Yes, I did drop off the face of the earth, and I had a lovely time floating through space this past month. Actually, now that school is out for the summer, I've lost my rhythm. So many events filled with happiness and fun have distracted me from my blog, and I have so much to catch you up on!

I will strive to update. But I warn you, the random spillage from my brain will not necessarily be in chronological order...or even in logical order at times.

Let's start with my newly found phone. I found it last week, wedged underneath Liberty's car seat. I don't even know how it got into the backseat of the car, but I'm too joyful to investigate seriously.

I'm planning to help decorate the fourth of July parade float for our church this Thursday. I wonder how Liberty will enjoy that fun. She'll probably sit on the lawn and attempt to eat it while I work on the float.

My sister Charity came to visit us this weekend from Illinois. She surprised Jeremy for his birthday. When he came home from work at three in the morning, she was perched on top of the refrigerator. Kimmie and I attempted to hide in a nearby doorway to watch his reaction, but he spotted us right away and asked why we were awake. Charity sang out "Happy Birthday, Jeremy!" from her throne, and Jeremy looked startled and ready to jump into action, but he anticlimactically responded, "Oh, hi."

Jackie and Dave were married May 19th, and I flew down to the wedding in Florida. Our family camped at Lake Red Rock with Dan, Kari and Aaron the following weekend, which was Memorial Day. The next weekend, June 2nd, our friends from college Dan and Liisa and their kids stayed with us on their way to a family reunion in Oregon. Now, that was a lot of fun! Having old college friends spend the night, I highly recommend. They left us with big smiles on our faces and rejuvenated hearts. I miss my fun-filled, college days, but truthfully, I love my current, life-filled, family days more! The weekend after that was my birthday, and we celebrated by road-tripping into the City for fun. The weekend of June 16th, our family stayed home, no visitors, and accomplished some yard work. We have a sad little pine tree in our front yard that needed doctoring. (I've decided to name our homestead Lone Pine, which unfortunately sounds very sad and dreary, doesn't it?) We also found three little blue eggs in a nest in the tree. Kimmie named the momma bird Mary, and we began bird watching that week. Last week, the eggs hatched and we now have three ugly little baby birds who demand food from their muscle-building momma. That lady puts on mileage trying to keep her hungry brood fed. We've got to have a completely worm-free yard by now. That brings us to this weekend, which was Jeremy's birthday and Charity's surprise arrival. Chari left yesterday evening with Kimmie. They traveled back to my parent's house in Illinois, where my brother Nate and his wife Suzy will stop off on their way to our house next weekend from Ohio. They and their two dogs will pick up Kim from Mom and Dad's house, and finish driving to our house. They're going to stay for a week during fourth of July, and Jeremy and I will be taking vacation days from work during that week. Jeremy's dad and Tammy are also supposed to join us during the week of July 4th, so we're going to be having a blast! We even purchased some new games to play! I can't wait!