This week the kids have enjoyed playing in the newly fallen leaves and we had all enjoyed record breaking high temperatures. And now, after months of almost no measurable precipitation, we are getting rain!
The only bad thing about this week was that Vicki and I both had the 24 hour stomach bug. Fortunately she was getting over her case when I came down with mine. Nate has also been a bit under the weather.
MOM’S PROGRESS. Mom has come a long way in her recovery this week. Last night I caught her walking around without her walker (just where she can grab hold of the kitchen counter). As I said before, pain has been her biggest problem but I think she has found a way to handle it and it is beginning to diminish some.
NATE IS A LITTLE MESS. So the other day Vicki hears Nate rustling around in the bathroom. Figuring she’d better check this out she spied on him through the crack in the bathroom door. He was standing on the counter admiring his reflection. She wasn’t there too long before Nate turned and spotted her. He grinned at her with blue lips. Coming on in the bathroom she asked Nate what he had put on his face. Pointing in the closet he said, “This... and this, and this, and this and this.” In his run down of products he identified two sticks of lip balm, a stick of sun screen, a stick of Elmer’s glue and a blue permanent marker. (I have no idea why the glue and marker are stored in our bathroom closet.) Fortunately, Nate had used the marker last and it never penetrated the other stuff to stain his skin. Everything just wiped right off.
Then there was yesterday when Jenna brought Nate to me and said she had stopped him trying to eat a marble. Figuring I’d use a little scare tactic I said, “Nate, you shouldn’t eat those. They’ll make you sick.”
“Make me sick?” he inquired to make sure he’d heard me correctly.
When I said yes he stuck a finger deep in his mouth in an attempt to gag himself. After stopping him I asked if he had already swallowed one. He nodded. Now we are checking his diaper for marbles.
A FUN EVENING WITH THE KIDS. Yesterday morning Vicki and Pauline attended a women’s missions brunch at church. Their meeting lasted until noon. After they got home Vicki and two friends headed for Christmas Village at the Nashville Fairgrounds. This left me and the kids together all day. We hung out around the house until after lunch. When Pauline came home we sent Nate over to her house to nap and spend the evening. Then Jenna, Ben and I left for a little outing of our own.
Our first stop was the movie theater where we saw Chicken Little. The kids really enjoyed it. From there we went to McDonald’s and then to pick up a couple of things at Wal-Mart. The three of us simply had a great time together.
MY VIDEO CONVERSION PROJECT. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was starting to convert our home videos to DVD. I am about halfway through the seventh one right now. It’s neat to see Jenna and Benton when they were the same age that Nate is now.
Jenna’s memory blows me away. I was working on a DVD when Jenna walked by and looked over my shoulder at a scene that was paused on the computer screen. It showed a two year old Jenna standing in the doorway that separates the foyer from the living room. The only evidence that it was a Christmas scene were the stockings in the background and the title I had just typed in. As soon as she saw this she said, “Oh, that’s the Christmas when I got the Sesame Street train.” When I scrubbed forward in the footage, lo and behold, a train with Sesame Street characters came into view! You now see why we go to her when we want to recall something.
I’ve also enjoyed seeing the church when it was under construction. Back then I would go and film around the construction site every few weeks to capture the progress. I am pulling that footage out to combine it all on a DVD later. Maybe, after adding a few other clips related to the construction project, we’ll see it in the church library in a few months.
HOW’S THAT AGAIN? Speaking of Jenna’s memory, we were talking at lunch today when Jenna, referring to a past event said, “You know, it happened back then when now was the future!” She’s absolutely right, but we had to think on that for a minute or two.
Joe
