Happy Birthday to Nicholas (almost)

Tomorrow is Nicholas' 12th birthday, and today we are going to go to my good friend, Holly's house who invited us to come and play on their boat in their lake while she drags the kids behind on innertubes.  Nicholas is very psyched!  We are back at the Perrellas due to breaker problems at the other friends' house.  Our trip out west is slipping through our fingers.  The cost of gas alone is almost double what it would have been a few months ago.  Tim is still hoping for a miracle to pave the way, but my hope quotient on it is pretty low.  I was really wanting to drive the camper out to Dallas for our conference and then fly the kids out at the end of the conference and go west from there.  But I finally resigned myself to that not happening and Tim agreed we should just go ahead and get round trip tickets for he and I, so I did that yesterday.  The good part about that is that my brother invited us to stay with he and my sister-in-law who live like 20 minutes from the conference, so I'm looking forward to getting time in with them!  I haven't given up on the trip out west forever, it just may not be the right time.  It seemed like a perfect time to me because we don't have the responsibilities of a house and other commitments to try to juggle.  I've lived long enough to know that things are not always what they seem - so while it seems like a perfect time, there are other reasons why it may not be, and I'm trying to keep my hands and mind open.  :-)  So the plan is to stay here, go to the conference, and come back and look for a place to live.  Well, I need to get ready for Little Church, so I'd best be going.  Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!