Since last we spoke...

• We had Ruth's final birthday party--a double party with her cousin--with my side of the family.
• We got to have dinner with our dear cousins who we haven't seen in forever.
• We visited the family ranch out in west Texas, where we slept in a camper, rode in a Ranger, shot at jack rabbits and cottontails, and saw a deer, a turkey and quite a few sheep.
• We lived quite comfortably in our cabin in the Davis Mountains without air conditioning, television, internet access, laundry facilities and quite a few other modern conveniences.
• We shopped in a small-town grocery store.
• We delivered Jeff from a winged bug who tried to burrow into his ear in the middle of the night.
• We finished laying the floor in our cabin.
• We hung shelves in the closets.
• We installed baseboards in one room and stabilized the bunk beds. (And by "we" here, I mean "Jeff").
• We enjoyed rain on a metal roof.
• We drove around in the mountains, in the back of a pick-up truck, looking for deer.
• We found and reported a mountain on fire from a lightning strike.
• We watched cattle wander through the campground and especially enjoyed all the little calves and the huge bull.
• We tended to a sobbing, bleeding child who had almost bitten through his cheek. (And by "we" here, I mean "I").
• We played Scrabble and Boggle for hours on end.
• We visited with family members and old family friends.
• We helped with some of the work projects going on at the camp.
• We tended to a sobbing, bleeding child who cracked his head open when he fell out of a chair. (And by "we" here, I once again mean "I").
• We shooed a tarantula off the screen door on my in-law's cabin. (And by "we," I mean "someone other than me", since I was not the least bit interested in getting close to the nasty thing).
• We found the largest beetle that has ever lived.
• We did some small-town shopping and got some excellent bargains. ("We" here is "Ruth and I," since the boys were neither invited on nor excited about a shopping trip).
• We helped prepare meals in a slightly unclean, slightly hard-to-use kitchen equipped with seriously large utensils and implements.
• We tended to my mother-in-law when she tried to cut her finger off with one of the very large knives in the afore-mentioned kitchen.
• We saw billions of stars.
• We bought ice cream out of a rail car, and some of us tie-dyed our clothes with it.
• We (read "I") may have broken Jeff's pinky toe while trying to defend myself against yet another ear-burrowing bug in the middle of the night.
• We dutifully had ice cream for breakfast in an attempt to help the ice cream guy test the new machine.
• We spent about 10 hours in the van, making our way home from a fabulous and productive "Work Week" in the mountains.