I have been on the road non-stop - weddings, visiting friends I have not seen in over 4 years that I am so excited to live in the next city from, apartment hunting, getting my car fixed, running errands and trying to settle into summer - which, by the way, is halfway over.
I promise several blog posts will pop up in July - some retroactively. Don't you wish you could rewind time sometimes so that you could get things done earlier? I sure feel like that this month!
Anywho - I came home for about 30 hours before I am leaving again tomorrow early for a weekend with these loverly ladies:
and I know we are gonna tear up the town - so I need my beauty sleep. I have just so missed writing and posting and wanted to jot down a few notes about how much I love being home and seeing my family.
As excited as I am for this whirlwind weekend that's only hours away - I am sad that the summer is flying by and I am missing time at the house, upstairs, at home, with my fam.
There is nothing like watching tv on the couch with our legs tangled up sharing blankets like we used to when we were little, and running silly errands to Academy, Target and Best Buy with Kif and Lu - they make me laugh so hard and we get so lost going down each aisle - easily distracted by so many different things.
Tonight was awesome. I had a "daddy-daughter" date with my Papi - the first in probably 10 years - at a wine vineyard and we got to sample some sweet grapes and have some delicious appetizers. It is so special to get to meet my parents' friends and see their life in Lubbock thriving. I know the move from Austin was such a change for all of us - and I just LOVE how quickly and easily they have charmed their way through the town in no time flat. I hope that I have similar luck in Dallas and that wherever life takes my family down the road we are blessed with great relationships and friendships. I also really enjoyed having my Papi all to myself - to catch him up on my apartment hunt, new job on the horizon and to chat about the family and everything else going on.
Dinner was also LOVELY. Laura's boyfriend Blake brought us some awesome food from his favorite Italian place in Bakersfield and we enjoyed meatballs, fresh pasta, great sauce, beans and salad compliments of this cute couple.
We are so excited to celebrate her 21st birthday in just a few days! EEK!
At dinner we enjoyed local wine, got to fill everyone in on what we had been up to, hear about how Blake's summer has been, and somehow got to talking about song lyrics and poetry that we loved. It was so neat to go around the table and recite some of the poems we had to memorize in elementary school (Kathleen - shout out to Polar Bear in my Frigidaire by Shel Silverstein) and Laura introduced us to The NapTaker:
No - I did not take a nap - The nap - took - me off the bed and out the window far beyond the sea, to a land where sleepy heads read only comic books and lock their naps in iron safes so that they can't get took. And soon as I came to that land, I also came to grief. The people pointed at me, shouting, "Where's the nap, you thief?" They took me to the courthouse. The judge put on his cap. He said, "My child, you are on trial for taking someone's nap. "Yes, all you selfish children, you think just of yourselves and don't care if the nap you take belongs to someone else. It happens that the nap you took without a thought or care belongs to Bonnie Bowlingbrook, who's sittin' cryin' there. "She hasn't slept in quite some time - just see her eyelids flap. She's tired drowsy - cranky too, 'cause guess who took her nap?" The jury cried, "You're guilty, yes, you're guilty as can be. But just return the nap you took And we might set you free." "I did not take that nap," I cried, "I give my solemn vow, and if I took it by mistake I do not have it now." "Oh fiddle-fudge," cried out the judge, your record looks quite sour. Last night I see you stole a kiss, Last week you took a shower, "You beat your eggs, you've whipped your cream, at work you punched the clock, You've even killed an hour or two, we've heard you darn your socks. We know you shot a basketball, you've stolen second base, and we can see you're guilty from the sleep that's on your face. "Go lie down on your blanket now and cry your guilty tears. I sentence you to one long nap for ninety million years. And when the other children see this nap that never ends, no child will ever dare to take somebody's nap again." --Shel Silverstein
And of course, we ended the night with a surprise visit from my mom's sweet friend Nancy and ended up blasting music in the living room to have a dance party. (Note: the dance party was mostly me and Laura shaking it on the rug to rap songs from frat parties while my parents laughed at us and my brother refused to join. I think Blake wins the "most tolerant boyfriend" award for 2011.) We did switch gears to country and folk as we got a little bit more tired and moved a bit slower - and how fun it was to two-step with Christopher (once I finally begged him to be my dance partner) and see my parents moving and clapping to familiar songs. My mom was even twirling in her sling (she had minor shoulder surgery) to "Chicken Fried" when it came on iTunes.
What do you like to do with your family when nobody is looking?
There is something so special about home. There is something so special about our home.
Something about not having to get dressed up, or have a plan.
Something about the food and wine tasting better when someone who loves you makes it.
Something about how time moves a little bit slower when we are all in the living room together.
Something about feeling like you never left each time you come back.
I am so glad to be living closer to this place and to be able to visit more often.
I am so glad I get to spend this summer here in this great place.
I am so glad I get to spend this summer here in this great place.
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