Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Welcome Home, Julie!

Before I get to the topic of this post, I thought I'd put up a few images that will end up buried in their original-topic posts. But, since no one will notice them at this point, I wanted to draw attention to them now.

This is a picture Kaela took of John and Sarah departing in a BENTLEY for their honeymoon. John breathed steam onto the window and drew the heart before lip-locking with Sarah....isn't that just so beautiful?!

As for these, they were found in the bottom of a bag Brayden took out to Camp Harlow during spring break that he emptied out to take to football conditioning. He was kind of protective of them as he hadn't read them first - and shy about me putting them on the blog, but after explaining to him that few things would make me prouder of him, he finally relented. And, in case you were wondering "Sonic P" is not a new slang to say cool....it really says "So Nice". =)


And, finally - on to Julie! Its been since September that we've seen each other. Since that time, she's been to Oahu, the Big Island, Moloka'i, Egypt, Jordan and Israel. She's also dealt with some pretty nasty kidney infections - that led to an all-over infection, that led her to come home for a week so that she could see some doctors willing to get to the bottom of it all. She's been given some heavy-duty antibiotics to prepare her for her upcoming trips to Bali and Sri Lanka. While I'm bummed she's been totally ill lately, I'm thankful God used the experience to bring her home during the exact week that her sister was induced to give birth to Julie's nephew. In fact, just as I typed this, we got the text attached with the picture of baby Ryder - who was just born. Tomorrow, Julie will leave Eugene, meet up with her dad in Portland, and then head to the eastern side of the state where her sister's family is (and her mom currently is) to join the family in celebration over there.
So, we got the in-between "stop" with Julie. Her, Kaela, and I are all catching up with our computers, content to just be together. I love this girl - I love these friendships - and look forward to a time she'll be around longer than 36 hours. (She arrived at 11:30 last night, we stayed up 'til 12:30....I had to take a nap this morning as me and sleep are kind of inseparable...and knowing tonight will be a party this evening with these gals - I had to prepare).

The rest of the afternoon and evening featured doing - according to Kaela - what the Rileys do best - relaxing, watching tv, and eating pizza! (Thanks Kaela!!!) Well, we do know how to just hang out, that's for sure. Will joined us, and once the kids calmed down, we all just enjoyed "kickin' it" - reintroducing Julie to "Survivor" and "American Idol" - things she's missed by obediently following the Lord in Hawaii and NOT watching tv!

We got a fun pic of her and the kids - and I was able to snap a pic of her and Will. Don't even ask about their current "relationship status", it's a great big question mark, but it doesn't mean we're not rooting for them to eventually follow the path of Jon and Sarah.... =)


While I know Julie feels like she is living two different lives these days, I think it was a huge comfort to her to know that when she returns, she fits right into this life just as easy as she always has - with lots of love waiting for her!!

1 comment:

j.nelson said...

you are dead.