home from france, and no word from sam...

Yesterday I went to a graduation party for one of my niece's with only the two little girls. Jonathan went to the zoo with some of the kids from church, the five girls (Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja) went to Watkin's Glen with the 12-18 year old group from church, ect ect, and the only ones left were the princesses and I.

Emily and Abigail and Mali had a birthday party for me at their house in the evening, we grilled steaks and chicken. Abigail made a pasta salad, Mali cut up fruit, and Mirielle made these deadly little individual vanilla cakes, served with whipped cream and strawberries. I was only going to eat the strawberries, and just taste the cake. Yeah, right. It didn't stand a chance, that cake. Oh heavenly yumminess, it was good. It was nice that it was individual though, no slicing off another tiny innocent little piece, just to make sure it was really that good....

I picked Paul up at the airport at 10:15. For him it was like 4 in the morning, so he was pretty tired. He went to bed tonight at 8:30, after falling asleep on the couch a few times. Jetlag is no fun.

We did have a pleasant day...some of the girls spent the night at Em's last night, so we had a small crew here, Joseph and Margaret and Evelyn and Jonathan and Char and Camille. We weeded the garden in the rain, and went for a little walk to pick flowers when it cleared up. I made them nice little meals, and we cleaned the house and did laundry and I read the entire newspaper. Daddy brought the girls those little rubberband bracelet kits, so that kept them busy, and they have been playing Barbies today.

Emily called and asked if she could take Evelyn, Jonathan, Char, and Cam...camping! Just for one night, leaving tomorrow morning. Of course I said yes:) I told them right away, so they could have maximum Looking-Forward Time. That's the best part about an adventure, isn't it? The anticipation? We packed jammies and swimsuits and rolled up their sleeping bags, they are SO happy.(I have a friend who never used to tell her children about upcoming events just in case things got cancelled, so she didn't have to deal with their disappointment. They got ripped off on all that delight in what was coming....)

They are going to the Adirondacks. I want to go, of course, but I am smart enough to know that having Mom go changes things.:) Emily is an excellent adventuress because she doesn't get jangled when things don't go according to plan, mostly because she doesn't plan every little detail. Things fall into place, and they always have fun with her.

We haven't heard a peep from Samuel. He must be in some serious training, down there at Fort Benning. Last weekend he had his phone, and called and texted us. He called Monday and said he would let us know how his test on Tuesday went. That's the last I have heard. Perhaps they didn't test on Tuesday, perhaps a new drill sgt said no more phones, I don't know. Perhaps he got in trouble, but I can't really fathom that. I don't know, and the speculation is endless. I did hope that he was being really sneaky and cleaver, and was going to just show up at home without telling me, but he doesn't quite know how to buy a plane ticket himself, and plus, he would be too excited about coming home not to blare it over facebook.

So, we wait and we pray and we practice patience, and try not to let our imaginations run away from us.

And, we enjoy summer because it's delicious.