Too much fun...

We have had a very busy week! It began with last week when we drove to Sidney, OH to drop the kids off with my parents. We made a side-trip to Columbus for family pictures and to visit friends. Then Josh and I drove back up to MI to spend the weekend with college friends. We stopped in Wauseon, OH to view the pug puppies on our way and have coffee with friends. (The puppies were SO CUTE!) Then we had a great weekend with ORU friends. I met my mom halfway to pick the kids up on Monday. Tuesday morning Seth woke up with a fever and now all three kids have hand, foot, and mouth disease... AGAIN. Yes, Seth and Lilah had it last year already. And now they have it again. They picked it up over the weekend either at church or the McDonalds playground. As childhood illnesses go, it's one of the mildest. Once the fever passes, the kids generally feel fine with just some mild discomfort from any sores they get in their mouth. The worst part about hand, foot, and mouth is that it is contagious and your have to be pretty much quarantined for like 10 days. So, we now have no plans for the next week. At least it all happened before Seth starts school.

Fundays!!!!

We have several fun days coming up that I am so excited about! I have been getting ready to leave tomorrow for my parents' house where we will be leaving our 3 beautifully loud children for the weekend so that Josh and I can come back to MI and spend an entire weekend with some of our best friends from college. But before the weekend festivities begin, we will be making a quick trip to Columbus to have some family pictures done and to visit our special friends, the Ross girls. Seth and Lilah are already bouncing off the walls with glee to see their best buddies and I think I always get just about as excited to get time with Erin. =) So we will very much enjoy an afternoon in Columbus and then will head back to Sidney to spend a little bit of time with my mom and dad. Then on Friday, Josh and I will be heading back towards MI, but will be making a stop on the way to visit my kindred spirit friend, Ruth (that's a shout out for those of you who know the value of a kindred spirit friend from Anne of Green Gables). I always love seeing Ruth and have to take advantage of every opportunity I can to get some time with her because we just don't live close enough. Josh and I will be driving near her area because we will be stopping by the dog breeder to see the pug puppy we are getting and the breeder is not too far from Ruth. And then, we will get back up to Detroit, where we will spend the entire weekend with several of our best friends from college.

There is a group of girls from ORU and we all lived together in the dorms and decided that when college ended, we simply could not bear the idea of possibly losing touch with each other. So, we created a "club" called the Sapphires and wrote all kinds of rules that required us to keep in touch. We are called the Sapphires because a sapphire is a precious stone that comes in a variety of different colors. We liken that to our group that is made up of multiple "colors" of personalities and our friendships take on different tones, but all come together to create something precious and beautiful. We are all well aware of the cheesiness of our club, but do not care because it is special to us and it has served its purpose of keeping us all connected. We all have real sapphire stones that we wear when we are together (and usually when we are apart too), we have a running Sapphire blog to keep in touch regularly, and we always pull through for each other whether it's a wedding, a new baby, or a less joyful moment that requires tears and prayers. We have a yearly reunion where we all get together if possible and we maintain a scrapbook following everyone's year between reunions. There are several Sapphires who can't make it this year because of new babies, finances, etc. But 4 out of 7 of us will be together and will have a blast catching up and being girls, and missing the girls who can't make it. This year was my year to host and I am ready. I have activities planned to keep us busy if we want, the scrapbook if done and ready to be "oohed and awed" over, there are Detroit-themed gift bags waiting for each Sapphire, and my house will soon be clean and ready to house us all. (Cleaning is on my "to do list" today and tomorrow morning). The hubbies are coming along this year as well, so the guys will have fun doing boy things. =)

And now I must go clean my house and finish packing for the Ohio drop-off. Yay for fun weeks!