The Visit.

So, my family came down to visit me last weekend. They arrived bright and early Thursday morning. They had just gotten home from a big long trip to Florida and back at midnight that morning and only had a couple (probably less) of hours to sleep. As for my parents, I don't think either of them slept a wink! So yeah, as my hosts left for the day, at work of course, my dad, mom, older sister, six of my younger sisters, and my two younger brothers, all came and visited. My parents crashed on my bed and the rest of them just stayed down-stairs for the most part. It was hard to keep track of so many of them!

It was really weird at first. I mean, I'm use to the big family and all that. To me, it's not big deal. But the house my hosts live in is rather small -perfect accommodations for only two people. Adding a single person wasn't much, but adding eleven was quite the shock. Of course, it was only for a day and a half, but still. Living with my cousin and his wife for the past ten months has been a little....well, different. I guess I got use to the small part of life and forgot what it was like to have so many kids in the house. Well anyway, enough of that.

I'm usually the type of person who likes to get up at the bum-crack of dawn (pardon the expression) and get going with the day. I've trained myself to absolutely loath sleeping in. What a waste of a day! I like to get up at least around seven and start on my mental To-Do list for the day. Only....Thursday... well, I guess I couldn't expect more from my worn out family. We left at eleven to go and see a few of the church sites. I had work at four so we couldn't do everything we wanted together. Oh, and I guess I'll mention this just because it was funny. Both of my jobs called me in to work today. The first called and asked if I'd cover a shift, I flat out said no and that I had family matters to attend to. The other just asked if I'd come in two hours early, and again I said no. I wanted to spend Thursday with my peeps.

First we went to...Oh, Liberty? -No, Independence. I really get confused with what place is what up here. We parked across from the RLDS' Temple and were able to go to our visitor's center and take a tour with one of the sister missionaries. It was funny, we happened to park our fifteen passenger van right next to another fifteen passenger van; same make, same model, the only difference was that theirs looked brand spanking new next to my family's rusty old thing. Ha, I just thought it was funny.

We toured the Book of Mormon room and then a lot of other places. My sisters and I had just been there on a previous Youth Conference trip, so a lot of the tour was just a review. We got to
watch the new Joseph Smith movie. It was really good. Even the second time. My mom and dad had never seen before and were rather anxious to watch it. Needless to say, the majority of us was all in tears when it was quite over.


After that we all went to CiCi's and ate as much pizza as we could. I guess I wasn't hungry or something. I only had four -an unusually small portion compared to the nine or ten I usually get whenever we go to CiCi's. Anyway, that was really fun. I got to catch up with my older sister, and two of my younger ones, closer to my age. I had a lot of fun. We spent the last of our visit there and then headed down to my work to drop me off. I'm not exactly sure what my folks did for those seven hours I was at work, but when I got home nearly everyone was awake.


We didn't stay up as late as I thought we would, but I guess that was a good thing. I had a long day ahead of me on Friday. Driving all the way down to Arkansas and back would definetely drain me of all of my sleeping hours, so I'd need as many as I could get. I slept in the basement with my three younger sister -those, again, closest to my age. They were pretty much all asleep when I finally got changed into my PJ's and was totally ready for bed. I had to really fight myself to actually sleep down there. I could just as easily have slipped off to my own room and no one would have been the wiser, but I would have felt bad doing it. My room wasn't big enough, I guess, for all of my sisters to fit, otherwise I would have enjoyed having the three of them up there rather than down in the basement. But with the house the size that it is, space was best provided on ground level, well, I guess technically it was below ground level, but you get the idea. We all fit better down there.

I woke up to the loud roar of water as it fell against the pipes. I stiffened under my blanket, afraid that something had gone completely wrong with the house. Were we in the middle of a tornado? It took a minute for my sleepy mind to realize what the noise was. And then, after I discovered that all was safe, I couldn't go back to bed. I was so cold! I rolled over on the hard cement floor (my body was stiff but that wasn't unusual. I don't roll when I sleep so I'm always waking up with a stiff back.) to see if my sisters were as cold as I was. All of them were sound asleep sprawled out under huge thick quilts. Of course. Why didn't I think to bring my quite down? ...Well, I know the answer to that one. I didn't want to mess my bed up and have to remake it. Lazy Julia. I leaned over and grabbed my cell phone, flipping it open to read the time. 4:37AM. Ugh. WAY to early. I tried going back to sleep, but my efforts were futile. My feet were frozen and my body was shaking uncontrollably through my thin blanket. I tried holding out for a while, either waiting for my body heat to kick on or for the clock to read a likelier time for waking up. My body won the fight and I gathered my things and climbed upstairs to thaw myself out. I sat in the armchair among my sleeping family and waited. Yeah, I just waited. I got to see my cousin off to work -something I hardly ever do anymore now that Seminary is over, and then, after that, his wife left too. It was nice seeing them. I feel like I'm always gone when they're home.


Anyway, my family got up around seven, ate breakfast, packed up the van and helped clean up around the house. I was sad to see them go, but glad because that meant that the sooner they left, the sooner I could leave for Arkansas, which in turn would mean that I would be getting home sooner. Well, I guess you know the rest of the story. I just wanted to post what the visit was like for my sake. If you haven't noticed already this blog is my journal. I post everything. Well, no, just the things that are audience-appropriate. The personal stuff I usually just save as Drafts, never to be published. Anyway, thanks for reading. Sorry it was so boring! That just the way my life is! :)