Coming Home

It was hard leaving Tuesday morning and saying our goodbyes.  This boy did not want to wake up, so I snuggled with him and cherished that quiet time together listening to him breathe softly.  There were tears when we left, but not just from the kids.  Have I told you before I hate goodbyes?  I do.  When a long distance is going to immediately come into the picture, goodbyes are gut wrenching for me.  This time, I was not just saying good bye to my second set of parents, but also to my children.  I won't see them again until the last weekend in July.  It is their time to get spoiled by the grandparents and filled up on love so that they are full of nothing but smiles and happiness when they come home.

We were probably close to 15 miles away from our starting point when Todd took a deep breath and said "Holy moly.  I just saw a bear."  If it had registered faster, I would have hit the brakes (because I was driving) and thrown our minivan into reverse (because that's what minivans are made for...quick braking and stunt driving/shifting into reverse) and then proceeded to take pictures.  But I was just as shocked at hearing it as he was at seeing the big, black bear.  So I have no bear pics to show you.  He said it was bigger than the cows in the previous pasture and it was close enough to the highway that he could see the pads on its feet as it slowly lumbered through the field.  Wow!  What a gift to see a wild bear.  Before this, neither of us has ever seen a bear other than in zoos or on videos.  There were no more bears after that, although we saw a handful of deer out during those early morning hours.

We stopped outside of Minneapolis to visit with Sean, an old high school friend of Todd's.  They taught tennis camps together in the summers.  We hung out for a coupla hours and had lunch together before we got back on the road.  I love this picture of these two friends! 

It seemed to take forever for us to drive through Wisconsin, even though we had these lovely skies keeping watch over us.

And it took us another forever to make it half way through Illinois.  But we had these lovely skies watching over us until the evening.

We drove through a patch of rain and the clouds darkened the sky so much that it was difficult to see all of the windmill farms.  They don't look very big until we were close and then they were absolutely massive in size.  These windmills are taller than our water towers and the blades may stretch the width of our house.  Easily.

When we stopped around 9pm to fill up the empty tank and switch driving/passenger seats, we were blown away by this sunset.  How gorgeous is this sky??

After driving a little over 1300 miles in two days, we made it home before 8pm Wednesday night.  It felt so good to sleep in our own bed again.  But the house feels so empty and quiet without the kids.  It felt so strange yesterday afternoon as I was finishing up work to know I didn't have to leave the house to go pick them up from summer camp.

I know I have said this before, but it needs repeating because the thought just keeps running through my mind.  I am so incredibly thankful (and simultaneously awed) by the patience so many of you have shown while waiting for me to make eggs or other beads for you.  Perhaps there is some foot stomping going on with hands on hips wondering when your name will get to the top, but you never let me see it.  Patience is not one of my virtues.  I am not good at waiting.  But you all helping me know how good it feels on the receiving end.  Thank you for that.

On another note, your comments are appreciated.  I may not be very swift in responding, but I try to get back to the post or continue the conversation in email if your blogger email preferences allow your address to be shown.  I tend to be a lurker on many blogs because I either feel like I have nothing different to say than the commenters before me or I would just sound stupid.  It probably goes back to that whole Nerd/Teacher's Pet syndrome I experienced in my school days when my peers looked at me like I had three heads and eleven fingers.  But that's a story for another time.  Anyway, what I'm trying to say is Thank You (again) and I'm trying to be better about responding to comments and commenting on other blogs I read.  In addition to your comments, here is a good post from Lori Anderson about being good beaders, although I think the message could be applied to any role held as a blogger, employee, wife or friend.

Last night I started back in on my eggs orders.  It felt good to be on the torch again for the first time in two weeks.  Looking forward to more evenings on the torch and time this weekend.  I hope you all have an excellent Friday and a wonderful weekend!

New bead pics coming soon :D