Hi!  It’s me!  Lily!

So yesterday, Dave did grill.  I think I was right – he grills as a way to work things out sometimes.  He’s a very emotional man, but he’s not really all that good at expressing it.  I guess a lot of men are like that.  He’s not mean about it or anything, but you can tell when he’s upset.  He’ll rarely tell you why, though.  It’s not so much that he’s private, it’s just that he’s… reserved, I guess.  So he went outside with some meat and grilled up a storm.  I gotta admit, I LOVE it when Dave grills.  He’s just so good at it!  It’s not quite as good as chocolate, but it’s almost as good, and that’s really a compliment!!!  It really does taste like summer or fall or whatever, just soooooo good.

Sabby thinks so too, I think.  When Dave gets in a grilling mood, she makes potato salad and other fixins and we have a bit of a feast, and there’s always some left over for lunch too.  It’s not the most cost effective thing, I suppose, but it works out.  At least so far, if you shop wisely, meat isn’t so bad.

This evening, Liz is staying over, but her parents came to visit too.  This time they brought food for all of us.  Liz’s mother is such a good cook!  It’s just, she cooks things a little differently.  Sabby likes pasta and rich sauces, and they like veggies and light sauces and rice.  It’s still really good, though.  Even David cleaned his plate.  For dessert we had chocolate, though.  Neither Sabby nor I are willing to give that up for a cultural exchange.  Hah!

Afterwards, we all talked for a while.  I told them how excited I was to go to Orlando (in nine days!  SQUEEEEEE OMG OMG) and they seemed a bit uncomfortable with the thanks.  The thing is, they’ve been a little concerned about Liz too.  Even though they’ve pushed her hard to excel academically, she hasn’t had many friends, and they did notice.  Now that she has me as a friend and “other family” that obviously cares about her, they want to encourage that.  They acknowledge that maybe it’s a little overkill, but I’m not going to complain!  They are just happy to do it.  Honestly, they say, it’s not all that much more of an expense (they’d have to pay for the rooms and most of the flights anyway) and they’re just happy to see Liz have a friend.  We’re not just going to Disney World too!  There are other fun places!

I’d be a friend even without!

Liz could come over before, but she just doesn’t seem as… guilty… about it.  Her parents still expect her to succeed, but they don’t want to drive her to hate them in the process.  Even Liz thinks that’s fair.  She does like doing schoolwork and music and stuff.  She just doesn’t want that to be the only reason her parents love her.

We watched a movie, but it wasn’t really an interesting movie.  I don’t even remember what it was called.  Afterwards, Liz’s parents said their goodbyes and went back to their house, but Liz got into her pajamas, she’s going to sleep over!  We’re going to stay up way too late and talk and play games and eat chocolate, and Beth’s even invited!  It’ll be fun!  So I should go do that.  Girl time is fun!

Love you all!!!!  Tomorrow is Saturday!  So I can’t stay up TOO late because I have to work.  But I’m young and caffeine is a thing, so…  on to the fun!  Liz is yelling that the game is set up and Beth just made popcorn!!!  ❤️