While Greg's Gone

As many of you know, Greg is in Africa again.

Yes, I'm sad and VERY jealous! He's in South Africa right now, heading to Swaziland soon and will end his trip in Uganda. It'll be a long 3 weeks!

So, what am I doing to pass my time????

Greg left on Friday morning and Friday night I threw an "Opening Ceremonies" party. A bunch of the HopeChest gang came over for the evening and we had a blast. Something about Colorado is making me a bit domestic lately so I even made 2 pies and a dip! I know, I know...It's a big deal for me! I think the deal is that I've never had a house big enough to really entertain this many people!! I LOVE having a basement. We had 10 adults and 14 kids and it was still a fun party! And you know me...I love to cook, but only for massive amounts of people!

This weekend, I decided that if I wasn't going to have an exciting Valentine's Day...well, someone should! So, yesterday our friends Vince and Sara dropped off their kids and I got to spend my afternoon/evening with 6 kiddos. We had a BLAST. I have a bit of a tradition when the Giordano kids come over....it's always Dance Party time! I love our big sitting room b/c it's the perfect space for a bunch of kid to groove :-)

Today, I was early for church (yes all by myself!) but it didn't last long. Davis peed on himself and Gracie was throwing a fit. Lovely. Seriously, don't these kids know that I THRIVE on corporate worship? I wasn't having a good morning at that point. Thankfully it picked right up. I had Tom and Emily Davis drop their kids off for the afternoon so they could have a Vday date! Vince and Sara were kind enough to embrace the chaos and join me too! We had 3 adults and 10 kids for breakfast for lunch! We made muffins, scrambled eggs and pancakes for the team this afternoon. The adults eventually left and I had the kids (9 of the 10) for the rest of the afternoon.

You guys may think that's crazy, but I LOVE it. I love the house full of the noise of happy children. The kids made up games, danced, ate and played together so well. The big kids and I spent most of the afternoon attempting to get a fire blazing...yeah, not so successful!

That's basically my plan for while Greg is gone. Borrow some extra kids a few days a week and make it a party. I've also had a couple of friends offer to watch mine so I can have some peace and quiet. Here in Co, I've found the joy of just sitting at the local coffee shop by myself with my music or computer and just getting some quiet time!

I also plan on catching up on some blogging while watching the Olympics! Tonight, I read through my sweet friend Darbi's blog. You should check her out. They just moved back to Zambia as missionaries. Just reading their blog made me long for Africa again :-)

(yes, expect a bunch of blogging recommendations this week :-)