You Silly - Ladies ALWAYS Go First...

Today Jon and I had one of those rare days where we were out & about, together, on a weekday without any children.

Griff will be the first to tell you that I had to go get my girl parts checked. He was very upset that he couldn't go with me because I get to go whenever he gets shots. There was absolutely no way G-man was going to that appointment with me. I can just imagine the questions flying out of that kid's pie hole. Yikes.

Anyway - Jon dropped me off and then went to get my vehicle's safety & emission tests done - because he "knows" the guys at Jiffy Lube. Whatever. The thing passed, and he paid for the sticker right there so that I wouldn't have to go to DMV. He even put the sticker on the plate for me. That's one wonderful man that I've got.

After picking me up we headed to the same place that we always go when the kids aren't with us and we're on the south end of the valley - Pei Wei. Jon had the nerve to walk in the restaurant ahead of me and let me hold my own door. Now I do this on a regular basis when he's not around or if the entire fam-damily is together, but COME ON! It wasn't like he was out for lunch with the guys! It was just the two of us. I won't even begin to tell you what else he did before I got the chance this afternoon...

Again - anyway. While we were driving home we were talking about the books I've been reading lately. I had The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - And Why with me because I can't read the thing at night. It makes me think too much, and I find myself wanting to share passages from it with Jon and talk about whether we agree or disagree. It's fabulous.

So - this morning I finished Maggie, which is the sequel to one of my top ten favorite books - The Dead Don't Dance. These are the story of Dylan and Maggie Styles. Maggie hemorrhages after the birth of their stillborn son and slips into a coma. TDDD is about Dylan living while Maggie sleeps. Maggie is about what happens between them when she wakes up...

When Maggie opened her eyes that New Year’s Day some seventeen months ago, I felt like I could see again. The fog lifted off my soul, and for the first time since our son had died and she had gone to sleep–some four months, sixteen days, eighteen hours, and nineteen minutes earlier–I took a breath deep enough to fill both of my lungs.

I was curious what my hubby would do if something happened to me. I asked him if he'd sit next to me in the hospital while the monitors beeped. His reply?

"Nah - I'd make a recording, repeating that it's gonna be all right - go toward the light. You'd see me soon enough."

I was completely flummoxed! I just sat there staring at him. So then he said,

"What?! Someone'd have to watch the boys!"

The Princesses Across the Street

Griff just came running upstairs to tell me that there is a great big wedding going on across the street. I looked out, and there are 5 couples standing on my neighbor's front porch while mothers are taking pictures.

It must be prom. There are some b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l dresses, and I love the tux/vest/tie/cumberbund/formal shoe/vans combinations that the guys are wearing.

My guys have all been watching out the window and are now wrestling while they discuss which dress they like the best. We're all partial to the olive green one and the white one.

Sorry I don't have photos for you - I didn't want to seem like too much of a stalker / neighborhood watcher.

Can I just tell you that it's a beautiful day for prom? 68 degrees and sunshine right now. So perfect!

A Fish Named Abraham

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend a scrapbook retreat in Bear Lake. It was absolutely fabulous! I was warned that I should stock up on Depends because the amount of laughing would necessitate their use. I honestly had no idea that you really can laugh for 48 hours straight. That includes the time I kept laughing as I was telling Jon about the weekend. It's Tuesday, and my abs are finally slightly less sensitive.

While we were cleaning up on Saturday afternoon, I received a voice mail from Evan. Here's a transcription:

Hey Mom? Um. I got a goldfish at Henry's baptism. So that's pretty cool. But Dad and Carson are gonna try and kill him. So if you don't call me back they'll probably kill him. So yah. Talk to ya later. Bye.

Now - let me remind you that Evan is my easily-attached-to-animals child who hoards stuffeds like there's no tomorrow. The boy mother-hens them all every night by gathering them in his bed and sleeping on top of them. This sadly spoken message really did pull at my heartstrings!

When I got home Saturday night Griff had just dropped the jar with the fish on the kitchen floor. The jar didn't break, and they'd gotten things cleaned up. The poor fish was suffering from post-traumatic shock, and he wasn't swimming quite right. By Sunday afternoon he was still having entire-body convulsions followed by sporadic, backward darts. We put a plastic bucket over his Mason jar (we haven't had fish before so we don't have any fish bowls) to let the poor thing recover.

Evan made sure to check on him while the lights were out. I'm not quite sure how much this benefitted the fish. I mean - how would you feel if you were surrounded by a whiteness that suddlenly lifted to reveal two gigantic circles? I just don't think it would be all that rejuvenating.

While we were getting ready for church on Sunday morning Evan informed me that if the fish did die, he'd like to cook him and take just one little bite. (Evan is also a child that has an incomparable love of all things sea food).

Anyway - we fed the fish some bread crumbs on Sunday night (we also didn't have any fish food), covered the jar with the bucket, and left the poor thing alone. As Evan was climbing the stairs to go to bed he said, "I think I'll call him Abraham."

Abe did just fine yesterday, and we bought him some fish food after Evan got home from school. We're going to hold off on the bowl, rock, and sunken pirate ship purchase for another week. We figured that's enough time to ensure he's recovered and going to be around a bit longer.

Put a muzzle on that one!

Yesterday morning we were enjoying warm muffins that my friend, April, had whipped up for breakfast. This was before Jon and the boys headed out the door for church - AND before we realized that daylight savings time had begun without us. My guys were a mere hour and 20 minutes late for worship.

Anyway - Griff was sitting across from April, and he stunned us all by asking her

How come you have boobs?

Nice to know that my children are completely comfortable with my friends. To April's credit she was the first to understand that he didn't really want to know about her twins - he was following up on an earlier conversation the two of them had about boo-boos.

April - really - thank you for an incredible weekend. The boys kept asking when they could see Coal again, and I just kept wishing that you hadn't had to leave.

Hot Chicken

Griff came home last night doing this thing where he tipped his chin up real quick, raised his eyebrows, and said, "Hey Hot Chicken!" Took me a bit to figure out what he was up to...

I started asking questions and found out that two of the "hot chicks" at daycare had been calling him "Hot Chicken" all day because he's handsome.

G was just sharing the love.