Surprise!!!

I woke up this morning at about 6:30 or so (while everyone else was still asleep) and moseyed on out to the kitchen to get my traditional morning cup of "Joe", and then sat in my comfy chair in the family room to set my heart right for the day by reading some of the Bible and praying. I wish I could say that I faithfully do this everyday, but my flesh is often too weak to be so disciplined. About thirty minutes later Victoria sauntered into the kitchen, within my view, and she asked me why Annie's car was parked in front of our house and some of her clothes were strewn across her bed. I thought for sure she had mistaken the car for someone else's. I mean grey Toyota Camry's are a dime a dozen out here and I see a gazillion of them that look just like Annie's on the road all the time. But the clothes on her bed? Well, that was another matter altogether. It was obvious that Victoria was perplexed (as was I the more I thought about it) and somewhat worried. So I got up and headed to look out the window and sure enough, that was Annie's car. (I should know, I drove it for years.) I then walked into her room, but she wasn't there. There was only one other place she could be in the house and, yes, that was Barret's room. Both Victoria and I walked into his room together and there she was, her sweet little silhouette etched in the dawn light asleep on the top bunk. We walked up to her, jiggled her body and said in unison, "ANNIE!" She opened her eyes, smiled, and said, "Hi, guys." She had decided to surprise us by coming home for the night because she went to a John Mayer concert about one hour south of here and figured she might as well head home and love on her family for a bit before she headed back to Mount Hermon on Sunday afternoon. Standing in Barret's room I glanced over at Victoria and could see the most satisfied look on her face knowing that one more of her chicks was in the nest, if even only for a few hours or so. I must admit that it brought similar joy to my heart. We had a nice afternoon together before she headed down south. The picture above captures a tender moment between Poppy and Annie as they were together for a short while today. Annie's now safely back at Mount Hermon again for another week of counseling. In fact, as I wrote this blog entry this evening Poppy saw the picture of Annie above on the computer screen and she said, "Daddy, I miss Annie." "I know, Poppy, we miss her too."

Yesterday Victoria and I ran a few errands and on the way home she couldn't resist the temptation to stop at a couple of neighborhood garage sales (one of her most joyous weekend pastimes). As we drove up to the first one I stuck my thumb at her pointed in the down direction (silently indicating "Please don't subject me to this 'torture'."), and she instantaneously motioned back to me with her thumb in the up direction. She won out. And she scored! The dress-up outfits shown below brought such pleasure to the girls, all for only a few bucks. I couldn't help but post these photographs of them gleefully sporting their "new" garage sale wares.

Warmly in Christ,

Tom