Family

This has been a family weekend--wonderful and tiring. I spent Saturday morning shopping and grabbed a quick, early nap before the Frisco Alters arrived. The minute they arrived the girls hooked up with the kids next door--Alex, 10 (to Maddie's 7) and Hunter, 7 (to Edie's 4)--they all seemed compatible and were in and out of both houses all weekend long. Saturday evening about seven I called the girls home for dinner and to say goodnight to their parents who were going out for a "date." We had hot dogs and beans and mac 'n cheese--oh, and pickles. Can't forget those because the girls love briney things like pickles and capers. We ate on the front porch, and then just sort of idled away the evening. Maddie got herself all ready for bed, announcing that 8:00 was their bedtime; Eden announced she was not going to bed until Mommy came home. So I put her on Mommy's bed with her toys, and Maddie went off to sleep--that lasted for ten minutes, and then Maddie announced she couldn't sleep. We had a series of episodes--a huge water spill, some roughhousing and a couple of battles, a near cat fight (fortunately the girls were at the other end of the house when the cat went into his rage). And I had to lay down some rules: dogs do not get on the bed in my house, and no inside volleyball practice is allowed. They were still up when their parents came home at almost eleven, but everyone slept late this morning.
We had a late breakfast--okay it was lunch, because Jamie had to bike and run, but we went to the Ol' South Pancake House, a Fort Worth institution. Then we went shopping, and I got a printer (I haven't had one in my office for space reasons but Jamie fixed that) and a new cordless phone. Jamie installed everything. Having a printer in my home office is a delight--I was going to the office on Saturday mornings just to print off emails and the office, when you're by yourself with no one around on the streets, is spooky. The new phone wasn't working well tonight, but I'm too tired to worry about it. I'll work with it tomorrow.
I spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for Jordan's b'day taco buffet--by about 4:45 I announced that my back hurt, and I needed a glass of wine on the porch. People began to drift in, and we had a jolly evening. I had ordered taco meat from a great restaurant near us, intead of using those packages of seasoning mix (the difference is remarkable) and I offered garnishes of feta and cilantro and corn in addition to the usual. Everyone--sixteen people including the four kids--ate heartily, and most of us downed not one but two of the chocolate chunk brownies Jordan requested.
And then, Jamie, bless him, cleaned the kitchen. I kept telling him to leave it, it wasn't much, I could do it, and he needed to get his girls home because tomorrow is the first day of school after spring break. But he did it all--and truth be told, I was still tired, and I was more grateful than I can say. After everyone left I spent 15, maybe 20 minutes in the kitchen, not an hour. A hot shower, a quiet time at my desk, and I'm ready for bed, with wonderful memories to relive.
I have to attach to this a picture that Lisa sent me--it has nothing to do with me, my weekend, writing, any of the things I usually write about, but I thought she was so right on when she said, "Only in Texas"! These horses are tethered outside a Starbucks, presumably in Kingwood,, the Houston suburb where Colin and Lisa now live.