I Know, I Know

but the internet here is SO SLOW!!! I haven't been getting online much, and when i do it is so utterly slow it isn't worth the effort. Still, I thought I had better at least check in.

So, here are a few tidbits of what ahs been happening around here:

• I made it to the doctor today: $200 later and I have a prescription for an ear infection and strep throat. Yuck. It better make me feel better, and I hope my insurance will reimburse me.
• I got to spend the weekend with my best girliefriend and she is still as wonderful as ever. It was so good to catch up and be with her. I really miss her like crazy when we are apart.
• We made it to Frontier Days and the kids had a rip-roarin' good time. They both managed to go through their $20 quick playing those kid-hungry carnival games. But their smiles were worth the pitiful stuffed animals and plastic junk they received.
• It is fun to be home with my mom and dad. My kids are scared of their house, as it is still torn up from the tornado. They won't even go pee without someone coming along. At least we have one room in which we can sleep, but everytime the wind blows, Jari tenses up and clings to mommy, fearful of another tornado. It's truly sad to see your childhood home ripped to pieces as mine is. But, it's still good to be home sweet home.
• The mountains, the millions of stars, the sunsets, the perfect weather, the happy smiling customers that are my friends, the neighbors offering horse rides and the wide, open highways....this is home. I have missed it. But now, I am savoring it. I will savor it until I part it again.
• My brother and his family have been in contact with me and mine. What could be the oddest, most hurtful reunion has gone much better than I had hoped. No, details are not ironed out, nor do I expect them to be during this visit, but I have seen my niece, my nephew, and my children playing, smiling, and laughing together. I have felt my brother hug me tight, and laughed with my sister-in-law. It seems cowardly to just let all the hurt go, but those few moments of feeling a part of their lives again may be all I really do need...it isn't being a coward, it is being a peace-negotiator. For now, that's what I need.
• Tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, the sun'll come out tomorrow...CUZ I get to see my husband again after 4 long weeks away. I have, as every time we are apart, come to recognize again all that he means to me, all I seem to take for granted oveer the course of our day to day lives. I can't wait to be reunited with the love of my life, and share this sweet home I am fortunate enough to rediscover. My family, all four of us, sharing the culture, life, and love of my childhood...that piece that will never leave me, that piece that formed me, that little girl who is now woman, still holding onto all of this, yet opening it all up to another complete world.
• I am home. Tomorrow, I will be home and complete. I have perfection at the tip of my fingertips...a perfect summer vacation.