After

Since we were already in Mount Pleasant, we decided to spend the remainder of our weekend with Heather and Will. Kate and Olivia miss each other a lot so it is always nice to have them together. They really get along quite well about 80% of the time. Kate ended up leaving the cemetery with Heather and Olivia while Nick and I stood around talking for just a bit longer. Eventually we made our way to the house and changed out of our fancy clothes. Heather and I took the girls to Hallmark and let them pick out some new Itty Bitties together. Kate ended up getting a ton of them because they had a lot on clearance at that store. The stores around home never put the Itty Bitties on sale.

Once we got back home I changed again into lazy lounge wear. Heather had planned a yummy dinner for us with this really delicious chicken taco recipe she found. We all ate and talked again for a bit about the events of the past two weeks. I was beyond mentally, physically, and emotionally drained, but I enjoyed the company nonetheless.

The girls continued to play after bath time for a while so the adults sat down to play Skip-bo together. I really wanted to sleep, but also wanted to spend some quality time with my friends. Finally it was time to sleep, which I hadn't really done very well in the past couple of weeks. I don't know if it is because everything was finished now or if my body had just had enough (or if it was the melatonin that Heather gave me) but at last I was able to sleep really, really well. I woke up the next morning feeling better than I had in several days.

We rarely come to Mount Pleasant without getting an MP burger, so we met up with Mom, Richard and Trey there for lunch as well as my cousin Nikki and her two kiddos. Mom and Richard had stayed with my aunt for the night. After lunch we made our way out to Grandma's house where we did what we always do at Grandma's house - we sat around the table and just talked. We spent an unusually long amount of time talking about pillows for some reason, but it was just the kind of mindless chatter I needed.

Heather made homemade pizzas that night for us and we ate well again. We played two rounds of Skip-bo that night before it was off to bed once more.

Finally on Sunday afternoon it was time to make our way back home. Dad's birthday was Sunday, which was really difficult for him. He ended up not spending the day at home alone, but obviously he didn't feel like celebrating much either. He spent the day the best way he knew how, so we let him do what he needed to do.

I think we really needed the break from reality to just hang out with friends and relax before heading back to the normal routine of life, or whatever the new normal routine of life will be.