let me tell you . . . . . .

 . . . . . . how much I love my niece and nephew!  An accidental phone call led to me meeting my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew for lunch yesterday.  It was a wonderfully serendipitous meeting as I haven't seen them since we went to the beach in July.  It's a pain living an hour and half from each other, we're all busy and I'm not so good about making time for myself (which I'm trying to do better with, I'm taking a staycation next week!).  Anyway, I accidentally called D when I was trying to call my dear mother (one touch calling is nice until you call the wrong person) and I ended up meeting them for lunch like I said.  It is such a heartache to see them both so grown up.  I remember them both as itty bitty babies, changed their diapers, got thrown up on, have embarrassed myself just to see them smile...all that's going away now, or I guess the dynamics of it are just changing as they get older.  Anyway, I thought I'd share a timewarp moment with you!

Picture it: January 2001, Aunt Holley visits the hospital 

Please forgive the crap quality of this photo, it was taken with a Polaroid instant camera (this is not the model, but I thought I'd include it for the youngsters so they wouldn't be left out).  If you look closely, you can see the S's left nostril is clogged up with a giant buggar that we all got to see close up soon after this photo was taken when she discovered it.  It was a wonderful age for buggars :)  I wasn't able to be around much when S was an infant and we had a rocky relationship when she was a toddler but now we're tight (or at least I think so).  However, C seemed to come into this world smiling at me and he still does as you can see below.

This was taken this past 4th of July when I entertained them for a few days while D and K handled some unexpected household matters.  We went to DeSoto Caverns, the Montgomery Zoo, and to the movies to see Wall-E which is where this little photo strip came from.  Thanks to yours truly we all barely fit into the little booth but I think we managed to make it work.  S has the other copy of this and I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoy my copy.

The fun part is that I get to see them all again on Saturday when we meet for lunch to celebrate my dad's birthday!  I'm sure I've mentioned before that D is my half brother and, of course, Daddy is who we share :)  Everyone is coming to the library and we'll eat somewhere close since I only get an hour for lunch.  I might be able to eeek a little more time out of Daxx the Magnificent as he is usually very patient when little delays pop up at lunch time.  I'll have to remember to tell him about it tomorrow.  Well, ya'll didn't come all the way over here to read about me making a mental to-do list so I guess I'll say goodnight!