In my hometown

My apologies for the almost 2 month blog blackout! Since my last post, I spent a few weeks moping around because my husband couldn't go back to my hometown with me, then I spent about a week getting ready to go and moping some more, then I spent 4 wonderful, fun, relaxing weeks with my family and friends, and I just got back home last night. It was great to see everyone, and I didn't write any blogs because I was just too busy having fun. Here are some highlights:

- I got to go to my cousin's baby shower! I don't get to see my dad's side of the family much as it is, but it just so happened that they scheduled the baby shower for when I was in town. It was great to be in on that family milestone.

- I was at the church where I grew up when they called their new senior pastor. Although I didn't technically "meet" them, I at least got to see the new pastor and his wife in person! It feels strange that there will be a different pastor there now, but I'm really happy for the church. It was exciting to be there for that time.

- My parents, brother and I went camping! We couldn't remember the last time that had happened, so it had been a while. We had planned that when we thought my husband was coming as a little adventure for him, but it turned out to be a bit too adventurous with a driving rain/hail storm and a skunk in our camp (we were in tents). Still, it was tons of fun, complete with smores and guitar and harmonica around the campfire. Props to my brother for his harmonica solos on "When the Saints Go Marching In". (Sidenote - I had never sung all of the verses of that song before. Not all of them are as cheery as the first verse. My personal favorite was "Oh when the mooooooon goes down in blooooood Oh when the moon goes down in bloooooood How I long to be in that number..." Wow.)

- We spend tons of family time with my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma. Those can be crazy times. Unfortunately, when we all went out for dinner at the steakhouse, another patron had to come tell us to keep it down because our shrieking laughter had hit rather high octaves. He didn't actually ask us to keep it down. He just came over to where we were, stared at us for a while, and said, "Holy s*%&!" True story. My apologies to you, dear man.

- We also scrapbooked all together to get all of my cousin's pictures into a scrapbook. It was a daunting task, but when we all worked together, we got more than half of it completed, and it was a special time of looking at her pictures and remembering her life.

- I got to see many close friends, including my dear, dear friend who lives in China. She was back visiting family, too, so we did some karaoke together, among other things. We dueted "A Whole New World" pretty well, but I definitely need more practice to catch up to her skills.

There are a lot of other things I haven't mentioned because I am seriously jetlagged at the moment, but those were some highlights.