Jenster's Musings

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Family & AVADIJ Thursday, 6/12/08

From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.

John 1:16

...one blessing after another. Let's see...

TODD

Saturday night Todd and I went out for an anniversary dinner. I say "an" and not "our" because there will be another, maybe two. (Yes, Todd. You read that right.) Anyway, we started at one restaurant, but the wait was wicked long. So we went to another restaurant, but their air conditioner wasn't working and we were heading into the nasty heatwave you've been reading about. We finally ended up at our usual pizza joint - the place we pick up the best pizza around from. We'd never eaten there, but it was so pleasant. No wait, cool air, a booth for two, a glass of wine, a delicious meal, even a little hand holding over the table. Niiiice.

When we returned home Todd went upstairs to pack for the business trip he was leaving for the next morning. Remembering I was supposed to iron a pair of slacks for him, I headed up to do just that. But he said he decided to just take the pants the way they were. The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: I actually thought I'd wait until the morning when it was a little cooler up here. You can put them in your suitcase at that time, can't you?

Todd: Yeah, but that's okay. I'll just set the room air on North Pole cold and iron them there. I get in fairly early in the day and won't have much else to do.

Me: You don't want to iron while you're gone. Seriously, I'll iron them right now for you. (I was feeling kind of guilty because I'd said I would do it.)

Todd: No, really. It's no big deal. I'll just iron them tomorrow at the hotel.

Me: You're sure??

Todd: Yeah. Don't worry about it.

Me: Okay. (kiss) Um, since the room is going to be so cold and you're going to have all day, why don't I just give you the rest of the ironing??

Not surprisingly, he declined.

TAYLOR

I had to drive Taylor to work one day. He works for a lawn care service and I had to take him to Stewart Road. For being a smart boy he doesn't pay much attention to directions. He knew the neighborhood, but it's a humongous development and he had no idea where Stewart was. So we drove around and when I saw Tudor Road I knew we were close. He was totally amazed at my knowledge and when I explained the connection he said, "Who knew such useless information would come in handy."

Fast forward a week or so. He and Kristen were at the mall and as he was getting ready to check out of the bookstore he saw this great book and thought of me. So he bought it for me. With his very own money.

Here's an example of one of the stories inside:

The infamous battle of Waterloo wasn't fought in Waterloo. Napoleon's defeat occurred outside the village of Pancenoit, which was over four miles away.

Who cares? My inner geek does!! I love this kind of stuff!

KATIE

After months, if not a year, of being pestered by Ben and Taylor and some nudges from mom and dad, Katie finally tried out as a singer for the youth band at church. I didn't go to the tryouts, but Todd and Taylor did. According to Todd, "she was perfect." According to Taylor, "She totally rocked!" Todd's pretty biased so I figured "perfect" could be exaggerated. But Taylor's the brother and has no compunction about telling it like it is. So if he said she rocked then she rocked. Which I had no trouble believing anyway. And, of course, she made the band.

Other than the singing, she's turning into me. She has a book with her nearly everywhere she goes and is always reading. I love that about her. Especially because she was diagnosed with Phonological Awareness Syndrome, a type of dyslexia, when she was in the 3rd grade. She worked with the school's speech pathologist throughout 3rd, 4th and half of 5th grade. She could barely read on a 1st grade level when she was diagnosed. Now she's reading young adult novels that are 500 pages long. That makes me smile.

SOOKIE

A week or so ago I was reading something in preparation for the Mothers with Cancer website. The memory of one of my lowest moments as a parent with cancer assaulted me and I started to weep. Not out and out crying, just sniffling a bit and, well, you know. Sookie looked up from where she was and came over to me. She jumped up on the love seat, sniffed my face while she stared into my eyes, licked my cheek and then snuggled down next to me. What a balm to my heart!

We had her spayed on Tuesday and now she has to wear the cone until the 24th. She hates it, but we can't help but laugh at her. Just see for yourself: