A little dry here...

Not too many visitors here to my so called life this week. I'll take the weekend to try to come up with some interesting topics to get you visitors back next week. Have a good one y'all. :-)

A Beautiful Story

I was going to post about something else today, but when I saw this email that my mom forwarded to me this morning, it touched me and I felt like I should post this instead. It says it's a true story, but even if it isn't, it's a touching story and a good reminder to have the child-like faith and love that most children possess. I hope it touches you as much as it touched me. Enjoy your Friday and your weekend!

We were the only family with children in the restaurant.

I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking.

Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, "Hi."

He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray.

His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin,

as he wriggled and giggled with merriment.

I looked around and saw the source of his merriment.

It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast

and his toes poked out of would-be shoes.

His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed.

His whiskers were too short to be called a beard

and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map.

We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled.

His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists.

"Hi there, baby; Hi there, big boy. I see! ya, buster," the man said to Erik.

My husband and I exchanged looks, "What do we do?"

Erik continued to laugh and answer, "Hi" .

Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man.

The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby.

Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room,

"Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo."

Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk.

My husband and I were embarrassed.

We ate in silence; all except for Erik,

who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid row bum,

who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.

We finally got through the meal and headed for the door.

My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot.

The old man sat poised between me and the door.

"Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik," I prayed.

As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him

and avoid any air he might be breathing.

As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms

in a baby's "pick-me-up" position.

Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man's.

Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby

consummated their love and kinship..

Erik in an act of total trust, love, and submission

laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder.

The man's eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes.

His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor,

cradled my baby's bottom and stroked his back.

No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time.

I stood awestruck.

The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms

and his eyes opened and set squarely on mine.

He said in a firm commanding voice, "You take care of this baby."

Somehow I managed, "I will," from a throat that contained a stone.

He pried Erik from his chest, lovingly and longingly,

as though he were in pain I received my baby,

and the man said, "God bless you, ma'am, you've given me my Christmas gift."

I said nothing more than a muttered thanks.

With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car.

My husband was wondering why I was crying

and holding Erik so tightly,

and why I was saying, "My God, my God, forgive me."

I had just witnessed Christ's love

shown through the innocence of a tiny child

who saw no sin, who made no judgment;

a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes.

I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not.

I felt it was God asking, "Are you willing to share your son for a moment?"

when He shared His for all eternity.

The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me,

"To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children."

Ah Spring...how you taunt me!!

Dear Spring,

You arrived on Saturday in all your amazing glory. I woke up to your brilliant sun shining through my blinds and felt the inner excitement I feel whenever you arrive. It is now Wednesday, and you are still here. My question for you is: "Are you teasing us, only to bring back your cousin winter again with its mountains of snow, or are you here to stay?"

Spring, you teased me a couple of weeks ago and you actually had the nerve to get me into spring cleaning mode only to break my heart and leave again. The calendar says it is "officially" spring. You can not break the rules of the calendar!!

The whole world (or at least the little world of my neighborhood)caught the fever when you arrived on Saturday. Hubby (despite the broken leg, which is slowly but surely healing) ventured outside to rake up the mounds of leaves that have been nesting for the past few months at the edge of our fence and killing our grass. Fiesty, ever the helper girl, insisted on helping, and oh what wonderful help she was!

After all of her hard work, Fiesty sat down with her favorite snack of M&Ms and a small swig of Mom's Diet Dr Pepper.

Then I, of course, insisted on a little cuddle time for my hard worker!


Spring, you even managed to get a smile out of the hubster today:

While they were working hard, the others were hardly working, yet enjoying you nonetheless:

"Holy snakes in the trees, Batman!!"

"Must you really take my picture?! Can't you see I'm busy saving the galaxy with my ultra cool Lego Star Wars spaceship?!?!"

And now we must rest.

Spring, I enjoyed you thoroughly today, and after taking multitudes of pictures of my family enjoying you, I decided to enjoy something for myself:

Yes, I left you for awhile, spring, and went inside and watched one of the most mindless, fluffiest, but funniest movies ever.

It was a great day, my friend Spring, and I hope you are here to stay!!

