Not too long ago, a group of six college girlfriends reunited for an extended weekend that befitted the song Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Our Country House reunion (Country House was the name of the house we all lived in together our senior year at college) was in early October, but I have yet to write about our memorable get together. So for my own record-keeping sake, I’m simply going to publish the itinerary I put together for these special girls. I also wish I could show you the six pages of grocery list items that I worked on for those two consecutive weekends of Brennan’s dedication and the Country House reunion when we had a house full of visitors. It’s more proof of why I need to work on my waistline than anything else. Well, and why I could drive to the H.E.B. on Louis Henna blindfolded. But I won’t ever attempt that. Unless someone gave me a  million dollars. Then maybe I would. If no one else was on the road.

Thursday:  Everyone arrived, including Tracy’s itty bitty new baby girl, Emie! Brennan was very fascinated with her and wanted to ‘pat, pat’ her like he does Molly. Chicken parmesan, salad, garlic bread, and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream filling from Ann’s Kitchen decorated with “Welcome to Texas” written across the top was their welcome dinner. If you can believe it, the six of us girls, Emie, Brennan, and Matt all fit! In the house, that is.

Friday: The mornings were leisurely for everyone to wake up in their own time, enjoy some coffee, homemade granola, and an assortment of mini zucchini and pumpkin muffins that my momma made. She must have made at least a hundred of those suckers. I asked for mini muffins, not even thinking how mini muffins take lots more time to bake to get through all of the batter. But mini muffins are simply pop-in-your-mouth yumminess. And because she’s my momma, she made them for us, gladly. They are all gone. They’ve been gone a long time.

For the weekend, we rented a large SUV for all of us girls to fit into one car. That was a great decision! The thing was gigantic…it even had a video screen that acted as a rear view mirror when I was backing up. Fancy shmancy car it was. It’s long gone, too.

Our first stop on Friday was Mt. Bonnell to get a good view of the city. I told the girls to wear good walking shoes because there were hundreds of steps they’d climb to get to the overlook. My memory served me wrong. It was more like twenty steps. And I need to brush up on my knowledge of the city before guests arrive. I was answering, “I don’t know”, way too often.

I gave them a quick tour through part of the University of Texas. Which, by the way, have you heard? We’re going to the national championship! Of course, I’m an Aggie fan, but goodness gracious, I’m a Texan and I’ll be cheerin’ for them Longhorns like crazy. Especially against an SEC team. <grin> Oh, I just stuck that in to rile some of you up.

The “Mecca of Whole Foods” is a place we usually take all of our visitors because it’s so over the top. That’s where we had lunch. It took us nearly an hour to just decide what we were all going to eat.

We headed home to hang out and get ready for our murder mystery dinner party. Matt joined us, as did my friend, Jill (brave soul that she was to come and not know any of the girls!), to make the party complete with all eight characters. It was set in the 1950s and we each got dressed up to play our parts. We grilled out burgers and had ice cream to top it off. It was so much fun! We laughed so much as we stepped into character and tried to solve the mystery; the costumes themselves were enough to make the evening golden.

Saturday: We hung out together in the morning…the weekend was a nice blend of rest and activity, I thought. I think everyone went back home fairly renewed, even the mommas of the group. Matt gave me a treat by staying home on Friday to take care of Brennan, and he even offered to babysit Emie on Saturday, too. Matt’s mom and aunt came in from Dallas to help him with the two kiddos while us girls ventured in the pouring rain to Gruene. We listened to some live music at the oldest dance hall in Texas, Gruene Hall, and played some incredible, attention getting rounds of “Jenga”. Then we had a fabulous meal at The Gristmill.

Sunday:  We all went to church together and then enjoyed some Hawaiian/Mexican at Hula Hut. The girls definitely couldn’t have left Austin without some comida Mexicana, but the Hawaiian added a little twist to it. We left feeling like stuffed roly-polies. We took it easy the rest of the day and enjoyed Paula Dean’s taco soup for dinner, which is scrumptious and easy to make. I think Sunday evening was a highlight for all of us as we fellowshipped together, shared from the heart and prayed together. This was the first time the six of us were all together since Becca’s death, and she was greatly missed. These girls are some of the most special, life-long friends who make me laugh, point me to Jesus, and who love me just the way I am, even when I make dumb comments about rocks (sorry, that’s an inside joke between me and the gals, but it’s apropos).

Monday: We packed a picnic to Zilker Park and took a long walk around Town Lake before making the first couple of runs to the airport. Hillary, Molly, and Lindsey were still around on Monday night for pizza and our Country House signature movie: Return to Me. The rest of the gals left on Tuesday. This weepy gal cried with Brennan on the way home, already missing all of the estrogen that swept through our house those few days. Brennan and Matt probably breathed a sigh of relief to some degree, although, Brennan was a charmer and loved ‘flirting’ with all the girls. It was sad to see them go, but what a gift it was to have all five of them here. Even with our various schedules and global residences, we were able to come together, and that’s somethin’ special. At some point down the road, we hope to all meet up in Prague. We said we’d go there for our 10 year college reunion, which <gasp> is only a year and a half from now! Until then, we have something called the Internet to unite us.