Rain, rain, go away...

Well, we got back last night from visiting Matt's parents, and friends and family in the Fort Worth area. And it rained. And rained. And rained a great deal more. The whole trip, from the drive up there to the drive home. You get rather inured to rain down here in Southeast Texas, but lots of rain in North Texas is pretty unheard of. We started feeling as if the rain had decided to visit along with us.

Matt's mother is doing pretty well, all things considered. The chemotherapy is no picnic, but thankfully she's been able to take some medication that helps her deal with the worse side effects of the chemo, though even those weren't helping as much as time went along and the chemo started setting in. But we had a really good visit with both Mom and Dad, and Natalee got to charm Grandpa McMullen again. We also got to spend Saturday evening with Brent, Rachel, Pam, Eric, Daniel, Gabby, and kids at Pam's house, visiting, playing with the kids, eating lasagna and cobbler, and gleefully teasing each other, especially during the Wii games. It's a lot of fun when we can all get together. With Rachel and the boys back in Azle and Brent possibly in and out, we might be able to get together more often. *fingers crossed*

I also got to spend some time Sunday with Stephanie while Natalee was napping and Jay watched the boys. (Many thanks to Jay for giving his wife the heave-ho for a few hours of girl time) We ate Chinese food, ogled things we really didn't need, didn't have the extra money for, but played with and pretended we were going to buy, nonetheless. Afterwords, we consoled ourselves with some really fantastic ice cream and were very bad Mormon girls and gossiped about everyone we knew from church - how so and so was doing, where so and so was at, how many kids so and so has, remember him, what happened to her, etc. Good times.

We got to see Dad, Brenda, and my sisters as well. It's always a pleasure when I get to see my family. I'm so proud of the young women my sisters have become, from watching cartoons incessantly, running when it was time to brush their hair, and sneaking into bed with me in the middle of the night, to such poised, beautiful, creative, funny people. It amazes me that they've grown into two of the people I most want to spend my time with. Jennifer's been doing really well with her school work - she was selected for a very special honor group that visited TCU not long ago to discuss their college prospects and try out dorm life. Matt and I are very happy (dare I say it, smug?) that she still plans on attending A&M after high school. And Kara has been working her rear end off to put a new engine in her car, no mean feat. We're all three looking forward to seeing them both in June. Natalee was even looking for the girls afterwards, trying to see around Matt when he loaded her into the car. It was also really good to see Dad and Brenda. Dad is pretty much what you would wish for in a parent as an adult - always there to listen, encourage you, share what's going on with the rest of the family, and help you when you need him. I've grown to appreciate him a lot more as I've gotten older. And Brenda complements Dad perfectly, and has always been a fun and understanding stepmom. Plus she's been putting up with the girls' antics for years now. (Kudos to Brenda!)

Anyways, I'm babbling since it was so good to see everyone. The only ones we didn't visit were my grandparents and Aunt Kim and family. Since they live in Azle, we usually always see them, so I didn't feel terrible trying to set time to visit others we hadn't seen in quite a while. We made it home safely, hurrah!, and we stopped in West at the Czech Stop on the way back, so we got to enjoy very, very good food despite the awful weather. The cream cheese kolaches are divine! Everyone in the state of Texas should at some point try to make their way to West and sample the really fantastic Czech foods.

Until next time, TTFN and all that.