Melancholy Milestones

My Fiesty is gone. She has moved on and moved out. Before I confuse anyone, no she did not miraculously age from 22 months to 18 years since last Friday (I don't live in soap opera land, people!) Nope. She just moved out of my room. I'm a real sentimental softy, guys. Care Bear lived in my room after she was born until she was forced to move out when Fiesty was born. Then I moved Fiesty in with us. The plan was to move her out much sooner than this, but I'm not only sentimental, I'm a procrastinator. The mere thought of dis-mantling that crib, moving furniture around in Care Bears room to fit Fiesty, and then re-mantling the crib again (I highly doubt that's a real word, but honestly, I don't care!) was not an attractive idea. Plus, I so love hearing the sound of her breathing and looking over from my bed and seeing her sleeping so sweetly and softly at night. But it was time for her to move on. I attacked the room yesterday, and forced hubby to do the dis and and re-mantling of the crib. Care Bear was so excited to have her sister join her. She told Fiesty, "Now we get to have a sleep-over!". Fiesty was excited, too....until it was time to go to bed. She did alright, though. Me? Not so much. At first, I thought, "Wow. This will be great! I can read at night in my own room without waking her; I can watch TV with the volume above 2 without waking her. I can take a shower (in the bathroom that is adjacent to my room)past 8:00 without waking her".

At bedtime, I went up to my room. I took the shower. I turned up the volume on the TV. I watched about five minutes of "Days Of Our Lives" on Soap Net. Then I turned off the TV and lights and tried to go to sleep. And I could. not. sleep! I missed Fiesty. My room looked so sad and empty and way too big. (Not only that, but with her crib being gone, I could no longer hide the huge piles of laundry that pile up every day!) I actually shed a few tears. Am I pathetic? What on earth am I gonna do when she leaves for college, for cryin' out loud! She just moved 10 feet away, and here I am with missing kid insomnia and the waterworks! It was most definitely time for her to move on to bigger and better things; a lifetime of sleepovers with her best friend in the world. But in a small way, I feel like this is just one thing in a long line of many that are going to slowly but surely chip away at my mommy heart.

I miss my Fiesty. My roomie. I pass the torch on to Care Bear now.

Oh, for the love of nausea!

First two thoughts that come to my head when I'm nauseated. I'm either catching the ever dreaded stomach flu, or I'm pregnant. Which is the lesser of two evils?! I can justify and handle the stomach yuckies when I'm pregnant cuz I know I get a great prize at the end. However that particular prize right now would be too much to handle. Maybe I just filled my belly with too much coffee and Diet Dr. Pepper this morning and not enough food. Yeah. I'm hoping that's it. Cuz I can't leave work today. There's only two of us and I think the other half of our staff would KILL ME WITH HER FORK if I left today. I was gonna go get a Chipotle burrito. Should I or would that make matters that much worse? I dunno. Just want the swirling head to slow down. Pardon me whilst I put my head on my desk for awhile.

More Gorgeous Memories

So, here are Karen and I at our most gorgeous. No, we did not get hit; those aren't bruises on our eyes. That's our make up. Yep. But we were goofin' around. Not getting ready to meet our pimp. Promise.

My co-worker didn't know which one was me in this pic. Have I really aged that much in ummm 17 years?? I guess I better look into some Botox. And I thought I looked JUST the same. Huh.

Tagged on Friday

I picked up this Tag at Morning Glory's spot. Since I have yet to come up with a blog topic for today this early in the morning, I'm going the easy way out and doing this for now. :-) Copy and paste it to your blog and tag me if you do it! :-)

1. IF YOU COULD BUILD A SECOND HOUSE ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD IT BE? On a beautiful, secluded beach by the ocean.

2. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING? Comfy sweats and sweatshirt.

3. THE LAST CD YOU BOUGHT? Kelly Clarkson

4. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? My kids dictate that. Anywhere from 5:30 a.m.- 9:00 a.m.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE? My dishwasher

6. IF YOU COULD PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I play piano and flute.

7. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR OR SUV? SUV, baby! (Ask me again in 20 years).

8. DO YOU BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH? YES

9. FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOK? Goodnight Moon.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON? Fall

11. WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR? An assortment of bags and boxes leftover from hauling Christmas presents home from various locations.

12. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER? Hamburger. I don't do sushi!

13. WHO DID YOU RECEIVE THIS FROM? Seeds From My Garden.

14. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? Roses

15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Anything with Chocolate!

16. POPCORN? Yes, but I have to be in a certain mood.

17. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? It changes all the time. Blue for now.

18. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE? Saturn

19. FAVORITE SANDWICH? Peanut Butter or turkey and cheese.

20. HOW MANY PETS DO YOU HAVE? None

21. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Fort Collins, CO

22. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Football (but only if the Denver Broncos are playing)!

23. FAVORITE TV SHOW? Friends (always) and American Idol

24. FAVORITE MOVIE? Anything with Reese Witherspoon!