Of A Sweet Life -

its a little bit of a funky crop job - i took it from the car & didn't want the head rest in it : )

- - -

It's late, every one is in bed sleeping. It's nice to be home. Home is familiar .... But before we put away suitcases & throw away boarding passes there's this part of me that needs to go back & tie up with a nice bow this last week.

Maybe we'll use burlap since that seems to be the new trendy way to finish a wrap job.

Amie posts always somehow need to start with some background .... like she has a fantastic play list on itunes. It's so eclectic - it makes driving through Holmes, Co Ohio that much sweeter.

The very best part about her plan to have Sailor come visit when she turned 10 was that there was no way Sailor would be able to fly home by herself .... which meant .... I would have to go get her.

I would 'have' to go ... poor me :)

So why not plan a 30th birthday around the same time & turn a 'just go pick her up' into a weekend with days on either end?

Super idea.

Just. super.

 I love where she lives. I could drive for hours. It's so unlike here. I love the roads, the street signs. I love the green & the grass. I love the houses. I love the curtains in the windows and the laundry on the line. I love old men mowing lawns. I love how every house looks straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. I love the hills and the county lines that are constantly crossed. I love the stop lights & the way the grass always ends right at the road. They have groceries with names like 'Giant Eagle' and old fashioned high school football stadiums.

It's so unlike here.

But here's what I like better. Her life there. It's only made sweeter by what surrounds it.

That 30th birthday party her friends threw her .... I could have been a fly on the wall & survived just fine. They showed up in their ridiculously formal attire. They wore outdated prom dresses & boy scout uniforms. They wore gold with gold, bow ties with shorts. Plastic tiaras & too much eye shadow.

They wore pearls.

They came and they loved her and they laughed.
And they know her. And I just stood back and watched.
Not because they didn't welcome me or make me feel completely a part of what was going on.

I stood back and watched because I was seeing what she was living & why she is there.

And when you mix that bit of sweet with the sweet of the place & the sweet of the church - then add her to all of that, plus how sweet God is - you get it. You get why she's there & not here.

our funky formal ... she wore mom's old prom dress, i wore a thrifted beauty, she wore a tiara, i wore pearls -

Why we waited till midnight to take a picture of us, I don't know! Why she made a different face in every shot while I just stood there & smiled? I don't know either : )

You still say good bye through tears & tell each other things like it's only 4 months till Christmas. You still wish all that sweet life didn't have to have 1,000's of miles between it & here. But in this weird way you wouldn't trade it ...

- - -


We're home now. We're back to frying eggs & doing laundry. Giving baths & changing sheets. Potluck dinners & school orientations. Kissing babies & their daddy.

Life is sweet here, too.