"Live, I wanna live inspired. Die, I wanna die for something higher than myself. Live and die for anyone else, the more I live I see, this life's not about me."
-"Burn Out Brighter" by Anberlin

Anberlin's one of my all-time favorite bands, and you should most definitely check them out if you haven't.

Thanks for all the sweet comments on my last post, and welcome, again, to my new readers. I hope I don't scare you off too quickly...

All righty, so this past weekend I headed back to my home town with Michael, my younger sister, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Shawn. The weekend was jam-packed of seeing loved ones. It was great. Saturday we met up with one of our best friends (my maid of honor), Shannon, and her awesome friends Margaret and Becca. We got caught up on everything over coffee at Starbucks. We always go too long without seeing each other and talk for hours. I love it.

After visiting a family friend of Michael's, we were supposed to get together with all of my siblings and their significant others to play games and eat dinner. Well, my older sister, Beth, came down with some horrible virus that mimicks mono. Needless to say, she couldn't hang out, but Michael and I went over to say hi and take her some "get better" gifts. Besides, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take pictures of my littlest nephew, Garrett. (Her other three kids were in Dallas for the weekend.)



That's Garrett. He's almost 8 months old, and is pretty much amazing. He's grown so much in the past month, it's ridiculous. He loves giving kisses and sharing. His older sister, Madi, taught him how to nod, but it's more like a full body nod. It's hilarious.



Still spittin' image of his daddy. He's still refusing to crawl, and would rather stand, with a little help. He's also still putting absolutely everything in his mouth.

It's adorable.



I miss him already. Hopefully my big sister is feeling better, too.

The rest of us got together though. My older brother, Craig, and his wife, Anastasia brought over some pizza, and we all played Cranium. Then (the card game) Hand & Foot. Then The Office Clue. It was great. This is Sarah and Shawn. Isn't my little sister beautiful?



Mike and I may have gotten one good picture in that night... He'd had a lot of caffeine that day. More than is good for his slightly flawed heart. He had more energy than I think I might have ever seen him have. So most of the night I looked at him like this.



Even so, I had fun. My family's amazing.

Sunday my mom and dad cooked lunch, then Michael and I met his mom for coffee.

I love coffee.

After that, we met Michael's dad for a really early dinner, before heading back to Manhattan. Overall, it was a great weekend. Full of love. What more could I ask for?

I really didn't mean for this post to get so long. I'm most definitely supposed to be studying right now (Physical chem quiz tomorrow, archaeology test Thursday, biochem quiz Friday. Ugh.) plus I need to cook dinner and do laundry.

Man. This being a grown-up thing...

How'd everybody's week start out?

much love,
alex