Visit w/ An Old Friend!! & Weekend Recap

 Sorry, this is a long one, and I tried to edit myself...this is what I ended up with.  I just couldn't tell the story without the details.    :-)

 Last week I had the chance to visit with one of my dearest friends from high school...not once, but twice!  This might not be unusual in many cases, but this visit was special.  This friend of mine lives in Africa!  She was a military kid and moved to our town in high school.  We became great friends and (particularly during our senior year and the summer before college) spent lots and lots of time together.  I remember so many high school dances, weekend hang outs, Christmas caroling adventures, trips to the beach, late nights working on projects... All fond memories. 

When it was time for everyone to go their own way for college, she returned to her childhood roots and went back east to Mississippi. We lost touch for a while besides the occasional email with big news. Once FB became all the rage, we reconnected quickly and have been chatting and commenting to each other since.  At the time she had 3 adorable kids and was still living in Mississippi. Although I kept my eyes open for cheap flights, I never made it to visit them there.  A few years ago, she and her husband made the life changing decision to become missionaries.   In (what seemed like!!) no time at all they had sold their home, quit their jobs, and moved their family of 5 to Malawi, on the eastern coast of Africa.  They had been there less than a year, when she became pregnant with their fourth child! 

My friends' family on the shore of Lake Malawi (it was on the Amazing Race last year! hehe)

To make what is becoming a LONG story, short... Everything went fine with the birth, despite power and water being unpredictable there!  Sadly, their baby boy was born with a cleft pallet and there are no doctors in Malawi who can fix it for him.  There is a team from California who are going to Malawi in February to perform these kinds of surgeries and my friend had been Skyping with the doctors to prepare as best they can. In the meantime, my friends Mom AND her husbands parents have experienced some serious health setbacks in the last month, and they (my friend and her husband) felt they needed to come back to the states for a few weeks to visit and help out.  On their first day back in Mississippi they got a call from the surgeon asking if they could make it to San Diego 2 days later because there was an opening for their son to have his surgery!  He had it last Saturday and I met them at the Ronald McDonald house (which is very cool!) where they were staying, for dinner.  I brought them Mexican and they were stoked!  :-)

 THEN on Wednesday- even though the surgery went well, there were some minor complications so they had to stay a few extra days - we met at the Cheesecake Factory (none of those in Malawi either) for dinner again!   Both dinners were over far too quickly.  We talked and laughed and cried.  Her baby charmed me and her husband was a really god sport when we started talking about old high school friends he had never met. 

Smiley baby makes us smile! 

So, basically, I just wanted to write about this visit, to remember it.  I kind of thought I might never see her again, to be honest.  And I am so (so, so, so, so, SO!!) glad I did.  :-)

As for this weekend...

It was pretty lazy, to be honest.  Which we need sometimes.  No mother in law, no Padres game, no guests or dinners or plans at all.  :-)

Friday evening after work (and traffic) I caught up on some blog reading, worked on a few posts, and picked my BF up from his brother's house.  We picked up dinner on the way home and went to bed pretty early.    

On Saturday we did some stuff around the house. I did a ton of laundry, we changed our water filter on fridge, watered the inside and outside plants...exciting stuff like that.  I also rented a couple of movies. We never go to the movies, and usually just wait for movies to come on HBO.  I wanted to see The Hunger Games, though.  So I tried Red Box (for the first time, very quick and easy!)

We watched it Saturday night.  I liked the movie, having read the books.  I think they did a great job with the casting, and as good of a job with the story as can be expected.  I tried not to pause it to explain things to my BF too often.  hehe

Sunday we did more "fun" stuff around the house.  (Home ownership is thrilling.)  We picked up my BF's motorcycle tire from the shop and I dropped him to watch football with his friends.  Then... I don't even know.  I know I watched some TV, put some laundry away, napped probably, played with the dogs for a little bit, and picked my BF up.  We had Thai food for dinner and watched Simpsons, Bob's Burger, and (currently) Family Guy.  Didn't even watch the 2nd rental!   We'll have to do that Monday night...

So, yep, that was our exciting weekend. (#sarcasmfont)
This is how we know we are getting old! 

Linking up with Sami and the ladies for Weekend (and my last week) Update. :-)