Party, Party, Party

We just got home from our Dr. appointment/July birthday hoo ha trip.  It was mostly uneventful, and a whole lotta fun.  Martha and Nes are both doing very well health wise.  For this I am profoundly thankful.  Martha spent the weekend with her dear friends in Olympia.  We spent one night at the Hills getting our Hill family fix.  We need to do that far more often.  Then we sped through the mountains, (which is MUCH more fun in a Camry than a 15 passenger van), back to UB and Rachel's house.

Our time with the cousins gets wilder and wilder as the kids get older.  While we don't have nearly as much throwing up and wetting the bed as we have in years past, we have at least quadrupled the amount of food we eat, and the amount of space we take up.  Finding a patch of empty space without a child or an animal is no easy task.  Rachel said she got up to make coffee one morning and had flashbacks of college parties with people sleeping everywhere.  Life just gets better and better.  We laugh even more, and have more helpers everywhere we go.  We can even have the adults go out and leave the kids at home for part of the time.

Rachel had a birthday this week as well as Tage and Helen.  They are all so lucky, grills and fireworks every year for their birthdays.  I'm totally jealous.  Helen woke up this morning with a big smile on her face.  She looked at me and said, "It's my birthday."  She wanted corn dogs and ice cream cake.  A wonderful birthday dinner following a small road trip.  UB would have had it on the road trip.  He has wisely told me that corn dogs from the gas station are so much better than the ones at the deli.  (I still can't believe he came from my mother.)  I swapped a couple of my kids for a niece and a nephew.  Rick got to drive the party wagon with the under 10 crowd.  I drove the teenage car, actually Madie drove the teenage car which meant we got home half an hour later than planned.

Helen is a little spitfire.  She reminds me of me, so much so that I often have to repent of my sin, because I know exactly where she gets it.  She has a few very close friends.  She has to know someone for quite some time before she becomes their friend.  Once she does, they are very special to her.  She is tough as nails and I am pretty sure she was going to take down one of the neighbor girls until I intervened this evening.  When she is tired you do not want to be in her way.  She needs a lot of sleep!  She needs her space and can play very nicely all by herself.  She has become very attached to Nes, which is very sweet, except when she is tired.  I have a feeling she will be the one to take care of me in my old age, she and Martha.  Sometimes they are sure they can't stand each other, but I am pretty sure Helen would lay her life down for Martha if push came to shove.  I am very grateful for my Omega baby.  I pray that God would use her in mighty ways, and I am sure that He will.

#727-741

Arriving home after a road trip safe and sound, again.

Friends that miss us when we are gone.

Friends that let us stay with them, brave souls that they are.

Healthy kids, 9 of them.

Swimming pools full of friends.

Thistles as tall as I am, and easy to pull too.

Simple dinners that make kids happy.

Sisters hugging each other because they were missed.

Teenagers that can laugh at themselves.

Skins ability to heal itself, wonderfully designed stuff.

Cool water on hot days.

Beautiful colors of rolling fields overhung by azure skies.

Cool evenings with the windows open wide.

Serenade of crickets and frogs.

Leg rubs from sweet husbands.