Home Away from Home-Coming

The Jones family has been moving at breakneck speed for the past few days. It was a really fun weekend. I'm super sleepy today but it was well worth it.

On Friday morning I had MOPS. We had a speaker named Kelli Gourley who teaches parenting courses and is a parenting coach. She was amazing and I learned so much in that hour. After MOPS, the kids and I had a fun lunch at McDonald's with a new friend named Heather and her sweet girls. We got home just in time to take shelter from the fierce storms that were passing through the area. Jackson went down for a nap and I kept an eye on the sky. I brought a mattress into one of our bathrooms in case a tornado came through. Thankfully, we didn't ever have to deal with that. Later that night, after most of the storms had passed, I headed out to another part of town to meet Marla Taviano and her family. They were visiting Houston as part of their 52 Zoos tour. What a sweet family! I wish we could have gone to the zoo with them the next day. They were staying at Kelli's house and I loved getting to meet her too. I have met so many wonderful people through this crazy blog world!

On Saturday morning we woke up before dawn to get ready for our road trip to Dallas/Fort Worth. I was so proud of us because we were on the road at 7 stinking 30! The weather was still nasty but the Lord protected us. Somewhere between our house and College Station, I'm pretty sure we saw a funnel cloud that had formed sideways underneath a cloud in front of us. I have a huge phobia of tornadoes and I immediately felt like I was going to be sick. I put my head in my hands and just started begging God not to let it drop down. It didn't, which is a very good thing because we were in the middle of nowhere and there was no shelter in sight.

Once we arrived in DFW, we met Sunni's family over at Janelle's house. This was Annabeth's first introduction to the whole crew. You can imagine how fun it was for me. It was also our first chance to meet Sunni's new baby, Clara. She is a DOLL! The girls quickly split off from the boys so we could do what we do best, which is talk and eat. We took the babies and they slept the whole 2.5 hours while we sat at a Mexican restaurant. The boys took the big kids and did the same thing over pizza. And by "the same thing" I mean there was grunting and eating.

After that, we checked into the Westin. I got a great deal through Priceline.com and was so pleased with myself!

Then we drove to Fort Worth for the the first birthday party of sweet little Jaylee Sheffield. Her mommy and daddy love them some crawfish, so the party was a crawfish boil. It was so fun, y'all! The cake was shaped like a pot of crawfish. It was the cutest, funniest thing I'd ever seen!

Later we went to Sunni's house for a belated birthday party for all the kids and for Janelle, who just turned 30. It was slightly chaotic, but would you expect anything less? We had hamburgers and chocolate birthday cake. Yum. Ella, Ava, and Jackson were so fun to watch. I was amazed by how well they played together. Clara and Annabeth had a little playdate/napdate on a blanket on the floor.

We left at 10 and headed back to the hotel. That night we got a small glimpse of what it's going to be like when we go to Disney World. Um, sleeping in the same room with two children is not restful. Not restful at all. But it's all good. I'd hoped that the dark curtains would give us an extra hour of sleep, but Jackson's body clock was stronger than the darkness. We got room service and, amazingly, an order of French toast, pancakes, a glass of milk, and a cup of tea ended up being as much as we paid for the room. Why? WHY? I will never understand such mysteries.

We got ready to head to the late service at First Irving. I had Annabeth in one of her cutest outfits, all ready to go. I just had to feed her first. As soon as she started eating, her sweet, precious little bowels began to move and I'm sure you know what happened next. The diaper absorbed nothing and poop exploded all over her and all over the pillow I was using instead of my Boppy. Awesome. Sponge bath. Change of clothes. Out the door and almost late after being lazy all morning. I'm sure the housekeeping ladies were thoroughly horrified by the scene in our room. Bless their hearts.

We finally made it to church. It blessed me so much to take Jackson and Annabeth there. We had a blast seeing everyone and introducing them to our girl and showing them our big, handsome three-year-old. Being there was very bittersweet. Instead of soothing the part of my heart that misses it so much, it made me miss it more! A few friends who have also moved away from First Irving just happened to be visiting that morning too. It was like homecoming or something. Angela and Lauren R., it was not the same without seeing your faces!

After church we had lunch with Bryan and Becca and their twin boys, Nathan and Jordan. They were born just 4 days after Annabeth. They are so sweet! I hate that we are not close enough to have playdates with them.

We drove by our old house and it just looks terrible. The house is still cute and my red door looks fab, but the yard obviously gets mowed only when they get a notice from the city. How sad!

Before heading home, we dropped in on the Habermehl family. They have 4 big kids, a trampoline, and plenty of race car toys. Jackson was in heaven. We loved getting to see them and catch up a bit.

We finally got on the road at 5 p.m., only stopping in Waco for a quick dinner at Schlotzky's. For some reason that place also sells Cinnabon rolls and we did not hesitate to get some to go.

We finally pulled in our driveway at about 10:30. We were exhausted but had the best time. An added bonus was just having time to talk to my man with no distractions while the kids were asleep in the car. We've had some of our best conversations on road trips.

I totally forgot my camera and have no pictures to show you unless my friends have mercy and send me some.

This is going to be a super busy work week for me, so I might be scarce. Although every time I say that, I end up posting more than usual. Hasta luego!