We got everyone all ready and rushed out the door. We were going to be a little early, my plan was to be 15 minutes early so that I would have time to collect myself and be somewhat calm before they got there but everything seemed to go down hill. First we hit traffic. Jeff probably apologized five times like he had caused all the congestion. The traffic finally cleared up and we were on our way and I was on the verge of puking. We took our exit and began looking for the restaurant we were to meet at..........and couldn't find it anywhere. While Jeff drove I craned my neck all around trying desperately to find that familiar looking sign. In typically Stacy fashion I began thinking to myself "What if we never find it? What if I wrote the address wrong? What if they closed the restaurant years ago and another one has opened in it's place?" In all our planning to meet we never exchanged phone numbers with one another and I just knew we were never going to find it. I knew that Jeff, Tracey, Piper and Courtney were sitting at the restaurant waiting and were thinking that I had changed my mind and wasn't coming. "This is awful, they're going to hate me, we are never going to find it!" And then the level headed person in my life, Jeffrey, got on the phone and called information, what a brilliant idea. Information, I mean, how smart is that, that is what it is there for, i-n-f-o-r-m-a-t-i-o-n. So Jeff learned that the reason we couldn't find the restaurant was because it was inside of the mall. Where was the mall? I won't bore you with all of that, we did eventually find the mall but the new problem was a parking space. I kid you not when I say we probably drove around for 15 or 20 minutes trying to find a parking space. Now the valet parking I saw when we first got there made sense. The whole time I am once again panicking "They have to be thinking I'm not coming, they are going to give up and leave........oh, a parking spot.....I'm going to barf". I grab the baby and Jeff has a little hand in each of his hands and away we go. I am gonna be sick but I am a woman on a mission, I have got to get there before wham Kati walks right into a side mirror on a car. Being the stellar mother that I am what did I do? I laughed. I laughed because I felt nothing else could go wrong at this point. This wasn't a little bang where you can say "oh, rub some dirt on it" (more of my stellar skills) she really hurt herself. We needed to stop for hugging and kissing and comforting words and more laughter from me while Jeff tells me "Don't laugh, she really hurt herself". After we are on our way again I can't help but smile to myself because now the girl is probably going to have a fresh black eye, and why not, that way they can think we were late because we are terribly parents, that is if they are even still waiting. We make our way into the mall and now the decision was which way to go, this is one big mall. Jeff leads the way and walks and walks while I try to keep one eye on him and one eye looking for one of those direction thingies at the same time ( I had left my phone at home and the chances are if I had lost site of Jeff I might have had a nervous break down thinking I would never see him again, much like the time I thought he left me forever at Wal-mart but that's another drama for another day). We came to a dead-end, to turn right or left? We were about to turn left when I saw the very bottom of the restaurants sign, "Wait! It's that way". We begin walking even quicker, I'm praying for peace and threw the open windows I see the face of my little sister. A face I haven't seen in over seven years and now I can't wait to get in the door and hug her. I saw her face light up with recognition too. Oh, what a comfort! If you are wondering how the rest of the visit went.........

this picture ought to tell you. If you know Kati then you know it didn't start out like this. Piper, Jeff and Tracey's little girl, wanted to be buddies right away but I guess all the talking Kati did at home was just that, talking. She wanted to sit right by Piper but she didn't want to talk. At one point Kati spelt drink on herself and Pip kept trying to offer Kati a napkin. Since Kati wouldn't take it Piper just wiped Kati up herself, while Kati pretends the whole time that nothing is happening.

I would tell you more about the visit but this post turned out much longer than I had intended, and all about just getting there. There really isn't a lot to say. We had a great time, I didn't want to leave. We could have talked for hours longer and I still would have wanted to talk more. Oh, I do have to share this with you because it's too "Jeff" like to not share. As we are about to part ways Jeffrey (mine) says "Now that we know your not crazy we'll have to have you out to the house some time". Oh, my Jeffrey, I think I will have to spend the rest of my life telling people "He is only kidding", and when I roll my eyes I'm only kidding because it's one of the reasons I fell in love with him.

Left to Right:
Jeff, Courtney, me, Tracey

To bad Bear wasn't looking at the camera too!