July 4th Weekend

I nearly titled this post "Kate, Triston, and Kristin" as they were a significant part of my 4th of July weekend. lol

Precious baby Kate was born on July 2nd via C-section and is doing well... Steve and Sarah brought her home yesterday.  Prayers appreciated for their family!

I came to drop off a cute little cake for them on Friday night.  I noticed some flowers that had been there for hours waiting to be delivered, so I asked if I could take the cake to their floor and drop it off there.  When I got to the 6th floor, Nancy was waiting in the hallway for them to come back after the C-section. I got to talk to her for a few minutes and hug her and hear the details of their stressful day (the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and her heartrate dropped severely, hence the emergency C-Section), and she showed me the first pic of her new granddaughter that Steve had sent her from the delivery room.  She was so relieved and thankful, and I was glad I got to talk to her for a bit and drop the cake off where I knew they would actually get it.  I haven't met Kate yet, but I got to see Sarah for a tiny minute as they wheeled her back into her room.  Very grateful that everything worked out well in the end, and praying for Sarah as she recovers now!  I'm taking them dinner tomorrow and looking forward to meeting Katherine Claire! ❤

Saturday was Kristin's birthday, and we met for one of our famous 3-hour Olive Garden dinner chats, plus a complimentary birthday dessert that she shared with me... yum!  I have a plethora of cousins and I love them all, but I'm closest with Kristin and feel very thankful that it has turned into more of a solid friendship with her where we've learned to trust each other and we talk about all the things... from favorite foods and movies to family stuff and friendships and church stuff to navigating grief and depression and anxiety.  I'm thankful for people who get me and who have grown with me, and I was happy we got to hang out on her actual birthday this year!!

Rach and the mini Miss K in matching church dresses for the 4th!

We gave Mom a very small break and helped a bit with Jace's eye therapy that morning...

The Whitaker fam came by at 4:30 for a fun swim day... I got this pic before I jumped in to swim with them.  It was fun times, and we need to make that happen more often!

We went by Party City around lunch time on the 4th and they were out of fun patriotic plates, but Charlene saved the day by bringing these from Sams! lol

Eileen's cookies for the win!  (Although I would've preferred Georgia's sugar cookies, but maybe next year. lol)

Diesel and one of the twins (?) checking out the view behind the blinds! lol

We had taco salad for dinner - YUM!, along with some cheesy hot dogs that were meant for the kids, but enjoyed by a few adults including myself!

After dinner... Kristin, Frankie, Heather, and I watched the boys play outside on the fort for a while... and had a memorable conversation about the side effects of certain medications.  It was light outside until 9:00 PM - I love that!  

The MWC fireworks started around 9:45.  Heather and I put our feet in the pool for that... (soooo many June bugs decided to join us, and she got the skimmer thing and scooped about 15 of them out of the pool - yay, Heather!)  We chatted about her job and the kind of work she is looking for.

In spite of the June bugs, it was super nice getting to swim that afternoon then relax with our feet in the water that night!

Carter asked me to record the finale, and this is a screenshot from that video. =)

Since Kristin and I didn't get a pic together at dinner or during our swim day, we took this one as they were getting ready to leave.  It was nice getting to see her and hang out two days in a row!

It was a mostly good summery holiday weekend with lots of family fun and good food!  There were some hard conversations and tensions around shifting family dynamics, but I'm grateful for God's grace covering all of that.

Triston and Carter's grandpa on their Mom's side passed away on the morning of the 3rd, so that was also really sad.  Prayers appreciated for them as they will be pallbearers at his funeral tomorrow.  T-man and I got to hang out and drive and have a good one-on-one talk that afternoon.  Then I took Triston and Carter both driving around 2 o'clock on the 4th (Carter's first time driving and Triston's 3rd), which was fun (while Mom cooked and cleaned and J&K swam with the Rutherford girls)!

That's about all I've got for right now.  Hope you had a lovely holiday weekend, and hope you have a wonderful week ahead!! ❤