When things are going swimmingly in my family, I know something’s up. I know that it will be short-lived. Not to be ‘doom and gloom’ or pessimistic, it’s just how things pattern themselves in my life. We said goodbye to our friend on Sunday as he was preparing to deploy to Iraq. Our small group had been getting together weekly for about two years: dinner, catch up on life and then into Bible study. We love being together. All of us, minus the guy heading out to Iraq and his wife, got together that Wednesday for our regular weekly meeting. We talked about some pretty philosophical stuff. We talked about free will versus predestination. We went over prayer requests and struggles along with victories. We didn’t foresee how much our lives would be changed in less than a week.

Monday morning I get a phone call. Not from the home of the deploying husband but from the house of one of the gals who’s with us all the time. It was her best friend. “Eric was in a really bad car accident—and he was killed.”

…

What? No. This is Eric. Big, tough guy, Eric. Everyone’s best friend, would do anything to help anyone out, just saw him, Eric. This has been one of the worst weeks in my family’s life. This was my husband’s best friend. Our boys went to preschool together. His wife is a great friend of mine and when Bill was deployed, Eric is the one that would wrap his big arms around me and encourage me. He sang on the praise band with Bill. We had plans for the summer. His wife would look at us military wives and shake her head and say, “I don’t know how you guys do it—I go crazy when Eric’s gone for a week and here you are with your husband’s gone for six months or more.” They were married for thirteen years. Three beautiful kids.

The service was today. Standing room only. He touched so many hearts that people from every stage of his life were present. My husband sang in his honor.

We miss you so much, Eric.

Oh, Wait, Here I Am!

It’s been much too long since my last post. I’ve been floating around and visiting everyone else, but my door has been closed to blog-visitors. Life, while good, always seems to be crazy. Perhaps I can try to sum everything up in a few paragraphs.

Excuse #1 for not blogging: my friend from high school who has since moved around the country came out for a visit and was here for three weeks. I needed lots of time to fill in the months we don’t have together, there was a wedding thrown in there (not hers, but her sisters), and a new baby I had to snuggle with. Shopping and dinners out and quite a bit of girl time took precedence over writing.

Excuse #2 for not blogging: my mom. I just saw a sign that said, “If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother”. Well, this time it’s true. My mom was diagnosed with cancer in March. By May she had gone through numerous doctor’s visits and three surgeries and I was with her for almost every visit. I got to take care of her like she’s cared for me throughout my life. She’s stubborn. And she’s a mom. So guess who was trying to make ME a snack less than an hour after leaving the hospital post same day surgery? “Mom, would you please sit down? You JUST GOT HOME!”
“Oh, I’m fine.” And then later she wonders why she’s so tired. Um, helloooo! Your body is trying to reform itself while you’re running around the house.
If you’re interested, she’s doing great and it looks like she’s free and clear, praise God!

Excuse #3 for not blogging: Celebration bonanza. My birthday, mother’s day, Leah’s birthday, father’s day, Trey’s graduation from preschool (seriously, do we really need to do this?) Chuck-E-Cheese birthday parties every other week. Oh, did I mention, my kid doesn’t eat pizza? Yes, we are the weird ones at the party who have the kid who gets the salad bar at a pizza place. I counted all of the celebratory things that happened or are yet to happen just in the month of June for our family and there are NINE. Nine events to either plan or attend. Feast or famine. I’m sure August will be a slow month and I’ll be complaining that we’re not doing anything. I’m prepping to punk my boss' office this week in preparation for his 30th birthday. His wife and I are on secret missions to make sure each of our plans works out: mine in the office, and the party she’s planning for him at home. The wife and the secretary, a perfect pair. Dun-dun-dunnnnn!

Excuse #4 for not blogging: Life. Bill’s actually home. I do my best blogging when my head is about to explode from being a single parent and I have no other outlet. However, things are looking really good right now, which frankly, we really needed after a year like 2006. I’m sharing the parenting responsibility (what a novel idea), I get a break more than once a week and I get to have adult conversation every. single. day. Yes, it’s confettied with “please stop talking when mommy and daddy are trying to have a conversation!!” but at least we’re in the same room. We’re getting together with friends, we’re having dinner with other adults, we’re preparing to stick one kid in kindergarten and one in preschool. ACK! How did that happen?

So amidst all of these things we’ve had little sprinkles of this and that. I’m trying to get reconnected with my step-sister who has a daughter Leah’s age. I’m 85% of the way done with potty training Leah. We’re preparing to go on a week long retreat in the San Bernardino Mountains next month. Life is good. Busy, but good.