Three Birthdays...and Dual Survivors.

My family never really needs an excuse to get together, to break bread, play games and laugh. We welcome it. But when there is an occasion, we wait in anticipation to see each other again. ( Debbie picked up Ben early, and I ended up being over an hour late, but that's another story.)

Tonight the gathering spot was at my niece's house. Kiley, Erich and baby Grayson opened up their home to celebrate Scott and Debbie's birthday's...oops sorry, I almost forgot to mention my almost 15yr old niece. Sizzle, Hannah!!  That is a teenager's word for ouch, or I got you!  Trying to keep up. Okay, I digress.

The night, ambience and food were perfect. When it came to lighting the birthday cake and sing, I kept scouring the room and even checked outside on the patio. I was looking for Jack. For one moment, I forgot.

Last night, Ben was at an overnight birthday party.When he got home the majority of the day was spent playing outside. At 2:30 he came home, I think he hit the wall. I popped popcorn and we snuggled on the couch watching the graduation of Zach and Cody on" Suite Life on Deck". Don't ask, but I cried. I've watched those boys grow up!! (I'm pathetic). Ben switched to Discovery Channel and we tuned into a program called Dual Survivor.

For anyone who has watched Man vs. Wild, it's the same concept. These guys are puposely thrown into these harrowing environments to show their skills as survivors. Dual Survivors is the same formula, except it's with two guys. The catch is one is a military trained survivalist, while the other is a nature based survivalist. Let's just say they're going through the same harrowing chain of events, but in different ways.

Long story short, Ben and I are Dual Survivors. We handle our "new" normal differently, even though we are going through the same harrowing experiece. Why is it that kids are resilient and adults fall apart? I guess if I knew that I wouldn't have a blog, I would be at Cooper's new basketball court shooting hoops!