I am, yet again, three weeks and a lot of miles older. And this time I even made the mistake of falling in love, with the Midwest, even with its humidity and mosquitoes. There is something unsettling about the dry, lack of heaviness in the air back home. It is like the start of an addiction, or a romance, because I am already getting anxious to go back out, and October is too long of a wait. Michigan is a hazy childhood memory that I can't wait to relive. My grandma's house was a summer wonderland even through the initial homesickness and fights with cousins. Each time we'd get back on the plane to go home I would look out the window and cry because I never wanted to leave that place.

So anyways, here is to October, and the useless facts I learned on vacation, like that channel 50 is TLC in Des Moines and how to get to the post office in Kickapoo. Also here is to laughing so hard under the stars that you could throw up. I will cherish these memories for a very long time, and I am so grateful for the people God has put into my life. My heart is full, if still aching to be gone for a few more days.


Some things I picked up along the way:

"And then I took the bricks from the backyard, and then I put them in the car, and..OH GOSH....OH GOSH."
"What, Johnny?"
"I just realized how much TV we watched today!"
-Johnny Mitchell, age 10, during a crisis moment in telling Philip how he spent his day.

"Mom, you have to remember your age, because us kids can't keep up with this kind of stuff."
-Johnny, again.

"Oh, did I just start another fire?"
-Judy Hahn, casually during the middle of a story

and after getting home:

"I've been going for the past three years. It doesn't really help, it's just annoying."
-Austin, on football camp in price.