Houseguest Delay

This week has been long-anticipated for me.  My brother and his wife had set their wedding date of 7-16-11 last fall, and then several months ago my college roommate and I locked in plans for her and her family to come visit us beginning today.  So basically mid-July has been all marked up in bold on my calendar for the better part of 2011.

My college roommate and her husband are both teachers, so they kind of travel around the country for the summer with their kids, visiting friends and seeing the sights.  They include Dallas on their summer itinerary about every other year.  They live in central Pennsylvania, and sadly we don't make it there to visit them often enough.  This year, they're going to stay with us while they're in Dallas, which will be awesome -- it will give her and me much more time to catch up casually instead of being at a restaurant or out doing something. 

Hubby's been nervous about having kids in the house.  Our house is the opposite of baby-proof, but her kids aren't really babies, so hopefully it will be okay.  I'd be hard pressed to tell you exactly how old they are though.  Both under age 10, both potty-trained.  And the younger one was starting to walk in fall 2008, so she's got to be at least 4 I'd say.  I'm halfway thinking of rolling up my prized rug from my trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand several years ago -- it's one of those possessions that I treasure so much and I'd be mega-pissed if someone had a major spill on it, so rather than risking getting really bummed about something a kid does, even if it's just an accident, it may be smartest to just remove it and leave the room looking awkward.

Anyway, they were planning to arrive today and we just found out they're about 2 days behind schedule.  So this is even better!  A little extra time to get the house ready, get a little more organized from returning from the wedding, time to stock the fridge, etc. 

Plus, now they'll be here for the weekend, which means I'll get to spend a lot more time hanging out with them! 

She and I were so different when we started college, and I can say with absolute certainty that she had a big impact on how my personality developed in college.  We spent so much time together freshman year -- at school, on long weekend trips, and visiting our families together.  We saw each other through lots of drunken nights, random parties, a few boyfriends each, early cooking experiences, shared wardrobes, etc.  Then we decided to live together the next year too.  We didn't get along very briefly at the beginning of our sophomore year as we'd taken completely separate paths over the summer (I'd worked as a law clerk in a law firm, she'd gone on tour following the Grateful Dead).  But after a few weeks, we were back to our happy compromise.  Unfortunately, she had to transfer to a local public school for her final two years b/c of some financial stuff with her parents, but we've stayed friends. 

And now, no matter how much time passes, it feels like we can pick right back up where we left off.  Can't wait to get to spend time with her, her great husband and their two kids -- hopefully sweet, well-behaved and very careful with stuff purchased by people who never expected to have it touched by anyone under 21...