Playing Catch Up

I haven't posted in so long but it has been a busy summer. My sweet younger sister came for her annual summer visit. She is 17 now and we had a blast while she was here as usual. I had a really hard time when she left this year. I cried the night before she left, the day she left, the day after, and will probably cry writing this post. I am trying to convince her to come to college here in Texas but I don't see it happening. She is a Bama girl. I was amazed at her increased maturity level from last summer. But I remember my own junior year had many defining moments and I grew up alot in that year. She was still the same Tina but had a little more wisdom behind those eyes.  She was here for 10 days and we played hard. I was exhausted by the time she left.  One of my favorite things we did was go see the musical Hairspray. Neither one of us had ever been to a musical and thought it would be fun. And it was. We decided this might be our "new thing" that we do together when she comes.



We made several trips to visit family while she was here and Foxy granny spent a few nights with us of course. Some of my family came over one day to swim. Yes, our swimming pool is finally up and running after a month of greenness. We ended up having a tear in one of the filters that our pool guy some how missed when he cleaned it. After that was fixed the pool cleared up by the next day. Amazing, huh! So we finally got in it for our first swim on June 26th. Better late than never.



Tobey was so excited to have everyone over. He really grew some courage with the water after watching the bigger kids. He let me pull him around in a float and would even jump off the first step into my arms. Those are huge steps for him.

Tina and I did our usual things while she was here. We had scary movie night, played cards, played monopoly (she beat me both times), went shopping, ate and ate. Her last night here I took her to Texas Roadhouse because it is my favorite place to eat and it seemed an appropriate Texas send off. We both ordered my usual, the Dallas Filet and it was delicious. I ordered Tobey a sweet potato overflowing with marshmallows. We were all stuffed and happy after we left so we went to Target. I got some gifts for her to take back to my nephews in Alabama. I also bought the new John Mayer "Where the Light Is" DVD. It is amazing if you like John Mayer and I do. She bought a new car for Tobey and they had some final moments together on the kitchen floor.










Tobey fell asleep on the way to the airport which was probably good because he didn't see his mommy sobbing all the way home. When we got home he asked where Aunt Nina was. He didn't get to say goodbye even though she opened the back door and kissed him on the forehead. A couple of days later he was playing and he randomly looked up at me and said Nina...airport. I asked him if he wanted to pick Nina up at the airport and he said yes! I wonder how confused he is because my mom is Nana/Nina depending on how he chooses to say it. My sister-in-law Shanna is Neener and sometimes Nina. And now he has another Nina. So I am not quite certain which Nina he wanted to pick up from the airport. I am sure it was the latter one who is still fresh on our minds and hearts. I miss her so much already and she only left 5 days ago. Hopefully we will get out to see the Alabama crew this fall. If not then it will be May when my baby sister graduates! Crazy, considering I was 12 when she was born. I am so old!