Last week Ms. Marla invited the girls and I to the Dallas Arboretum to see the fall pumpkin houses. So fun, but SO crowded. All was going well until Charlie stepped into a wading pool (wasn’t watching where she was going) and got soaked up to her knees. I think the water must have been cold because she screamed like crazy – I did manage to catch her before the rest of her got wet, but it was traumatic nonetheless. Luckily, I had an extra pair of pants in my bag, and two suckers later, my girl perked up and we finished up our visit and headed over to my grandmother’s house to meet up with Mimi, Poppy and Owen. I LOVE that Charlie has cousins her age – I never did. I cherish these times and realize – THIS is why we moved back. It is not lost on me that my relationships with my family seem stronger than they ever have. Times of great stress or tragedy will do that, but I think it’s more than that. In the past 10 years I’ve had to limit my visits to 2-3 times a YEAR. Since we’ve been here I’ve crashed with my younger brother and his wife after a night of partying, grabbed coffee with my older brother and kissed on my sweet nephew, and stood in the kitchen of my grandmother’s house and cried with my grieving father. I feel so blessed to be here. This is what life is all about: relationships, love, fear, struggle, survival.