Labor Day

American Flag flown over the GWB

I went home for Labor Day. An hour into my drive I was ready to be done driving. Six and 1/2 hours later, I thought my rear end was never going to be the same. The drive home was much nicer (and shorter).

I arrived, Friday night, to a house full of teenagers. My mom had organized a surprise birthday party for my youngest brother... 16!! It is funny to see siblings grow up and start doing things that you remember doing not so long ago.

Saturday morning I woke up unsure of where I was. It was a pleasant realization that I was in my parents home. When I got up we went to watch Ben play football. The games were only short scrimmages, and I was never quite sure what was going on. When Ben's team took a break the parents, Arrin and I took the opportunity to run to get a bagel brunch. Delicious.

Later that day I went with the parents and Ben to finish up his Eagle project. I got to practice my knot tying skills and became very grateful for electric drills. Ben and the family worked so hard on the project, it really looks great. I'm amazed that the town finds so many things for Eagle Scouts to do. Every year I hear of at least one or two boys that recently completed their project.

Saturday night we had a nice evening at a family friend's home. Quite a few people came and it was a nice party. Arrin and I left early to get a little shopping in before Sunday. We then went home and watched Freedom Writers. This is the first benefit I have found to having Shiloh gone: I get to watch whatever movie I feel like. A number of times I've wanted to see Freedom Writers, but Shiloh was convinced it would be another Dangerous Minds, and did not have a great desire to watch it. Arrin was very nice and gave up an evening with friends to watch it with me.

On Sunday we attended church and had a lazy day. In the evening a woman from the community was baptized and we attended the service. She was very excited. It was a very nice meeting, many members came to give their support. She will make a great addition to the congregation.

On Monday my dad refreshed my tennis memory. We spent about an hour and a half playing and chatting. My mom played for a while and then decided her time could be better spent running around the track - tennis was not a lot of exercise, but it was nice to spend time with my parents.

Arrin is a Senior this year, and as such participated in many pre-senior activites on Monday. The first of which was decorating cars. Here's her original paint job, however, I think it may have change some later in the day. I remember my senior year. I'd doesn't feel like it was that long ago - but when i think about it, quite a bit has happened in the 7 years since. Life continues to pass by, faster and faster.

I was able to break away and get on the road around 3:00 and made it back to Virginia before too long. I was able to spend time with all members of the family which was long overdue. The weekend was very nice, but strange to be visiting without Shiloh. Soon enough.