spring break...chapter 1

i woke up to an empty house this morning, after it had been filled with activity, love and laughter for the last 2 weeks.  chad's mama had been here from iowa for the last two weeks and his sister, brother-in-law, and our nieces and nephew had been here for the last week.  there is always a sense of loneliness and sadness after visits like this one.  chad handles things fine.  i'm the one that struggles.  i have learned that i crave togetherness...probably more than the average person.  i won't go to bed at night unless i am falling asleep and i'll never be the first one to walk away from the fire pit or the board game.  my philosophy must be,

"keep the party going..."

so, when i didn't wake to the sound of children trying to whisper but really squealing and the smell of davey's famous pancake breakfast this morning...it threw me off my game.  i walked around the quiet house, looking around at the emptiness and hearing nothing but quiet... and i felt sad.  our kids were back in school.  chad was back at work.  our family was on the road...somewhere between here and iowa.  annslee was asleep.

my people were gone.

on our first night reunited...we went out to topwater grill.  this was after dinner and before chase was hit in the head by a falling, 12 ft., extremely heavy pole.  the large pot that was filled with cement was not heavy enough to hold it up and when chase stepped over the rope that was tethered to it...we watched it begin to fall over in slow motion.  chad lunged to try to catch it and i screamed at chase to move...but it went down on him too fast.  it hit him in the head as it slammed to the ground.

miraculously...he began screaming and didn't lose consciousness.

we took him straight to the ER where they performed a ct scan.

the test showed that he had a concussion but no scull fraction and no brain damage.

we talked a lot about angels and thanked God, through tears, for protecting our boy.

****

the park happened...

a little baking happened...

and the beach definitely happened!

this girl can not get enough sand on herself to make her happy...so she just keeps trying.

kids climbed trees for the first time.

truth be told...the story telling from this chapter of family and fun will take at least 3 posts.  but that outta get ya started.

it was a good week.

i miss my family.

i wish they lived closer.

i wish we had these times more than twice a year.

i guess...that's what makes these times special.

next up...

rabbits, rodeos, and shotguns.