Bellville

Yesterday was Matthew's birthday and I am so thankful the God blessed the earth with him 20 years ago, is blessing me with him now, and yesterday blessed us with beautiful weather for his birthday. Matthew was in Indiana playing soccer, but at least I got to enjoy the weather here in Texas for him, haha..It really was a beautiful day.

After a rather long and overwhelming week, I decided to go home to Bellville on Friday night and spend Saturday there with my parents. My parents didn't get home on Friday night until 10:00. They had to take some business partners from Africa out to eat. My mom said they were "schmoozing" to get a deal on my future wedding in Africa, haha. Hey, that's fine with me. I'll get married at the Royal Malewne, one of the nicest safari lodges in South Africa, who wouldn't? But since my parents were out having fun, I spent some time at my grandmother's house, indulging in oatmeal raisin cookies!

On Saturday I woke up at 9:00 to an absolutely gorgeous day and joined my mother and Mrs. Bader for tea and coffee at Magpies, a little coffe shop on the square, much better than any Starbucks. We sat at a little table next to the open door and talked for an hour and a half. I didn't realize how much I miss the pace of Bellville until I was sitting with them, enjoying just talking about green tea, guys, and life in general and not worrying about a chapter in a book for class or about work that needed to be done before the beginning of the week and probably wouldn't get done. It was just an hour and a half of enjoying the company of others. I think this is something I don't do often enough. People are so important and desire to be loved. You can show love just by sitting and talking with someone, without worrying about something else - just talk and listen and be happy about it and the other person will know that you care about them. God desires for us to love one another, and this is a simple way of loving.

My dad joined us a for about 20 minutes - we shared a cinnamon roll and then he took me out to play with his new toy - a 1980 Jeep with huge tires. He loves it. It really is a lot of fun to take out and just ride around in. He got it to play with in the country, but it's a lot of fun in town also. He taught me to drive it yesterday. It's a stick shift and the last time I tried to learn to drive a stick shift, I nearly ran into a tree with Nikki in the car and later got stuck on a log, also with Nikki. But my dad was patient with me as we were driving through town. He made fun of me some, but it was so fun. I'm still not very good at it, but I guess that just means I'll have to go back and practice, haha. We then picked up my mom so she could go get a coke, and then picked up some good BBQ and took it to my grandmother's house.

Later my mom and I ran to Brenham to run some errands and enjoy the day. In the evening my dad and I worked on a project for one of my classes together. I love that I got to spend time with both of them together, but I also got to spend time with each of them alone. I love my parents so much and really enjoy getting to be around them. I know most people my age don't think of their parents like I do, but I am so thankful for them. They really are two of my best friends and I think that's alright for your parents to be your best friends. They did a great job raising me and were wonderful parents while I was living with them. They are still doing a great job being parents, but they are also more friends now than they used to be and I think that's just because I am older and can appreciate them more. I'm so happy I went home and spent time with them. When you are overwhelmed, sometimes you just need to get back to your roots...I'm glad my roots are in the country with the slow pace of life!