Monday - "Indulge Another"

When I became a parent, I learned how delightful it was to occasionally indulge my children.  A spontaneous Family Movie Night  with heaping bowls of popcorn, a quick hop in the car to watch the jelly fish from a moonlit dock, or a Monster Hunt in the woods around our house - all just to see the smiles on their faces. 

 There is nothing so sweet as wrapping your children in a tapestry of magical moments, knowing they will lay in bed that night with sparkling memories and imaginations running over.

This weekend, Addison went to her first Ball. 

It was a Daddy & Daughter dance that had her twirling and racing through the house all day with unbearable anticipation. 

We put on the dress and tights, enjoyed the ritual of applying shimmering powder and a dab of light pink lipstick, as well as a tiny bit of (gasp!) mascara on her dreamy eyelashes. 

She had a flower in her hair, a plastic ring on her finger, and had her Prince waiting to whisk her off to pick up her corsage and take her to dinner.

She chose dinner at Chuck E. Cheese.

They danced the night away.

She came home exhausted and exhilarated by her one night as a princess...

Our hearts fell in love with her all over again.

Monday Madness - Embracing your Nerdiness - or the nerdiness of others....

As one of his morning chores during warm weather days, Aidan is in charge of going to let the chickens out of their coop for some free range glory.  (My chickens are spoiled - You wouldn't believe how much.)

Anyways, one morning, I went to the window to check on him, and saw Aidan prancing across the lawn looking like this:

And my first thought was - "Oh my gosh! What a gloriously nerdy moment!"  And then, of course, my second thought was - "Where's my camera?!"

Basketball PJs, red rubber boots, fairy wings, bed-head, and a WAND. 

Someday Aidan will be a teenager. 

Someday he might think he's too big for his britches. 

For now - he's kind of a nerd. 

And I LOVE that about him.

Do you have any delightfully nerdy moments in your family?

Monday Madness “15 Minutes of Fame = Baffle a Local Doctor”

It’s pretty cool being famous... 

Even if you’re famous for being bit by a diseased tick…. Along with your whole family.

Right?

My sisters, my dad, and I were all infected with Lymes Disease when Janelle was 4 and I was 10.   We had been camping, and apparently had come into contact with a vengeful little tick determined to make its mark in the local medical community by taking out a whole family in one swoop. We were the first documented case in our city.  Times four.

While Shawna and I had very few symptoms, Dad and Janelle were extremely sick before they both finally beat the disease and went into remission. 

While having a rare disease is no picnic, you might as well look on the bright side, right?  We may have had dark circles under our eyes and may have looked a wee bit pale and ghastly, but we got a free family photo op and made the front page of the Spokane Newspaper.  Above the fold.

Because that’s how we roll in my family. 

You go big… or you go home.

Gotta love a good conversational piece like this.

Monday Madness - "If Life Gives You a Scooter..."

Janelle and I are the kind of gals you might call “accident prone.”  While doing nothing out of the ordinary, we manage to break, strain, lacerate, jar loose, and otherwise mangle our various body parts in various and unpredictable ways.  (We’ll revisit this theme time and again.)  A couple of years ago, for example, I had been attending the birth of  Janelle’s son for a few days or so and was just going to head back home when I managed to get a random injury that came out of the blue and left me unable to walk for weeks.  (this is a standard Rachae kind of injury)

I was casually walking to the car to load the luggage I had carried along for my daughter, myself, and my big mountain of a dog, when I suddenly felt a twinge in my foot.  Or, to be more accurate, it was as though someone had stabbed a knife in the region of my left inner ankle.  Mind you – I hadn’t tripped, hadn’t dropped anything, hadn’t twisted… I was just walking along normally when it hit me. 

 Thinking I had some odd case of a particularly strong Charlie Horse or something, I hobbled the rest of the way and proceeded to drive back across the wastelands to the wet and wild part of Washington State.  About half way through this 6-hour journey, I needed to stop to let the dog out and to change a diaper.  Forgetting the earlier ankle pain, I hopped out of the car only to howl in surprise and pain when I realized I couldn’t put any weight at all on my left foot.  I ended up hopping on my right foot to let the dog pee and change my daughter’s diaper.  It was a busy day on the highway, so I had a few bemused spectators at the rest stop as I sweated through this ordeal. 

My family was not at all surprised when I later called to tell them that I could no longer walk and had been struck down by some unseen malady.  To make a long story short, after 3 separate doctor visits, an X-ray finally showed a little fragment of bone floating around in my ankle.  The doctors say it must have been injured years ago and finally wiggled loose, causing me pain that seemingly came out of nowhere. 

I was prescribed an awesome little knee scooter as a consolation prize.  Not to be brought low by this new mode of transportation,
I decided to give it some bling and enjoy this unplanned foray into immobility.

You see, if life gives you a scooter, you might as well Bling your Ride. 

And so I did.