Hello, Old Friends

Alright, so I had no real intention of coming back here.  Life is kind of crazy these days, and blogging was beginning to feel like just one more thing I had to do.  In an attempt to streamline my life as much as possible, I let go of the blog.  I don't even read blogs anymore.  I check in on my Facebook perhaps once a week, just to check in on a few people I'm close to who don't use email much.

But I have this blog to thank for a special friendship.  Six years or so ago there was a follower of mine who became a frequent commenter.  Over the years we exchanged emails as well, sharing our small triumphs and commiserating over our struggles.  It is ironic that she lives not many miles from where I used to live in Charlotte, NC.  Annita and I hoped to meet one day, but we couldn't imagine how or when that would ever take place.

Enter Rachel, her nutty, energetic, 21 year-old daughter.  She emailed me to tell me that she had a plan to get us together.  She wanted to drive out here (8 hour trip), pick me and Una up, drive back to North Carolina, take us to a Scythian show (if you don't know about this band, get to know it.  Seriously. You won't regret it), and then drive us back the next day.  She planned to do two 16-hour round trips in 3 days.  No way.  I couldn't let her do it no matter how good the intention.

Then my husband suggested I call on a young pilot friend of ours and find out what it would cost to fly there.  Our friend, R.B. said it would be a 2 hour flight, and the price he gave me was affordable.  I contacted Rachel and told her we could pull it off, weather permitting.  She managed to keep it a secret from her mother almost to the last day.

Sooo...last Saturday morning, Bret and the kids took me to the little airport in Portland, TN, and Una and I flew in a small plane to Matthews, NC to meet my friend Annita and her family for the first time.  It was thrilling.  I really loved it, right up until landing, as there was quite a bit of cloud cover and it caused significant turbulence.  My stomach felt a bit off for a while afterward.

Rachel picked us up and we were taken to Annita's home and introduced to the whole family. I finally had faces for all the names in the emails!  There was no discomfort in our meeting, maybe a little initial nervousness, but more like a meeting of old friends.

After a rest at the hotel where Rachel put us up for the night, since they were doing home renovations and worried that we'd not be comfortable there, we went to a vigil Mass, and then we drove into Charlotte for the Scythian show at the Double Door Inn.  I'd introduced Annita to their music when they played in Charlotte last year ("You MUST go and see them," I told her), so it was great to be going to their show with her.  Rachel, Una and Annita's 13 year-old daughter, Hope, came with us.  It was a blast.  They sold out and the place was packed to capacity.  Una had a bit of a hard time with it, as crowds make her want to curl up into a tiny ball and disappear.  Luckily, I brought some Valerian tablets, and she began to enjoy herself once she was able to relax a little.

We didn't get back to the hotel until 1 a.m. (that's 2 a.m. Central Time!) and had to leave for the long drive home with Rachel at 9:30, so the drive home was pretty quiet.

The kids gave us a lovely homecoming, and Rachel spent the evening and night with us. The kids wouldn't leave her alone!  They were pretty unhappy about her having to leave so soon.  But leave she did at 7:30 the next morning.

It took two days before I felt myself again...I'm too old for this!

Okay, now for a lot of photos:

Newsy bits...

I hope everyone had a brilliant Independence Day!  We had some unusually temperate weather and after getting together with my sister's family for an impromptu cookout, we went to a fireworks display in Gallatin this year.  I have seen a lot of fireworks in my life, and more elaborate displays than this one, but never from right beneath the fireworks.  It was awesome, and I was every bit as excited as my kids and my niece and nephews.

Sunday morning we awoke to a new resident here on the farm: a Jersey heifer we've named Lola.  She's the prettiest little thing, and she and Fiona, her mama, are doing well.  Fiona is sporting an enormous udder, and we are finally done with purchasing milk from a Mennonite neighbor, which ought to save us a lot of money.  Our other cow, Nuala, is also expecting, but when she's due is anyone's guess since she ran with our neighbor's herd for 3 months.  We were having difficulty getting her bred, so we weren't particular about whether the bulls were Jerseys or not, so we are rather hoping for a bull calf from her, since it'll be half Angus.  A big surprise is that our ancient (well, 8 years or so) goat, Ruthie Weedeater, seems to be bagging up!  Apparently the buck from our neighbor's escaped herd, who spent a few days in our sights, managed to make good friends with her during his visit.  I can't wait...the last baby goat we had here was Ruthie herself.

Also on Sunday, Adrian served at Mass as cross-bearer for the first time at the Chapel of Divine Mercy.  He did a great job and was very recollected during Mass.  Gabriel was up there too as an acolyte, so it was a banner day.

Drywall is up and finished, and Bret has begun priming the walls...hoping to be in there by Thanksgiving, but as I told the kids, "We'll get there when we get there."

This week we are getting ready for Gemma's birthday.  It is on Monday, but we will likely celebrate it on Saturday.  There's a slew of birthdays coming up this and next month, and really it's non-stop all the way from here until Christmas, so thinking about gifts and what we can make this year is already on the agenda.  It makes me feel a bit ill, really... holidays have become nerve wracking for me since I seem to have lost my organizational skills somewhere along the way.

Anyway, that's all the news there is to tell right now.  Hope you're having a great summer!

Just a bit more summer...

Watch out...this is a photo-dump post:

This summer was a bummer.  The weather really never got hot enough for long enough to warm the creek around here, and the kids never got to go swimming.  Well, because of poor planning on our part, we have both milk cows out to be bred, the result of which is no cows to milk.  What this means in negative terms is, we have to buy milk.  What this means in positive terms is freedom!  As in, we don't have to be home at 4 to milk the cow.  Bret and I struck upon the same idea at the same time, and decided it was the time to get away for a couple of overnights.  First choice: the beach, as none of my kids have seen one but for Una, who was under two at the time.

Having an old friend--one's best friend from high school, in fact--living on the Gulf of Mexico--is a very good thing.  I asked if he would look into cheap hotel suites (is there such a thing?) in his area, and he insisted it would be no imposition to have us stay with him--although he lives in a one bedroom apartment.  We took him at his word, and I was so proud of my kids...they really behaved very well for being in tight quarters for 3 nights.

They also behaved very well in the van, seeing as it was an 8 hour drive for us, not counting stops for food and bathroom breaks.

Logistics of such a trip for a family of eight can be daunting.  I remember Bret and I, B.C. (before children) going away for a weekend with a duffle bag.  Gone are those days...it was like a deployment to get out of here.

It was all worth it, though, first of all to see the person who was my best friend through the highs and lows of my teen years after nearly three decades.  Wow.  That was really something.  And then, watching the kids as they romped in the sand and surf for the first time was wonderful.  I spent the first 8 years of my life in NYC and the beach was always taken for granted. The first day at the beach was only cut short after Adrian nearly came too close to a jellyfish, and someone nearby on the shore spotted a hammerhead shark that came up too close for comfort.  The second day was drizzly and overcast, and the kids played in the surf until we heard thunder and made them get out.

My friend Robert's apartment complex has a pool, so the kids made use of that as well.

Thank you so much, Robert!