Suddenly, Texas

Chad's dad got very sick late last week and wound up in ICU in Houston, so Sunday we all of a sudden packed up and drove down there. After a scary couple of days over the weekend, he is doing much better. He was even sitting up in a chair when we visited him on Monday and he will probably go home later this week.

After spending some time at the hospital Monday, the girls and I decided to let Chad and his dad have some time together. So we headed out to Baytown to surprise some people. Julia was dying to see Meagan and Natalie, her best Baytown friends, so I called their moms and arranged to surprise them by picking them up from school.

Here's Meagan's reaction. It's so much fun to surprise people like this!

After a Dairy Queen stop...


...we headed to the library, where these girls grew up hanging out together. On the way to Baytown, I had also called Lois, my best Baytown girlfriend, and she and her husband Bill met us at the library.


Bill asked Jenna to bring him a book for him to read to her, and she brought him one about the dangers of LSD!

Then we went back to Houston, where we celebrated my dad's birthday. We also got to help my mom out at home -- she's recovering from shoulder surgery. We headed home Tuesday and, this morning, sent a bleary-eyed Julia off to school. She's going to have a ton of make-up work, poor kid.

Another highlight from the trip: On the way home, we stopped in Hope, Arkansas (birthplace of Bill Clinton!) at Subway for dinner, where Jenna kept yelling, "I'M A ROCK STAR! I'M A ROCK STAR!"