it was a dark and scary night...

and I was sound asleep...when my phone gave a little beep. Just a tiny little beep, but it shattered the hum of the fan, and alerted this soon-to-be-gramma that...her water broke. Her contractions are four minutes apart, and don't worry, that's all the detail I'll be sharing, because her labor is her story to tell, not mine. I am sitting here waiting to hear what they say when she gets to the hospital, because she wants me there for the birth, Miss Mali.

It give me a chance to write while it is quiet here, and to keep my mind off the feeling that I should hurry out the door and get there real quick-like.

Life has been busy. Samuel has been visiting Fort Drum, the Army base up in northern New York, for Air Assault School. When out and about on Thursday, Sam let us know that he would have a 3 day weekend, and we could come pick him up. So, we told the family that I was taking Evelyn out for dinner, and would be back later. It was a dark and rainy night...

And we got lost. That is a big Army base, and our gps wasn't sure which gate to send us too. We tried two before getting to the right one, and of course those nice M.P.'s wouldn't let us step one foot past the gate with no military I.D., so Samuel had to walk from his barracks in the pouring rain. A passing car picked him up, thankfully. We caught up on things, and I reveled in just being with Sam as I drove through the rain. We stopped for coffee, then for gas...and of course he had to have chicken nuggets. :) The more things change...

We surprised most of the kids, and Paul, when he walked in the house with Evelyn and I. It was super fun.

Friday morning, we surprised Grandma with a little visit.

I made cookies over the weekend, and a fabulous dinner on Saturday night of burgers on the grill, corn on the cob (do you know how hard it is to eat just a half of ear of corn?)...and lots of tomatoes from the garden, chopped up with fresh sweet onion and fresh garlic...

Then a camp fire...no marshmallows for me.

and off I go to the hospital...bye!!! super excited...