Got kind of tired packing and unpacking, Town to town and up and down the dial

Maybe you and me were never meant to be, But baby think of me once in awhile.

We are back from Cincy and have managed to fully unpack before beginning the packing process all over again. I am so glad that this is our last trip for good (well, we all know that is not true but at least there is nothing looming in the planner for the rest of the year). I have spent 27 days out of my 12 week summer traveling. That, I just realized, is an entire MONTH. And I also realized that by October I will probably be whining that we "don't go anywhere anymore" - will someone remind me of this pack/unpack frenzy of Summer 2006 when I get that way?

Our trip was good - we tried to see as many people as we could fit into our "new and improved" Cincy-visit schedule. We have finally realized that dragging the kids everywhere, every minute of the day was no good for anyone and paired down our itinerary. But I always feel guilty not seeing people we should and guilty for spending too little time with the ones we do.

I literally sit down with a planner, map out our free time there and email people with options:

"Hey, we are available either Friday night from 5:15 - 7:00 or Sunday morning from 11:30 - 12:05. Wanna see us?"

Brad and Sara were the biggest sports of all this last trip - they met us at Crossroads for 10 minutes before service and watched us talk to various people we ran into, sat next to us during service and then spent three minutes chatting before we collected the children and ran to our brunch date. Or maybe it was Grandpa who saw us for fifteen minutes before the children began to melt away from hunger and then for a very hurried, scattered meal at IHOP which I then proceeded to drop him off at the door, apologize for not getting out of the car because I saw a window of opportunity to get L down for a nap which she desperately needed, and gun it out of his neighborhood. Maybe he didn't even realize that we had been there if he looks back on it.

The most bizarre part of the trip was at Laureen's house - we stayed there the last night before leaving and were right next door while this was going on. I mean really! Thank goodness they found her safe and he will be back in prison where he belongs.

And thanks again to the Bender family with whom we stayed. We love you guys.