Have not had time to post til now. So happy to have more fam around for a moment. Having my little brother here makes me feel very, very content, as if I have crawled back into the lap of some old memories.

I forget how nice it is to be surrounded by these crazy, dysfunctional, strange & weird people I love and who love me.

My mind and body is kind of on sensory overload. You have to be here to understand the cacophony of happiness we generate. On top of all us adults laughing and trying to over- and out-talk each other, we have the baby trying to get his two cents' worth in. He is definitely one of us. He already knows he has to make himself heard! As my mom used to say, get us all together and we start telling stories and lies so fast and loud, no one cares what the truth is as long as we are together. The other kids will be over tomorrow. Oh. My. Sanity.

Don't know if I mentioned the fun Darrell and I had making our Nilla Wafer Pie. I am mad that we didn't get pics. It was just us here while everyone else was at dialysis or busy with other stuff. SO much fun. I'd forgotten that Lil Bro could cook! That pie lasted half an hour with everyone grabbing a piece while dropping in to see Darrell. He and I are going to make another one for tomorrow's family dinner  - which we will be sharing with the rest of the Stateside fam via the wonder of Skype.... I will make sure we get some kind of pics.

This few minutes here is a little bit of a break for me. I love the fam and the noise and the us-ness, but if I don't get some time alone, I get jittery. Thank goodness the guys are all gone to the movies. Some kind of male thing they like to do. My sister and niece are handling dinner. I am just handling me. I need this silence.

But, again, I had to share with you how wonderfully content I feel at this time. It's been over 3 years since I saw my brother. I needed my fam-fix. (Talk to me in a couple of weeks, and I will be ready to go into a convent to get away from all this "love," but, for now, I am a happy gal.)

AND,  just discovered this really cool thing my camera does of taking two separate pics and kind of merging them. Sweet! I now have something else to play with for posting here. Surely will be doing bro-bro & sis-niece & all those combos... (I need to sit down with this phone one day & read the manual!)

Anyway...

I sure hope you guys get to see all your fam soon and have a big dinner or reunion or come-together of some kind. We need that every now and then just to remind us that we have people in this world who would die for us. That's love we won't always have. That's love we should celebrate before an illness or funeral or other tragedy has to force us together. I have had times when I was mad at one sibling or the other & holding one of my grudges of silence. That's not good. Life's too short & unsteady for that silliness. So, yeah - call somebody up and say something good. Feel something good. Remember something good. Don't let time get away from you.

Go on and call someone and tell them you love them, miss them, wish you were with them.

Peace
--Free