thursday 13 - green

questions

Last week I treated myself to a much needed pedicure.  The kids were busy for an hour or so and I saw my chance for a little pampering, so I made a bee-line for the nail salon.  As I settled into the chair I was wishing I had my Nook so I could start a new book.  I had my iPhone and Words with Friends and was just pulling up a game when I noticed a young woman in a wheelchair lifting herself into the chair next to mine.  She had an assistant with her but she seemed pretty intent on getting into the chair by herself. 

I smiled at them and promptly went back to my little iPhone bubble.  And about two minutes later I felt a tap on my right arm.  She wanted to know about my iPhone case.  And for the next 40 minutes we visited.  She asked questions, I answered.  There were a lot of questions.  She repeated a lot of questions.  Many times we’d get to the end of a series of questions and she would start back at the beginning.  And sometimes I had a really hard time understanding her, but I would just look into her eyes, smile, and wait for her to get the question out.  Here’s a sampling of how our conversation went.

Where did you get this phone case? 
What store?
What road is it on?
How much was it? 
Did they have other colors? 
Green? 
Blue? 
Teal?  (She LOVED teal.)

Do you have kids? 
How many? 
Do you have a picture? 
What are their names? 
Do they have nicknames? 
PICKLES?  (She LOVED this.)
SuperGirl?  (She thought this was fun, too.)
How old are they? 
Where do they go to school? 
Homeschool?  (This really confused her.)
What grade?

Do you have animals? 
How many?
What are their names?
PEBBLES?  (Big smile.)
Do you have pictures?
What color is your cat’s eyes?
Green?
Hunter green?
Kelly green?
Is her nose pink?
Is she a girl?
Is she soft?

Somewhere along the way my pedicure was finished.  The lady working on me asked if I was paying for the two of us.  When I told her that I didn’t know the young woman sitting next to me, she was surprised.  She said, “You were being so nice to her, I thought you knew her!”  She asked if I’d like to stay there and visit rather than go to the drying table and I told her I would.  This was where my “neighbor” got real animated and started telling me about her pets, a rabbit, a fish, a cat… and all about a ranch where she lives or goes to that has horses.  And how baby horses can walk just two hours after being born.  She was amazing.  She’s 26.  And her name is Nava.  And she’s beautiful and sweet and very curious!

I hated to leave but I had to get back to pick up my kids.  I tried to say goodbye to her a couple of times but she was distracted by something that was going on with her feet.  It was a nice visit.  It was much better than playing on FaceBook or Words with Friends.  And I’m thankful that she struck up the conversation!

i just pulled this out of the oven…

… and it might not make it to the dinner table! 

Darn that Pioneer Woman!  Thanks to her, I’ll never lose this baby weight… Can you still call it baby weight if your last baby was born more than seven years ago? I’m just wondering…

Oh, and in case you need an excuse for not losing YOUR baby weight, go make your own cornbread.

it’s just the beginning.

Saturday night was very first RangeRette Revue spring show.   It was also Summer’s first “official” performance as a RangeRette.   And our first “official” parent of a Rudder Ranger event.  It was a really fun evening!  The Rookie RangeRettes performed with the existing team, dancing their audition dance.  “Spice Up Your Life” by the Spice Girls… too fun.  In my opinion, the dance was too short… but only because they did such a great job.  Okay, so Summer did a great job.  I didn’t watch anyone else.  Can you blame me?

I should be fired as the family photographer after these shots but in my defense, I wasn’t planning on taking ANY pictures during the performance so I could just ENJOY it.  And then they came out and looked ADORABLE.  So just enjoy the pictures this size and don’t try to zoom in… 

 

thursday 13 - yellow

april showers bring…

Indoor picnics!

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Our Sunday school class has a wonderful fellowship planner.  She gets things done and is so smart.  Smarter than me.  I’d been thinking for weeks that it was a shame that our class had planned an indoor picnic in April.  The weather has been beautiful.  Clear skies.  Warm weather.  It just seemed like picnic weather.

Until Sunday.  We woke up to thunder, lightning, rain, and cooler temperatures. 

And instead of scrambling around, trying to figure out if we should reschedule or try to move the picnic, we very calmly and happily brought our quilts, desserts, and side dishes into the gym, where we’d planned on picnicking all along. 

