Packing the car for a trip is like checking out at the grocery store...all the stuff you took out never goes back in the same as it did the first time you put it there, be it the cart or your trunk.
So...I just got back from my hometown. I drove my 7 dwarfs 5 hours to visit my sister and niece who just moved up from Htown. We went with the element of surprise to help them and my sister's friend, that she managed to drag up North with her (we really like her, and actually I think she came for the Wyoming experience willingly) to help them move in. Some help we were. I went to visit an old friend in the AM and by the time we got there to help in the process, the 8 missionaries, that my mother had wrangled into helping, had the whole job finished in an hour. But, nonetheless, it was still good to go and visit. My children did pretty well for being crammed into my mothers tiny house, and for the fact that some of us had to sleep in a tent in the backyard. Yeah, that tiny. I eventually chose to be the one in the tent because it was so hot in the house. Thank goodness it cools down at night. I finally got used to sleeping outside, even though I was always a little aware and awake for most of the nights. The last night we were there Spencer and I were the only ones out in the tent. There was threat of thunderstorms but when we went to sleep the clouds were sparse and I chose to start the night with the rain flap off. Sometime during the early morning the wind picked up and the sprinkle started. I ignored it until I felt the little drops get through the tent. So I had to wake Spen up to help me get the rain flap back in place. Once done and back in bed I finally fell into a deep peaceful happy sleep listening to the sound of the rain hitting the tent. And good crap was I tired. Right when I was really starting to enjoy the land of good dreams, I heard a knock on the tent. It was my dad in his Eeyore voice, "Your mom says that you should wake up and look at this rainbow." Are you freaking kidding me? I obliged. and stuck my irritated head out the door of the tent and peeked around the corner to see...I wish I could say "the most spectacular sight in Heavenly space" but I can't...it was just a rainbow. and not that bright...(I guess I'm spoiled because when we get 'bows at my house across the field they are spectacular.) Did I get to fall back into that heavenly sleep? OF COURSE NOT... The only people who can probably appreciate this are those parents of multiple children that can count the nights of *super sleep* on one hand.
The overall trip was fine...not super. I'm sure that someday I will be able to count this as therapeutic. It was an emotionally multilayer-ed trip. Of which, I will not currently bore you with specific details.
I'm glad that Dawn and Sam and Jeanne live close enough to visit now. I'm glad that Jennifer and Bill have found a house (in my hometown, read into that what you will) to live in while they go to school. I'm glad that I have friends like Ben and Krista who are in the same phase of life that Jason and I are. I'm glad that the people who watched me grow up and struggle understand the real *why*, and I'm grateful that they can see how I turned out alright. I'm glad I don't live in the same house I grew up in. I'm grateful to have married the man I did, he definitely brought me *up*. Most importantly I'm glad to be home... and I'm glad we found that the dogs didn't die while we were gone, even though Lucky threw up about a pound of grass when we got here. Apparently he has separation anxiety.
that's all for now
good day to ya.