I know, Meredith, I’m shocked too! Here we are, having a great time at your house, and I can’t think of anything to say about it.

I can see that you’re skeptical, Kenny. I understand. Anyone who’s spent more than five minutes with me has probably figured out that I am not short on opinions and I’m not shy about sharing them. As I was just saying to your mom about the difference between scanning and skimming—hey, come back! Where are you going?

Okay, you’d rather jump and rassle on the bed than listen to me go on. I totally understand. I don’t feel very scintillating. Maybe that’s why I’ve had this blank document open for three hours, trying to think of what to write. I’m using up all my wit and energy with real live people instead of spilling it onto my blog for the people who live in my computer.

Except in this case, the real live people are also people who live in my computer. But Kenny, you and your family aren’t internet people to me anymore; you’re friends who I happen to read about on the internet sometimes. It’s funny how that happens when you meet people you know online. It’s like some magical transformation. I know I’ve written about this before but no matter how many times I meet online friends I can’t get over it.

It happened again last night! Jamie drove for TWO HOURS after work to have dinner with me and Heather. Annalie was there too, but she’s been sick with a cold. I’d given Annalie Benadryl right before dinner in an effort to make her more comfortable, and it worked all right. It worked so well that she fell asleep on the five-minute ride to Chili’s and then stretched out in the booth and slept soundly while we all laughed and ate and chatted.

I’ve known Jamie for over a year via Flickr, where she was in the Swaparooni and 7 Days groups. We’ve developed our friendship via comments on photos and blogs and emails. And now she’s a real-life friend and I couldn’t be happier. I hope she feels the same.

Hmm, I guess I thought of stuff to say. And I have not even mentioned the pottery-painting.

A while back Heather was complaining to me that she wished there was a cool pottery-painting place in her town, so I did a quick internet search and sent her the link for a studio in a neighboring town. She and her kids went there once before and quickly realized it would be more fun for everyone if Kenny wasn’t forced to paint again. Let’s just say, his interest waned pretty quickly last time.

So after dropping an excited Kenny off at their Aunt Betty & Uncle Don’s house, we girls went a-paintin’. I have to say, I’m a bit jealous because this place was fantastic, with a great selection of bisque and a wide range of paint colors to choose from.

We all wandered around the shop, deciding what projects we wanted to work on. Meredith knew before she even got there that she wanted to work on a mug for her daddy, so she set right to work. Heather also knew she wanted to experiment with dots on a large plate. All she had to do was choose her colors. Emelie had planned out the plaid pattern she wanted to paint, and quickly settled on a food bowl for her sweet kitty, Jojo.

Annalie picked a really cool Christmas tree votive holder. She painted it green, then added dots for ornaments. Then for some reason she decided she needed to scratch the dots off with a toothpick.

It’s gonna be quite interesting once it’s fired, I bet.

Once they finished their pieces, Annalie and Meredith were both bored. They drew on extra placemats for a while but that didn’t entertain them for long. I gave them my point-and-shoot camera and watched them scamper off to the other side of the store. Soon we were serenaded by their giggles and I thought to myself, I bet they’re taking pictures of each other’s rear ends.

Mmmmm-hm.

Oh, are you wondering what I painted? For some reason, I was unreasonably drawn to a little, teeny tea set.

I am not generally a person who gets gooey over miniature, sweet, preshus things…but I simply HAD to paint this tea set. I mean, it was such a great price! (Okay, there’s my usual practical self peeking out from behind the pottery.)

Photo taken by Heather Sanders

Many more photos of our weekend visiting with Sarah & B, Rebekah, and Kristen & her family are on Flickr in the photoset MD friends in TX. Most of them are friends & family only.

We’re in OMSHville now and having a blast!

When we go to Starbucks, Annalie always gets one of the single-serving boxes of Horizon Organic Vanilla Milk. She loves it. Today she requested vanilla milk when we were not at Starbucks so I made up my own recipe.

It was easy to make. I filled a medium-sized cup with nonfat milk, maybe 8-10 ounces, and added a scant 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and a slightly heaping 1/2 teaspoon of granulated sugar. (Note that this homemade vanilla milk has very little sugar in it, just enough to make it a little sweet.) I stirred it up and handed it to Annalie for the taste-test. What did she think?

“Mmmm! I just LOVE vanilla milk.”

Score one for Mom!