And a Friend's a Friend Forever If the Lord's the Lord of Them . . .

Whew, what a long, fun weekend it has been. So much has happened that I want to blog about and the Good Lord knows I had enough time to think about it on the 5 hours it took me to get home...

First off, I want to tell you my favorite quote from Mickey's party:

"We sure love running into your Mom and seeing which purse she is carrying. She has quite the collection."

And I said, "Yeah, you probably can't help but look at her shoes to see how they all match, too, huh?"

I've never told her, but I do admire my mother's purse collection and her ability to always pull outfits together from head to toe. Unfortunately, those genes totally skipped over me and I'm forever in blue jeans.

Secondly, I have to tell you what an amazingly good baby Rosa Jane was all weekend. She let Mom and I have "craft time" every day as we prepared party favors for Mickey and friends. On Sunday, we drove through the driving rain (which I'm not complaining about since the whole state of Texas has been in a severe drought for the last months) to Houston to see the Princess Diana exhibit. It was very crowded and I was the annoying person in the crowded space pushing a baby carriage. But the exhibit was great -- the most notable was her gorgeous wedding gown. I always forget that she was just 20 years old when she married the Prince. Rosa Jane missed the entire day sleeping in her baby carrier. That day she slept from 12p to 5:30p. Unheard on any normal day around the house in Austin. I had forgotten her "Cozy Coccoon", so neither of us was getting as much sleep as we usually do in the nighttime.

Thirdly, I held a newborn baby, Ryan Hebert, on Monday. OH! How one quickly forgets how sweet and teeny, tiny they are! Though RJ weighed slightly less at birth (4 months ago today) than Ryan, I just don't think she was ever that itsy bitsy. I find it pretty tragic that new mothers are out of sorts when their babies are that wee little. At least, I know I was pretty unaware and would like a do-over minus all -- the ahem - pains of labor and recovery? There just isn't anything like a newborn.

Unless you're talking about the precious little 4 month old that Rosa Jane is today. She smiles for miles and miles and is so cute, she almost doesn't seem real -- it's Disney cartoon-like when she slow-blinks her eyes and gives you that adorable smile. She's getting ever chunkier and lately I've noticed some sore spots in the deep creases of her fat rolls and I think to myself, "Poor baby."

But the real purpose of this blog entry is about friends and how we are more because of them and less if they had not touched us. I'm grateful for my friends and my mom's friends and just for the whole wonderful lot that makes up the community in Liberty. I hope one day I'll have that kind of community whereever we end up living. I hope that I'll be able to shed this internal wall I've been building around my heart over the last ten years. I want to live and love freely and wear my heart on my sleeve. I know I'll get hurt, there really isn't any way around that. Not everyone will be as receptive and I'll just have to get over it and move on. The risks are great, but the rewards are even greater. I've been isolated and "protected" for far too long.

And finally, props to Michael W. Smith songs and summers at church camp. :-)