July

Is it really almost August? How can it be? I have enjoyed being off of our regular routine in Sugar Land, but I am ready for a steady constant schedule. How many more days till school starts? Oh well, here is what has been occupying our minds and time....

The first full week of July was full of guests. My former co-worker, Wendy came to visit for a few days and we had some great "girly" time. It was good to visit with her to catch up on her life. Greg Warren, one of Stephen's groomsmen and our college friend, showed up in town and we caught dinner with him on Wednesday night as well.

Thursday after swim lessons we headed to McDonald's. It was Kendrick's first visit and Cavett's second, though he can't remember the first. They loved it! The one in Allen has a fantastic playground. The whole reason we went was a "blind date." It was a playdate to meet a friend of a friend from Sugar Land. We hit it off and we are looking forward to another playdate come August.

Thursday evening Brenda and Isabela arrived and Sammy followed bringing Stephen back with him. (Hopefully that was Stephen's last trip back to work in Houston.) We had a very memorable weekend full of laughs and tears, and of course the typical dress up times for the kids. We also got in a little shopping time too. We miss them terribly!

Highlights: Chick-Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day and Cavett's major fit in the restaurant

Lauren Davis' 1 year old Birthday Party

Brenda left on Tuesday morning and my crazy cousin, Sarah stopped by for the afternoon. Never a dull moment with that girl! She constantly has me in stitches, but yet can talk about real things too.

Highlight: Cavett is now asking to do the dishes!

Wednesday I spent cleaning and cooking. All of Stephen's siblings and parents were coming over for dinner and all but one spent the night. It was really fun to have them all over and pull out all my good china and crystal, but the events surrounding were not as joyous. Richard has cancer--an 11 cm inoperable mass on his liver and after further scans many small lesions all over his body. Chemo will start soon. For the past 3 weeks when Stephen hasn't been working, he has been with his Dad and family at the hospital. Again, I go back to so many scriptures I clung to in the mourning of my own father and my heart aches for what Stephen feels.

On a brighter note, Thursday we left for Shreveport via Tyler (to pick up Memaw) for my little brother's wedding. It was a perfect wedding and it was all just beautiful, not a single flaw! Congrats to Jonny and Amber. I told Mom at one point this weekend that it feels like I have known Amber all my life and that it was like she was born into our family. She is that wonderful! On the other hand, want to know who stole the show? Yep! That would be the "ring master and the ring leader"! They were perfect and stood so perfectly still through the entire ceremony. Only glitch was that they couldn't remember whether or not to take the bells with them on the recession. They also stole the dance floor as well. Cavett got to go to the toy store yesterday to pick out a special toy as a reward--this never happens, so this is BIG! He chose a gun, of course.

Highlights: Cavett's prayer after the wedding "God bless the beauitful bride, Amber who got married today."

Watching the kids dance.

Playing "Prince of Wales" with the Dent family after the reception.

When Cavett was asked his favorite part of the weekend, it was "dancing with Amber."

For more pics of the wedding head to my Facebook page.

We have 3 days at home and then we are back to Shreveport to drop off the kids and a car with my sister and Mom who will keep them while we are celebrating our 10 year anniversary with a trip to Napa, Sonoma and San Francisco. Stephen has a convention there next week and I will leave him on Thursday to fly back and take care of the kids plus my sister's two kids while they go to Portland, OR for a parents only weekend.

So, really.....after this next week, I will be ready for some monotony, a schedule, school to start. It's been a fun summer, but I need some structure. See you in August.........

Oh wait, I just remembered another issue...we are building a pool, so we have had pool guys out, bank guys calling, tile and travertine to decide on and I have been trying to keep Stephen grounded in his dreams. It will be nice and big, but may not be finished by the end of the summer. We will start digging Aug. 6 and may be done sometime in October. More fun times to come....