safe and sound

We're baaaa-aaack! Thanks for checking my mail and feeding the mutt.

We stayed a couple of extra days, since we so rarely get to New York for Scott to visit his family. He's been up a few times in the last few years, but not enough, and the family all got together and had a big cookout and then there was his Aunt's birthday party on Saturday, so we stuck around for some of the fun stuff to help lighten up after the funeral. To be honest, I think Scott's mom just needed him around for a while, and we obliged her quite happily.

The drive up was pretty uneventful, except the van broke down before we left Monroe (haha, that's a whole other blog post for later) and it rained for the first 2 hours each way. But the kids were exceptionally well behaved, at least for the trip up. We won't discuss the drive home, k?

As for the stay... Well, Troy, New York and Monroe, North Carolina may as well be on different planets, so it took a little adjusting for me. Everything is so far away in Troy, no matter where you are, you drive 20 minutes to get where you want to go. Here, man, it's like 5 minutes to anywhere we normally go, and anything we typically need. His family is so great though, I mean, just really great people, and I think I enjoyed myself as much as Scott did. And just between us, I was a little worried since they hadn't seen me in several years. I ought to just get it through my head that I worry too much.

You see, I haven't been to Troy since Bren was a baby - he's about to be 9. I've had 3 children and lost 2 of them since my last visit. Scott's been, but for various reasons, I haven't been able to go with him the last several times. I was a little worried that they thought I hadn't come because I was stuck up or something. The truth is, I adore his family, and I'm a little jealous of how close they all are. My family isn't exactly the big-family-cookout-for-the-hell-of-it kind of family.

Anyway, I've got a week's worth of catching up to do. More later.