Vacation ... and reality

My wonderful husband let me have a week back in Texas to visit my friends!  One of my best friends had her first baby in May, so I got to see her and the baby.  And I got to visit our old church home and the boys' school.  I ate out more than I have in a long time!  And I got to sleep in a few times.  Okay, I was still on west coast time so I stayed up late and slept in a lot.  It was such a nice break!

My first night back in Dallas, my beautiful friend and her family took me to Freebird's.  Freebird's and I go way back.  I remember when there was only one in College Station.  My boys love Freebird's too, and I was a little sad they couldn't be there.  But I wasn't so sad that I couldn't enjoy it.  I especially had fun teaching my little friend the proper technique for eating a Freebird.

The next day I went to my other beautiful friend's house to spend time with her and her new little man (and her husband, too).  He is such a beautiful, sweet, and talkative 4-month-old!  We had so much fun!  We got in some meals too - Chick-fil-a and Freebird's again.  I have probably missed those specific restaurants the most.

After a few days it was back to the first friend's house.  I had a lot of fun with her and her girls, too.  It was nice to just hang out with friends (both houses), and do normal things with them.  The girls and I read together.  They would color pictures for me.  My friend would do laundry.  I got to brush their hair some.  I got to watch their cheer practice.  I picked them up from school.  The dog would put its wet nose on my leg and I would squirm and tell it to go away.  ;)

I got to visit my old church on Sunday morning.  It was so nice to be back.  I saw a lot of people and saw the changes they had made to the building.  It's sad when life keeps going on without you.  ;) 

I had a real Mexican food lunch at Cristina's after church on Sunday with a bunch of church friends.  The next day I had a New Orleans-themed lunch at McAlister's with friends from the boys' old school.  The food was great, but the people I shared the time with made it even better!  I also had a dinner with another friend who couldn't make the group lunch and another lunch with 2 more friends who couldn't make the group lunch.  I am so thankful for these friends making the time to get together with me!  Unfortunately, I missed a bunch of friends, too.  Maybe they can come up here to see me.  ;)

If you want to see pics of the people I saw, you can go here.  It was a lot to try to put into the blog.

When I got back into town I was so relaxed and happy to see my family.  Predictably, that did not last long.  The boys who had missed me so much while I was away, seemed to delight in pushing my buttons now that I was home.  We are settling back into a rhythm now, and getting along well.  Evan has started soccer and some after school activities.  Joel is hoping to get into gymnastics.  I am taking on more PTSA commitments.  Steve is finishing the last few repairs and updates to the house to get it all shored up for winter.  I will blog more about those later.  But now I need to get ready for an adventure day.  Stay tuned for another exciting episode to be told soon ...