After Too Long--She's Home!

Anna's back. After 9 months away. Freshman year completed. Only 3 more years of school to go. Only 3. That's what we keep telling ourselves.

For the summer, we're focusing on adventure. Anna wants to experience our hometown, to create memories to hold tight to during the dark days of winter that will come all too soon. We have a purpose and a mission and a list of things to accomplish--a list that we are tackling as fast as humanly possible. We've already seen Captain America at the movie theater, gone to the beach, walked along the seashore, met a lot of old friends at church, eaten roti canai, and gone swimming, so we're off to a good start!

So, what does it look like when your kindred spirit returns after being gone for so long?

Well, there's a lot of reading. Because she brought a ton of books that I've never read before back in her suitcases. So far I've read 5 of them. My favorite thus far is "When You Reach Me." by Rebecca Stead.

Also, she comes here and starts saying I'm way too skinny and asking Mom how come I'm so skinny and who is going to make me eat more food. Which I come back to with "What? Have you seen yourself lately?" And then it all turns into a "No, you're just skin and bones" "No, YOU need to eat more" fight until in order to prove our case, we both step on the scale and find that we both weigh exactly the same. To the pound. And then Anna's still not convinced so the measuring tape comes out and we measure both waists and they come out to exactly the same number of inches. Exactly. Which just goes to show the power of genetics and also proves that Anna has no leg to stand on when it comes to accusing me of being ridiculously thin. Also, she's obviously an inch taller than me which still makes me think that my argument that I'm not the skinniest one triumphs. Math, you know. The things that go on between sisters....

There's also been lots of housecleaning and organizing because as soon as we heard that Anna was coming back we pretty much just figured that all of the organizing could wait until she got here. She's still the only one who knows how to find anything and everything in Mom and Dad's house.

And we all know who Anna's first favorite is--Mommy. So Anna's visit home will definitely involve lots of time spent with her Mom...probably watching Korean dramas.

This summer is very different from last summer, when the whole family was reunited. We miss the other two siblings, but we're really happy that we can at least have Anna for a little while!

What do you do when you get together with your family after a long time apart?