Where'd An Entire Week Disappear To??

The good news is that I fully survived (and enjoyed!) an incredibly busy week.  The bad news is that I apparently could't figure out how to survive an incredibly busy week while taking pictures of everything that was happening and posting them regularly to the blog!  

Our good friends, Mark and Candy, came to town to celebrate Mark's doctorate graduation ceremony.  We hosted a reception to honor them, where we enjoyed spending time with goofy friends from our old church.  It was a blast to revisit memories from a special season in our lives, and to find that goofs just get better with time...

Mark and Candy moved away about three years ago.  We stayed with them in Georgia last year on our vacation, and it was fun to see our kids pick right up where they left off.  Mark and Candy have three boys, and the "fit" with my kids is exactly right.  They play so well together and have so much in common.  It was wonderful to have them here for a few days just to renew those bonds and keep the relationships going.

Here are some shots of the kids together last summer...

And one from last weekend...

All the kids did well together, but there was special chemistry between little Sam and baby Emma.  He was a devoted buddy and could hardly let her out of his sight.  So sweet!!!

As much as I enjoyed having them here, the inevitable goodbye was almost unbearable.  I wish so much that we had the privilege of investing in these precious friendships on a daily basis again!  Thank goodness for graduations and summer vacations and hopefully many more opportunities to be together!

Mark, we're really proud of your degree, and of all you worked so hard to accomplish.  We're glad we got to be part of rejoicing in that with you, and are thankful you were willing to stay up way too late to play way too many hands of Canasta!  Just like old times!

Mark and Candy headed out of town Sunday afternoon, and Sunday evening our Moms came over for Mother's Day supper.  We served cold sandwiches, because nothing says "I love and appreciate my Mom" like left overs on paper plates with graduation napkins!  Ha!  Our Moms are such good sports, and as long as they had the opportunity to wrap their Grandma arms around their grandkids they didn't care a bit about the lack of fanfare.

Monday night we hosted a group of kids from our scout troop and I wish I would have snapped some photos because they had a blast.  I was too busy lounging on the couch engaged in a wonderful conversation with one of the scout Moms who is just a doll, and I can hardly wait to get to know her better now that our sons are in the same troop.

Tuesday, Mom and I hosted supper for our book club.  Mom made flan, and unfortunately left the extra pieces here late at night so I could share them with my family the following day.  There were no extra pieces to share by the time said following day dawned, and that's all I'm going to say about that.  Except that I'm keenly on the lookout for another reason to have a taco salad dinner party just so I can have just cause to request more flan.  Whew.

Wednesday I cooked for our church fellowship meal.  I just dropped off the food to be served but did not actually stay at church.  I was slightly glad about that later when I learned that my crock pot containing two e-nor-mous cans of baked beans from Sams flipped off of a rolling cart and landed upside down on the carpet.  I'm sure the clean up crew was really thankful for my meal that night!

Hannah and I visited the art museum to catch a special exhibit and also made our way to the community college to check out options for some dual credit classes next year.  It is always fun to catch a little time alone with my oldest, who feels more and more like my friend and less and less like my child with every passing day.

We hosted a game night with friends, went to our gourmet club, attended baseball games and practices, and juggled babysitting and Bible Bowl schedules.  We even managed to crash on the couch at the midnight hour to watch the DVR season finale of Gray's Anatomy where I managed to polish off half a box of Kleenex.  It was tricky, but with Buzz and I flying in opposite directions at warp speed for much of the week, we managed to fit it all in.  

I'd like to say this week will be more quiet, but I know better, and I'm not willing to put such bold statements in black and white.  Besides, I wouldn't know how to act in quiet, and clanging along busily just feels good right now.  For the time being I do believe we can hold off on constructing an ark.  After two months of rain they are forecasting ten solid days of sunshine.  I can hardly wait to see what we can cram in to ten days!!