an evening to treasure

there was more gathering, more making dinner,
another great dinner conversation...this time
with zakk present at the table. just barely.
still not feeling well, he left early and went
off to his room.

we all missed him and yet knew that when someone's
sick, we're a lot to deal with. we started telling
stories of when we were sick and tryin' to deal
with the energy of everyone else. noah rolled his
eyes about even having to be in the same room
with josh and i. bob's energy was added to the mix,
and between us all, we understood zakk's early
departure.

dinner ended, clean up began.
everyone kicked in and we moved into the living
room to light all kindsa candles. earth hour
was just about here, and we were turning everything
off and hangin' out in the candle light together.

everyone likes these living room gatherings and
settles in to stay.

earth hour was long over and the candles kept burning
and we kept talking.

i brought up something in bob's life that's bothering
him. told the guys about it, and then watched them all
interact. bob didn't even blink when i brought it up
and actually talked about it and let them in. i smiled.
it's become a safe place for him too. how cool is this?

he headed home, noah curled in his room to read, zakk was
hibernating and josh and i headed back for more food.
we laughed when we both made the same noise at the same
time when we found the cookies. we decided to take our
snacks and goodies to noah's room and we doubled over
laughing about it. plopping ourselves down, i saw noah
close his book and put it down. he knew it wasn't going
to be quiet for a bit yet.

we snacked and laughed like fools. this was the giddy
time of nite. even noah, who wanted to quiet down and
go to sleep lay there with a silly grin on his face.

ah, but all things must end.
we said goodnite to yo (noah) and closed his door.
bumped into zakk in the hallway and started telling
him funny stories. he commented on how scary we were and
headed back to his quiet room.

a goodnite to josh, and a curling in with my own book.
as i rolled over to go to sleep, i smelled bob's aftershave
on my pillow. mmmmmmm........

i hugged it close and fell asleep smiling.