This weekend was full of wistful memories and great friendship. The kind where it makes you feel better just to be with them. You don't have to be entertained, and you don't get bored just hanging out. You're just happy to be in their presence after missing them so much.

And the fact that you know them so well and so completely that it doesn't matter if you get in their business, since you know it anyway and still love them. And you don't have to worry about walking around without your makeup in your pajamas, 'cause hey, they've seen you worse. Like family. Not just any family, but more like my family, where we know everything about each other because we share all. I am conscious enough to realize how lucky I am, because not every family is like that.

And today... a big surprise. I wonder how horrible and frustrated I sounded for a dear friend to drop everything and come over to help me clean house. I must've sounded pretty bad, but I can't be more grateful for the help, the company, the listening ear, or the sound advice. Thank you.

I miss the days when we would entertain a few times a week, several families at once, all of us close. What happened to that? My world was happy and complete. I had people surrounding me, and being the social butterfly I am, it made me smile. I would practically spend my whole day talking on the phone with all my friends. Now we're so busy that it's days, sometimes weeks, before we get a chance to call and say hello. Hi, how are you. I've missed you. I guess I should count my blessings that we still keep in touch at all, considering how many people I've regrettably lost touch with that I loved dearly and never meant to lose. That's what happens when distance and kids happen. Because kids become your whole world.

Not that I'm complaining or want to change anything about the fact that I have kids, 'cause God knows I adore them.

I'm so ready for a change. I feel like this house is coming down around my ears. Before I can fix the current problems, they get shoved to the back burner one more time while a new emergency rears its ugly head. Like on Father of the Bride 2, I'm ready to call it quits if one more thing breaks. The only problem is, since I made that decision, 2 things have happened and we're stuck. We have to fix them before we move. There's no way around it. Fix them, and then fix the other problems, too. I've set a goal for moving next summer, and if the band directors cooperate and let me teach their kids, we should be able to come up with the money to get it all handled before then.

I just see it as eliminating so many problems. Lower gas and toll expenditures, more time with Bryan, newer house with less problems, shorter drive to see family, closer to my two bestest buds, who now both live on the north side of town. Of course, I'm spoiled rotten and would probably still make the commute to church, simply because I'm unsure I'll ever be able to leave. Once you find home, it's like tearing an arm off to go. You just don't want to do it.

But this house no longer feels like home.