We finally got home from Texas yesterday. My aunt is doing much better, although she is not out of the woods yet. I am so glad that we went to see her! She is so precious to me. I do believe that she will get to go home at some point in the near future. Thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for her and for us!
We got to see Amber and Victoria, along with Amber’s new husband, Bobby. I can’t believe how big Victoria has gotten! And she is absolutely beautiful. She looks just like Amber did at that age. Amber looked really good, too, and it was great to get to see her again. We got to see other family members, too: Joey, Gaylon’s brother, and three of his younger kids: Matthew, Dorinda and Jonathan. Faith and Dorinda have been writing letters back-and-forth for almost a year now, so it was really cool that they got to see each other and hang out for a bit.
We attended Mass at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, where my mother converted to Catholicism when she was in High School. (How sad that the daughter of a Cradle Catholic had to “convert”!) It was cool to go to Mass there, but the acoustics were really, really bad, making it very difficult to hear what was being said. I did hear and totally agree with one thing the priest said, though: it really doesn’t matter if it’s a dry heat or a humid heat, once you get up to 100 degrees, it’s HOT! (It was almost unbearably hot the whole time we were there!)
On the way home from Midland, we spent an evening with my cousin Branden and his wife, Laura. I have been wanting to meet her for such a long time! We email and blog back-and-forth, but until this past Sunday evening, we’d never met. So, that was very cool. 
I wish we could have spent more time there, but Faith was sick and we needed to get her on home. (She and Mom both came home sick . . . happens every time!)
Anyway, we are all really glad to be home. I really miss all the mountains and trees when I’m gone! Did I mention it was only 71 degrees here today?
