WHERE To Begin??

If "absence makes the heart grow fonder",
you all are LOVING me by now.. RIGHT?
In reference to my recent blog-hiatus.. let me just say this:
We all have trials in life.. (I have personally dealt with a slightly over-weight childhood, divorce, death,and varicose veins.. to name a few..) but I do declare that being without decent, full-size screen, internet access, for roughly a month.. has been one of my toughest.
Okay. Divorce and death were tougher.. but you get the idea.
After living like pioneers with two crashed computers for the last month, who knew disconnecting the battery from the laptop would make it all better??
(Well, apparently my darling out-of-town guest, did. Hala-ler-ya!)
So although our main computer (ya know, the one with all the photos of my 4 kids childhoods, and everything I've ever written on it..) still sits, crashed..
our laptop is here in front of me, fully functioning, all lit up like my Christmas tree!
(So in the holiday spirit of things.. can I get a
"HARK! The Blogworld starts to sing..
GLORY! Katy can write more THINGS!" )
I know. I'm much more giddy than you.. but it IS, exciting.
So.. again.. where to begin?
I'm guessing with my trip to Chicago for my dads 70th birthday, that included not only ME.. traveling all by myself for hours-- (loving every magazine-and-novel-reading-filled minute I might add. Ahhhh. Me time. Getcha some.)and not only getting a free ticket for letting them bump me to another flight (cause why NOT get bumped.. when it equals simply MORE, ME, TIME..) but taking a train into Chicago like a savvy and unafraid suburban-ite, meeting a new BFF while doing so.. and then walking through the buzzing night life of the Chicago streets(with my lip gloss I'm SURE shimmering in the street lights like your regular Sex and the City star..) to the fab hotel where I found my profoundly adorable family awaiting my arrival just as the elevator doors opened. And while that WAS a lovely beginning to a fun-filled evening of fancy food and great company.. I should move on to the real news maker of the weekend. Would it startle you if I mentioned that I ended up in ambulance??
I thought so.
Would it startle you MORE if I was in the ambulance, because while walking along Lake Michigan the next morning with my precious sister.. just a chattin' and a walkin' and a walkin' and a chattin'.. my same precious sister went to walk down closer to the lake.. and didn't see a cyclist coming straight for her at 30 miles an hour? He hit her really, really, REALLY, really, hard.
Watching the bike hit her square on, the cyclist flying into her body, and her body go down so fast, and so hard onto the cement.. and blood start to pour from her head.. sorry-- getting gory-- but it was just terribly, awfully, horrible.
So one broken thumb, four staples in the head, and a super sore existence still today.. I'm one grateful sista' that she is, in fact o.k. She doesn't feel good.. (and we kinda had to make just a little fun of the way she walked thereafter)
but she is, o.k.
Not the weekend report you were expecting now WAS it??
So. In other news: I am on the very CUSP of turning 38!!! (WHAT? Two years from 40 you say?? OH. I hadn't noticed.) At least I have my sweet St. Louis friend and her family here to celebrate with us! Par-TAY. So I will go back to being a hostess.. (instead of an over-eager Blogger who can't kill the need to play catch-up with the newly functioning computer and my world of cyber friends I've missed so dearly!)but I will leave you with Sophies latest words as she jumped onto a blanket I had spread out for her on the couch for her morning ritual of eating a little cup of dry cereal (don't judge me.. she does oatmeal, occasionally.) and watching a good Dora or two..
she literally squealed in delight at the anticipation of the coziness ahead and exclaimed:
"It's so much fun being ME!"
May you all have fun being you tonight!