Church Mouse

Yesterday I was waiting for a call back from the pediatrician's office. You see, Madelyn has strep and that is how we started out our beach vacation. So, let's just take a moment and praise the Lord for pharmacies at the beach. CVS to be exact.

Anyway, the nurse calls back. I answer the phone and in this sweet happy voice she says, "Hi! This the the doctor's office calling. Can I speak to Mom?" Um. Last I checked I am the "mom." She was a bit embarrassed when she realized this.

So, apparently I still have a church mouse voice. A lady I called one time told me that. Nice, huh?

It got even stranger when Nick and Todd came home from a walk. Todd came in first and I said, "Hey, where have you guys been? It's been forever." To which Nick said, "Who is that? Madelyn?" Yes. Strike two. The second time in one day I was mistaken for a kid.

Oh well. What can I do? I laughed. It was funny, especially when I told Todd and Nick the story about the nurse and Todd asked me if I then got my mom. ha ha!

Good times :)

More on the FAF

Fine Arts Festival, that is.

In my previous post, I mentioned face painting for the kids. What I should have said was face painting for the kids AND Nick. He and my mom have come every year and he has gotten his face painted every year.

The kids LOVE it. This year they asked him right away if he was going to get his face painted, and yes, of course he was.

And, he did. He was transformed into a pirate. Arrrrrr ...

The sad thing is by the end of the day he becomes transformed into a guy with black stuff all over his face, or in other years, a guy with blue and red smears on his face and shirt which lead people to believe he was the victim of a terrible crime.

See, he gets through the hot day of wiping the sweat (and face paint) all day, forgets he has paint on his face, heads home, and people along the way home don't know anything about the festivities of that day. So, when he ran in to a gas station to use the bathroom on year one, the gas station attendant asked him if he was okay. Nick didn't realize why he asked that until he got back into the car and saw his face again. ha ha! The poor guy.

Not to mention getting back to our house and our neighbors, who Nick knows better than we do, asked him what happened because they thought he was beaten up.

Oh, but he seriously knows them better than we do. We found out from Nick that they are new grandparents. We would have never known otherwise.

Anyway, back to this year. We get home. Of course our neighbors are out working in the yard on a beautiful day. Nick is reminded of his face paint, washes it off and then feels led to go explain to the neighbors why he had black stuff all over his face.

Their response ... "Oh we figured!"

We tried to explain to him that there was no need to explain. People get it at this point. But, he swears that next year he is not going to do it.

We'll see.

The kids can be pretty persuasive. I think all it will take is next year rolling around and them asking him. Next thing we know he will be racing with them to the table to beat the line like they did this year.

Good times.

Oh, I should mention that my mom came up too. I felt bad. At one point I thought, "I hope my mom is enjoying herself" because I barely saw her all day! I think she did though. People are friendly at TKA and she likes to people watch. And she did say she had a nice day so I am going to believe her.

Fun Weekend

Last weekend my mom had a big Birthday. So, of course a celebration was in order.

She and Nick came up Friday. We played Scrabble. Two games. I lost both. Nick and my Mom both won one. The one Nick won wasn't even close. He used ALL of his letters for a word ... twice! Ugh.

Good times though. Dan was watching March Madness, the one time of year that he watches a ton of games so he was excused from Scrabble.

Saturday I had secretly planned for my mom's family to come and surprise her. I told Mom I was taking her out to lunch, but she didn't know there were going to be 12 of us.

Okay, surprises are stressful.

I didn't tell Madelyn because I didn't want to put her through the torture I was going through, even though I knew she would be SO excited. I didn't tell Nick because he can't keep a secret to save his life. I know this is just a saying, but it's really true with Nick.

I see my Aunt's car pull up, but I knew it would take them a few minutes to get everyone to the door. I tell Madelyn I will help her with her outfit and then she says for all to hear ...

"Is anybody else coming today?"

Ummm ...

Dan and I don't lie to each other, never have, even when it comes to surprises. Dan is far more gifted in this ability. I can't "fudge" things to save my life (I'm like Nick). We don't lie to our children either. So, here is where I confess something ...

I lied. I told Madelyn that no one else was coming and "why would you think someone else is coming?" (nervous laugh) ...

Then I pull her aside and whisper, "Yes, other people are coming, but it's a surprise and Mom-mom doesn't know."

She replies, for all to hear, and very matter of factly, "Mommy I won't tell Mom-mom!"

Quick poor cover of more nervous laughter and then my family walks in ...

I am not kidding when I say I had a stres blister on my lip from all of this secrecy. Secrets wear me out! I don't think I will try to pull anymore surprises for a long time. It was fun though.

We had a lovely lunch. Elijah was in full entertainment mode asking EVERYONE what they were having. It was very cute.

We came back for cake and ice cream and coffee ... YUM! (especially since I just gave up carbs for a bit). I won't mention that I over cooked the cake and one of the tea bags broke while brewing ... oh wait, I think I just mentioned that.

This is why I don't bake much. I will admit that I am enjoying cooking more though so I will stick with that since I HAVE to do that for my family.

All in all a good weekend. I think my mom had a Happy Birthday. Mission Accomplished, and then I crashed that night.