I've missed you

There were so many times I wanted to write you this week. I wanted to tell you that I was lonely. I wanted to tell you how much I love my Mom and my best friend Lynette and my dear friend Liz because they care about me and kept me busy all week. But I couldn't!

Because see, you knew Malachi was at camp . . .
But you didn't know that Alif was gone with him!
Ohhhhhh I missed my husband. SO much. Canaan missed him, Caris cried for him, ugh, it was sad. BUT! Graham, though I'm sure he missed his Daddy & brother, shone this week. He took the opportunity to be the oldest very seriously. He taught himself to jump rope and he learned new words (incognito and flabbergasted were two favorites).

Caris & Graham switched off nights sleeping in my bed, and on Wednesday night we had our friends Ellie & Emma over for our first sleepover ever! Those girls had SO much fun. They giggled and read and in the morning we made soaps from a glycerine soap kit I got for free on Freecycle. I am still not caught up on my sleep. It's what I get for the dozens of sleepover nights I surely kept my parents awake at all hours! LOL

I take my husband for granted a lot but after him being gone for a whole week, I am SO happy to have him around!! He talked about camp nonstop from when he got home until 30 minutes ago, when I sent him out the door to get toilet paper (he offered, I promise).

Yesterday & today Graham and Caris and I buckled down and got their room completely cleaned out. I wanted it to be nice for Malachi's return so I figured we'd spring clean it. Once I got in there and started pushing things around with my foot, I realized the situation was far worse than I'd imagined. Nothing would do but that I rearranged the entire room. We seriously took about 8 bags of trash out of that room. How in the world can that much trash fit in one little bedroom?? Right about the time that the room started looking livable again, I started to panic a little. Malachi is a creature of habit. He likes his environment to stay the same. I was doing all of this to provide a comforting return home from camp, and I wondered if this might not be such a welcome for him. Sure enough, when he walked into his room, he looked around, put his stuff on his bed and started to cry. "Someone put all kinds of stuff on my bed and took apart my Legos!" I wanted to scream! Hours and hours of work and that's his response! Ah well, he'll come to appreciate it once his system adjusts to his new configuration.

One time a realtor told my Mom and I that it takes about a week to "get used to a new configuration". We still laugh about it.

We laugh about some very stupid things, my Mom & sister & I. Also Lynette. We all share the same goofy sense of humor. Thankfully.

Also - this ice cream is very good. It's so good that *some* people (ahem) might consume large amounts of it over a two-day period and then lie awake all night long . . . ummm . . . being kind of glad that their spouse wasn't lying in the bed. I'm just trying to be a good neighbor here. Consider yourself warned.