Chase is 12!

Yesterday we took Chase to Medieval Times to celebrate his birthday, and he was knighted by the Queen, and we enjoyed the horses...at least I did...more than anything else.  They are so majestic and graceful, and sometimes it hurts my heart to know that I'll never have the chance again to have my own and ride whenever I want.  There is nothing more amazing than the relationship you can have with a horse.  My horse Harlan...I didn't even need a bridle or saddle.  He knew what I wanted by how I leaned, nudged his side, and it's pure magic riding at night like that.  Nights I couldn't sleep, I'd crawl up on his back, let him wander, and I'd lay back on him watching the stars...some of the best conversations I ever had as a kid were with that horse. 

So anyway, sometimes it's a little hard to go to those shows...because especially if you are on the front row and can look them in the eye...it feels like home. THEY feel like home.  But we all had a great day, and the joy on my kids faces is worth everything.  

On the way back home, we drove past the turnoff for Chase's little 2 year old preschool.  Minnieland.  And a bit further up the road, Norman and I came up on where we had our horrible wreck (just over 9 years ago)...just a day or two before we were scheduled to move from DC to Louisiana, Norman fell asleep at the wheel (thanks to inept military doctors ignoring him for years...THEY allowed this to happen).  It was traumatic. We had had the high of him being celebrated at the Library of Congress...but in his exhaustion on the way to dinner, his body just went to sleep.  It totaled our minivan, scared the kids to pieces, and that was the point where the military started to take him seriously.  It seriously takes that level of a problem to get them to react.  Looking back, we were so, so blessed to be able to walk away from that accident.  It could have devastated us.

Well, that's all for now.  I'm up super early for church, so I should probably try and get another hour of sleep in.  So that's all for now! Ciao peeps!