DAY 3 - I MISS YOU . . .

Three Things You Miss

• First and foremost, My Grandma. She's been gone 12 years, and yet some days, she's all I think about. I've been thinking about her a lot lately. I'm not really sure why, but I have. I remember freezing Cokes in cups when Cyndi and I would go stay with her. I remember writing about her all through high school and college. I remember the letters she used to send me while I was in college. I remember the first time I introduced her to Ryan. When my dad called her that evening she told him I was going to marry him. We'd only been dating a couple of months, so I'm not really sure he was happy to hear that! I remember my wedding day. She couldn't come to the wedding because she was sick, but she was living at Mom and Dad's and she got to see me in my wedding gown. She told me how beautiful I looked and how much she loved me. I have SO many happy memories of her. So why do I cry when I think about them?
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• This is going to sound selfish. But sometimes I miss being single with no kids. I LOVE my husband and kids. But if you're married and have kids, you probably understand where I'm coming from. Remember when you could do WHAT you want, WHEN you want? Not having to check with your spouse to see if they're okay with it. Not worrying about whether or not you have a babysitter. Not being able to just get in the car last minute and do something, even if it's just running to the store for a diet Coke! I wouldn't trade my family for all the money in the world. But sometimes, just sometimes, I miss that freedom.
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• Believe it or not, China. I LOVE being home. SSOO glad to be home. But there are parts of our year in China that I miss. And I will always miss. I made some great friends. Friends that I saw when I went back and it was like we'd never even been apart. Our style of living was different there. I think it made us closer as a family. We spent more time together. We only had 1 room with a working TV and that room had the satellite, dvd player, and Wii on it. So that's the room we congregated in. We took walks together. We didn't have a car, so we HAD to walk. We walked to the store. We walked to dinner. We walked to school. It was just a different lifestyle. I REALLY miss my Ayi. Not having to clean or do laundry for a year? Let's just say I got pretty spoiled while I was there. And now we're home, and guess who's the Ayi?   You guessed it - ME!   NOT happy about that!