family and furniture...Easter weekend was very nice. After being the Stone family representatives at a funeral Saturday morning, the rest of the weekend was spent with my family. We went to Mom and Dad's house and stained our new bedframe to match the rest of our new bedroom furniture (which I can't wait to actually have in our new apartment). Mom and Dad also bought us a kitchen table and chairs which is really cool. I'm excited that the next place I live will have a little more feel of permanence... not completely permanent, but a lot closer. Maybe "a sense of personal ownership" would be a better way of describing it. It will be
our stuff and our apartment, not a little bit of my stuff and a little of my roommates', and my little corner of the house.
Sunday morning we attended church at Westside, which was fun because I got to inform lots of people who watched me grow up that I am engaged. They were all really excited for me. After church, we headed up to Fernandina to visit the "big family." It was nice, aside from Joe whipping out the shotgun to kill a water mocossan in the pond. (Thanks for showing off our classiness, Joe.) I guess even though firing a shotgun isn't the safest thing in the world to do around kids, neither is leaving a water mocossan to crawl around where they're playing. I suppose this was the lesser of two evils. Anyway, other than that, the day was really quite nice. The weather was beautiful, which really is all you could ask for. The kids got to hunt Easter eggs, and we all enjoyed fried chicken and fish with all the possible sides. My Mema's health has been less than outstanding lately, so all afternoon I couldn't help but notice that she continually had a look of concern on her face, accompanied by short attention for most things. Over the past year, her hugs have become more serious in nature every time I tell her goodby. It's like she's making sure it's a good one in case it's the last. That makes me sad. You wouldn't really get it unless you've known her for a while, but she's always been one of those "invincible" people in my life. Nothing keeps her down. But now it's like she's expecting to go any minute. Rob said something to her about how we would see her in July (at our wedding) if not before then, and she made some comment to the effect of "Only if July's not very far away." Obviously it's natural for the health of older people to deterirate, but it's just weird for me to watch that happen to her.
In other, less depressing news, it's interesting and cool for me to see how some of us younger members of the family (meaning me and my cousins... not the little kids) are growing up. ("Duh." I know. Sounds obvious.) And it's little things that are making me take notice. Like Shawn. He's just graduated high school (last year, I think). I definitely believe that once you enter college (or the workforce, whichever) you are instantly the same age as anyone in at least a five-year age range from you, which I think helps people become much more comfortable being outgoing with a wider variety of people than they had been before. I suppose it's just the different level of interaction that you gain with people of different ages once you're out of high school. Anyway, all that to say that Shawn is seeming very grown up these days. He's now the age of some of my friends. He hugs me now. That's new. Much more outgoing than before. Speaking of which, my brother David hugs me now, too. I would attribute that to his graduating high school also, but if that's it, he's about 17 years late! I think for him it was the birth of his daughter Allison. It's like something clicked and he was suddenly more conscious of the fact that we're related and it wouldn't hurt for us to have some sort of relationship. He never said that exactly, but I was at his house one day about a year ago, and he hugged me and mentioned that he didn't know if he had ever even done that before. Again, I think it partially has to do with us being the "same age" now that I'm a part of the adult world. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone besides me! But he hugged me and congratulated me on mine and Rob's engagement on Sunday, which was nice. It's funny to me that David, Michael, and I all came from the same parents. Besides the obvious difference in lifestyle between them and me, there's also the random stuff like hugging or lack of. My brothers aren't physically affectionate in any way, while I, on the other hand, still kiss and hug both my parents. Anyway, that was totally random. I'm done with that tangent now.
All in all, it was a great weekend. Monday was long, as they usually are. Tonight I am looking forward to hanging out with the girls from Bible study a little at Cafe 11 before going over to Rob's. Tomorrow Rob and I are having dinner with the newley-married Holly and Kyle, which I'm also really looking forward to. Thursday is Fusion, as always, but this week I believe it is off-site at the pier. The weekend is going to be jam-packed. Friday the girls are throwing me a lingerie party, for which Allison is coming in town! A party and my best friend... it doesn't get any better! Saturday she and I will look for a dress for her to wear in the wedding. Then it's a graduation party for Erica. Sunday Rob and I are teahing Sunday school, then we have an early leadership meeting, then Krissy's graduation party. Sunday evening might actually be free, which will be nice. Then it all starts over again on Monday. Such is life.
Grace and peace.