I definitely had my fill of the homemade rolls and macaroons and blueberry pie and the different slaws and cookies!  And I probably don’t need to tell you that I came straight home, crawled in bed, and thoroughly enjoyed a rainy day nap. 

What a perfect day!

learning to ride a bike…

Each and every one of our girls has taken their sweet time when it came to learning to ride a bike.  I guess it’s because we don’t spend a lot of time riding bikes or maybe it’s because we keep so busy.  Or maybe they just weren’t real motivated to get the learning down. 

Or maybe, just maybe they are all chicken. 

One thing is for sure.  Teaching them to ride a bike is not my department.  My theory is, my dad taught me, and their dad can teach them.  I’ll just take pictures.  That’s my job. 

Yesterday, SuperGirl came home from AWANA and announced that she was going to learn to ride her bike once and for all. 

And she did. 

  

Now we need to work on braking and stopping. 

It’s a good thing we have a long, long street so there’s not need for much of that.

thursday 13 - red

like i have time for this…

In the hopes that my family will get me this for my birthday…

I’ve been playing over here for days.

I figure if I put a few recipes up each day, I’ll have them all ready for importing by the end of August.  And if my sweet friend talks her family into getting her one, too, then I know I’ll have access to all of her recipes, too… at the touch of a button, on my counter, on a kitchen-safe device. 

Too bad it doesn’t cook for you, too!

10 on tuesday

Signs of spring…

Blue jays.  Our little cardinal family is back, too.

Knockout roses are going bonkers.

Geraniums, big and beautiful.

The birdbath is cleaned up and ready for bathers.

 

Hummingbird feeders are up and we’ve spotted a few hummers.

Spelling lists are being written on the front sidewalk instead of paper.

C has been over to play ball and help water the garden.

 

Got a new hose hanger.

Twix is up to her nasty “treat” gathering.  (I’ll spare you the photo for this one and instead post a picture of a live, healthy bunny.)

Watering the garden every morning and looking for signs of growth.

run for compassion 2010

Thanks to some gentle “prodding” from a friend, our family signed up to run and walk the Run for Compassion 2010 fun run.  Summer and I signed up for the 5K walk and I signed Hubby up for the 10K run.  He was hesitant about running it as he had not been training and hadn’t run that far in a long, long, long time.  If ever.  He was a good sport and gave it a shot. 

Summer and I got to visit with Liz and Sarah on our leisurely 5K walk through the neighborhood.  Summer was actually quite entertaining.  She walked almost the first mile backwards.  She finished that mile skipping.  By mile two, we all decided we needed a drink from the water stop and were greeted by some really cute helpers who were about 4 years old.  Needless to way, we ALL got water. 

I kept thinking about my sweet Hubby… wondering where he was and how he was faring in the run.  It was somewhere after the 2 mile mark that we started getting passed by the 10K runners.  Then along came John… but no Hubby.  It was here that I started thinking maybe he’d finished after the first 5K. 

As the girls and I came to the finish line, I started scanning the crowd.  No Hubby.  John decided to head back up the course and take a look.  And a few minutes later, here they came… running!  They crossed the finish line and Hubby was done. D.O.N.E.

His knee hurt.  Bad.  So we headed back to the house and John iced and bandaged him up.  What a brother. It took two days before the poor guy could walk right again.  I felt horrible for “making” him do the run. 

But you know what?  He’s ready to train and do it right.  I think I’ll still walk, though.

13 on thursday about this girl

A few things to mention about this girl…

1. She’s had two marriage proposals but she’s keeping her options open. (See #4)
2. She spends the entire church service, every week, barefooted.  She even crosses the aisle at the end of the service to hold hands, barefooted.
3. She put her high heels on to hunt Easter eggs.
4. She told me yesterday that, “When I’m in high school and I meet a boy that I like and we like the same things and he likes God, too… Well, I’m TOTALLY going to marry him.”
5. She CANNOT sleep alone.  She MUST be touching another person. 
6. One day it can take her two hours to write a spelling list and the next day it can take 17 minutes.
7. If she marries a boy whose last name is Williams then her Facebook page will read SuperGirl Williams Williams.
8. She eats at least one apple a day.
9. She likes fish sticks.
10. She woke up this morning, stretched real big, and said, “I’m an X!”
11. She loves Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
12. She makes herself a cup of hot tea almost every single morning.
13. She thinks about marriage entirely too much.

wordless wednesday… let them dance!