After a detour around town (thanks to my talking on the phone & not listening to the instructions of the TomTom), I finally pulled into Ben & Shellie's around 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. The drive there was nice as I listened to a couple Todd Agnew cd's & sang along. Anyway, I arrived at the Bextermueller residence & was greeted by Ben & his son Jase at the door. That was my first time meeting Jase who is 7 months old. I had not been there very long when Ben left for the day to head into work. Shellie & I had never spent any amount of time together without Ben so it was enjoyable for us to get to talk & learn more about each other. I am grateful for the time we had. While Ben was away, we went to Maggie Moo's for ice cream. Shellie & I got the same kind & boy was it good! I had lots of fun with Addie (2 1/2 yrs old-almost 3) who was just as entertaining as I figured she'd be. Ben finally made it home from work about 8:00 p.m. & was nice enough to cook us supper (which, by the way, was quite tasty--hot dogs). After Shellie & Ben put the kids to bed, we stayed up till nearly 2:00 a.m. talking--Ben & I filling Shellie in on days gone by. We had a blast reminiscing. Ben was bent over double almost in tears laughing as I told Shellie the "onion ring" story that Ben was dying for me to tell her about. Sometimes, it seems as if those times were just yesterday & at other times, it seems like it was a lifetime ago. We told her all about our many t.p. outings (for those unaware of what t.p. stands for--that would be toilet paper) & so much more. Finally, we were all tuckered out & headed to bed so that we could wake up for church. I was pleased to get to go to church with Ben & Shellie but disappointed that I did not realize we were in KS until Ben informed me we were (I did not see the state sign as I was not looking that direction at that moment). I told Ben that I was really bummed out because he could have stopped & Shellie, the kids & I could have piled out to have him take our picture in front of the state sign. Apparently he was not interested--he felt he had enough of that on our trip to FL when Haley, Crystal & I made him stop at every state sign so we could get our photo in front of it. No fun at all! Aging is making him so dull & boring! (Only kidding Bro. Ben, you know I love ya). I liked the church & the pastor's sermon was great. I will say that going to bed at 2:00 a.m., waking up at 7:00 a.m. & trying to walk into church is not an easy task. Shellie & I both were fighting to stay awake during the service. For every prayer that was prayed, I kept thinking, "Hurry up or I'm gonna be out!" Lesson learned? Don't stay up till 2:00 a.m. talking to your friends & then expect to be able to stay awake in church. I had a great visit with Ben & Shellie. The highlight of the visit had to be watching Ben with his children & seeing how much love he has for them--that gave me incredible joy. Not that I thought Ben would be a poor dad, I just never envisioned him as a dad period. I think that simply is because I never saw him around children. Likewise, many would probably say that about me-that they had never seen me with kids. To watch Ben with their kids, was a true delight. He is an amazing dad to Addie & Jase. They're blessed to have Ben as their father. Sunday afternoon, it was time to head on out & move along to Jeff City to stay the night at Crystal's. I was pretty tired at that point-thankfully I was able to talk to a few friends along the way & that kept me awake until I made it to Ethel's (aka..Crystal). That was the first time I'd visited with Ben since he married & I don't know when I'll made it back to visit again but I'm grateful for the time we all had together. I'm blessed with such wonderful friends & it's good to know that no matter how much time passes between visits, we can pick up right where we left off & still have the closeness we always have had. Ben & Shellie....thanks for a good time!
