It is RAINING in Tampa!! Oh my goodness. We seriously haven't had RAIN since March. We need this so badly. So all I can say is "COME ON RAIN!! Mother Nature do your stuff baby! We need it." We've been having brush fires all around and it has just been soooo dry. We went camping this past weekend to celebrate Beltane with several friends & their families. We also celebrated a couple of birthdays and just had a good time hanging out. Unfortunately because of the dry conditions you couldn't have campfires so we couldn't do s'mores, roasted hotdogs,etc. But fun was had anyway. ;-) We have much to do before moving but we really needed and wanted to take this weekend out and just relax, have fun & be with friends. Now it is time to hunker down and get the packing done,etc. LOL!

Speaking of packing...things are moving along. We are getting more packed each day. Corey is on pager duty this week so we can't stray far from home so will be getting more done this week.

In just over a week we are meeting a friend of mine that I met online when I was pregnant with Alex. She's coming to Disney with her family and we are all getting together for dinner one night. We have a nice little story that is part of our history together. Her parents took her daughter with them on vacation to FL to visit her grandparents. While down here, her grandfather had some health problems and had to be taken to the hospital and then was transferred to a Tampa hospital. Everyone came to Tampa but weren't sure what to do with her daughter who was only 2. Her grandpa was in the ER and getting tests done and her parents & grandmother were all trying to be there for each other and grandpa. No one wanted her daughter to have to be around all of that, especially since it would be long into the night. I told my friend that I could go pick up her daughter and she could come spend the night with us. She would get some sleep, be fed and play with my kids until everything was okay and she wouldn't have to be around the ER and all the germs & tension,etc. After much discussion all around....see my friend and I have never met in person, we've only known each other online. As a huge demonstration of trust in me, she arranged for her mother to meet with me and if all felt okay then her daughter would come to our house. We met in the ER parking lot and talked for a bit. I passed the test and we got everything together and her daughter came home with me. My kids (then 2 and 5) were already in bed and we set her daughter up in Morgan's room to sleep. Bless her heart she snuggled right in without missing a beat. The next day she played with the kids, even visited with my dad and stepmother who were visiting from Saudi Arabia. We took pictures and sent them to my friend so she could see everything was okay. LOL! Later in the day, my friend's parents had decided that her dad would return back to WI with her daughter so we met up to bring her back. I must say that it felt wonderful to be able to do something for a friend like that. Just an amazing show of faith that she had in us, to entrust her one and only daughter with us...just an honor. It wasn't too long later that I got to meet my friend in person. She flew down to see her grandfather in the hospital but unfortunately he passed away just before her plane landed here in Tampa. I met up with her on the morning she was going to head back to WI with her mom and grandmother. It was a quick meeting...grab some coffee & talk for a bit and during a sad occassion. It will be GREAT to see her and her daughter again and meet her hubby for the first time under FUN circumstances. :-)

We leave on the 23rd to go to TN for the final walk-thru and closing on our house!! We close on the 25th. The inspection went well and things have been taken care of. The appraisal was yesterday and so far we haven't heard anything which according to our realtor is a good thing. LOL! The mortgage broker has all our paperwork and all that is going smoothly. And we are all getting excited!

Morgan's dance recital is getting closer and closer. Four days after we return from the closing on our house (closing on Thur, coming home on Sun) my mom is flying in for the recital. The next day we have blocking and then the next day is dress rehearsal and performance #1, then the next day performance #2 and my mom returning home.

Then we are hoping the following weekend will be MOVING weekend!!

ACK!! Will we make it in time? How will we get it all done??