Updates

Sorry for my longer than expected absence.  Europe was great and yes, we've been back for almost two weeks, but it's been one thing after another.  There have been some very hectic days (like leaving for the weekend the day after I returned), some Grandma days (missed that little guy like crazy) and some very lazy but much needed days.  I promise I'll share photos and stories later but for now let me share what we came home to...

As you may know, Meg turned 15 while in Europe which, while it will be memorable, did lack the usual party atmosphere.  You can imagine her delight when she returned home to this....

Unbeknowst to us, two of her very "best besties" snuck into her room a couple of hours before our return and gave her a birthday to remember.

Taped to her shutters were a loaf of Panera french bread and two plain bagels. You have no idea how thrilled she was especially after spending two weeks staring at Irish stew and really gross fish and chips.

What you can't see from the above photo though are the balloons...

And I do mean BALLOONS!  I don't think I've ever seen Meg smile as much as she did when she walked into her room that night.

I, on the other hand, came home to this...

Apparently going through the mail does not fall into Randy's department. ;-) Given that he had full time dog duty for 15 days, I certainly didn't hold it against him.

Curious as to what's there?  Felicity Jane is a scrapbook kit.  The two boxes below it were items for Fin...a faucet spout, a pop up dinosaur book and a hooded shark bath towel. The fourth box was Meg's yearbook.  They messed them up (gave them 15 pages of a Georgia high school...WTH???) so they were returned and rebound.  There were a couple of bills and the remainder was pretty much junk...some to be recycled, some to be shredded.

It was well after midnight when we walked in the door (5:00 AM by our European clocks which meant that we'd arrived home exactly 25 hours after waking up in our London hotel) so sleep came rather easily.  Friday was a quiet day of recuperation and then Saturday morning I was off to my girlfriend's for my Miami bookclub weekend.  More on that, other happenings, and of course, Europe in the next few posts.