjoyed her adventure. She told me all about it: "We went to the park! And got a slushy! AND went to McDonald's and I got vampire teeth! And... and Mom, you missed all the fun." She was very concerned that I would feel like I'd really missed out.
What a sweetie.

I know one thing: I hate visiting Las Vegas. I am sure if I lived in a nice community there far, far away from the strip it would be lovely. But the fact is, when you're visiting, you see the strip. And it is so yucky. Shudder.
The only thing it's really got going for it is Garth is there one weekend a month. GARTH!!!!!
And let's face it: Garth is good for the soul.

One of the speakers is a therapist and talked about the need to honor our emotions. That emotions are not "good" or "bad," they are simply information that we need to listen to. That really spoke to me. Probably because for the most part, if my emotions are angry, frustrated, hurt, sad, I do not honor them -- I try really, really hard not to acknowledge them and especially not express them unless I am totally in control, and then they try to eat me alive. As I was listening to her, I thought "Hmm... this would have been helpful to hear around... March. That's when things started really spinning out of control. Maybe I could have spared myself so much pain and agony if I would have just honored -- and been able to express -- those emotions in the first place." The problems certainly wouldn't have gone away, but maybe the lingering infections (if you will -- I know I will) wouldn't have taken quite so many spiritual antibiotics. Who knows. I also think it has been a very growing experience, so maybe necessary. Who can say. Not. Me. In the end, it doesn't matter if I'd heard it then, I got to hear it now, and there was some healing information there for me.
Poor Double B. He doesn't even know what's coming.
Just kidding.

Katelyn is such a wild woman. This is sort of funny: she is so busy and mischievous and crazy that sometimes she drives ME crazy, but while I was gone I just missed her with a vengeance. I really, really missed Kate the Great. I guess because she is my constant companion. While the older kids are gone, she doesn't really leave my side. In fact, she's playing and singing and investigating right by my feet right now. As much as we drive each other bonkers (she really has to put up with me, too), we are buddies. She is currently yanking DVD's out of their cases right now, in case you're wondering. Singing "Duh-dud-da-dah..."
What a kid. There really is nothing like a hug from Katee Jill, or one of her gigantic, bruising, stare-contest kisses. She is one of a kind.

Well, onwards and upwards. Good day, friends.