Home is a Happy Place and White bread isn't.

After about 3 and 1/2 weeks Ben is home with us again. He drove 16 hours straight from Boston to GR, and arrived around 3 am... however Archie and I were in Crawfordsville, IN, visiting my grandparents, so he had no one to greet him, but he did get to sleep in a bed instead of in his car at a rest stop. So Archie and I arrived on Sunday around 1 pm, and Ben was at church! We had to wait an agonizing (okay not really that dramatic) hour for him to come home, finally! But we all had a very happy reunion and Archie certainly remembered who Ben was. They are best pals all over again.

It is wonderful to have Ben home. Being apart even for a day, helps you recognize how much you rely on your partner for so many things. Not just in taking care of the children, but for the simple every day things, for affectionate moments, for hugs of support, for bad jokes :), for companionship, for sharing and laughing and to have someone to think up surprises for. I love Ben, I love Archie and being together is the best- especially knowing that we are an eternal family and can be together forever.

So we had a very nice day yesterday, we took Archie for a long walk, played, cooked dinner with Alex and Christy and Mom, and sat around the table for two hours talking and being with everyone. It was great. We also learned that white bread is our enemy. We were talking about diets and how to eat better in general, and my Mom pulled the South Beach Diet book, and it basically told us that if you are interested in ice cream, it would be better for you body to eat ice cream at the end of a meal, than to eat white bread, ever. Isn't that crazy?! Crazy interesting, not crazy crazy. So my thinking is that I'll never eat white bread again and eat ice cream every day! Boo-yah.

Okay, really I don't want to give up dutch oven bread, or french bread, but I only eat those a few times a month, sooooooo that's just the way life will be. Plus, for some reason I am eating a lot more vegetables than I used to so that has to balance out something in my life, so there ya go.

Our plans at this point are to stay here until after the triathlon, Sept. 12th; Ben will continue his research, transcribing, analyzing notes ect. We'll probably leave the following Monday the 14th, be off to New Bedford MA, Ben will continue his research interviewing and Archie and I will meet everyone that he has become friends with out there. We'll be there for 1 to 3 weeks,.... I don't know how long is what I am trying to say. Then we will be off to visit family and friends on our long journey back to Provo. It will be great to see some of the East Coasters that we never get to see and some from my family that Ben has never met! And Archie will get to meet his cousins from NC!

So much to look forward to, and doing it together, that is the wonderful-est.