something to behold

this weekend didn't let us down...it was an over achiever.

we celebrated two birthdays.  one was my mother's.  we went to a fancy shmancy restaurant with white table cloths and formal waiters and multiple glasses and lots of "oh wows"  on the menu. you know the kind when the waiter tells you the specials and you have never heard of any of the food he's talking about?  he could have been talking about weaponry for all i knew. annslee got to drink out of her very first fancy glass.  and it even matched her fancy dress.  i've never seen sister friend drink so much water before.  who knew that a fancy glass could make one so thirsty.  at one point...the water re-filler (and yes...there was a separate person for that job) said, "i think you've had enough."  i wanted to say, "hey mister.  this is her first fancy glass.  fill her up as many times as humanly possible.  the first fancy glass deserves another toast."

it's not like it was wine.  good golly.

chad left on a jet plane for ukraine on sunday morning.  we made the best of it with a dance party in aiden's room.

chase made a johnny cash lego...which let's just go ahead and face it...was pretty damn cool.

saturday night, the night before chad left...we got to attend a friend's birthday party.  and i forgot to take my camera...which means that our killer dance central moves could not be captured on film.  it's just as well, really.  no one needs to see mature adults making fools of themselves anyways.  and as luck would have it...we got included on the birthday outing to galveston for the next day.

it was cold...so we had to dress appropriately, which meant that i had a perfectly good reason to wear my new hat that i got from a friend for christmas.

i love the beach in the winter.

it's like it's whispering.  it's not all "hey look at me all sunshiny and warm and beautiful"...

no.

it's more sure of itself than that.

it's sure of it's natural beauty.

and it doesn't really care if you see the beauty or not.

it's just glad you've come to pay it a visit.

chase should have been playing poker too, because he got super lucky with the choice for birthday lunch.  last year, he actually told me that when he got married...he was going to take his wife to the rain forest cafe for their honeymoon."

lucky lady.

this is a kid who decided that his favorite animal was a red eyed tree frog when most kids his age were just discovering that there were animals other than dogs and cats.

as i said last time...always marching to the beat of a different tuba.

(you guessed it...

the tuba...

his favorite instrument.)

that's the birthday boy.  he said he was turning 21 and they believed him.  let's see...that put him having his first child at 10.

impressive.

as is this.

there is something about twirling girls that make me so content.

it's as if they don't have a care in the world and the twirling gives them the power to transfer that feeling to the rest of the world.

and so they twirl.

they twirl with all their might.  because goodness knows...we could all use more of that.

i found this particular 15 minutes of our weekend my favorite.  it was a simple stroll down the strand to the malt shoppe.  that's where there was twirling.  and horses.

late last week, i told chad that if i got my way...we would have 2 more kids.  and horses.

and right there...

as a result of the twirling...i'm sure...

were...

"and horses."

i like to think it was God whispering...

"you stick with me girl.

i'll see your horses...

and i'll raise you plans and dreams that you can't even imagine."

once they tore me away from the horse...we made it to the old fashioned malt shoppe.

we shared salt water taffy and malts for dinner, which is a perfectly acceptable way of finishing the weekend, i think.

i think i would have better fit in the late 50's, early 60's.

dates were at the drive in and soda fountains.  boys were respectful.  girls wore full skirts with petticoats and sweater sets and don't even get me started on the party dresses.  the music was amazing and things like fireflies were still amusing.  i would have said "yes ma'am" and "no sir" and "please" and "thank you."  i would have had dinner with my parents before my date rang the door bell to pick me up and my dad would have answered the door ahead of me and shook the boy's hand.

sometimes i feel like i am out of my element.  not that i question God's timing or anything.  but maybe...i'm supposed to bring a little of that back.

maybe.

so...

last night.

i did.

today, i had 2 sickies at home with me.  annslee had a rough go of it.  she was especially whiny and needy and it was all i could do to get her in her pj's tonight.  she insisted on picking them out herself.  typically, i don't do the mismatched thing.  i need the top to go with the bottoms.  i don't know why?

but tonight...she insisted on last year's easter pj top and this year's christmas bottoms.

whatever floats your fussy boat, darlin.

while i was fixing dinner...i got a wild hair to pull chase's loose tooth.

i had to work at it for a little bit.  it wasn't totally ready...

but he had been asking for like 2 weeks.

and whatever thing 1, 2, or 3 does...

thing 4 has to do too.

he wrote a note to the tooth fairy...explaining why he is sleeping in mommy's bed.

whenever daddy goes out of town, they get to take turns sleeping with me.

currently, annslee is in there with him watching sprout.  she tantrumed her way in there.

and then tantrumed the tv on.

chase was fine with it.

and i'm just too tired to fight it.

at some point...i know i will have to fight her back into her own bed.  she won't go to sleep when she is anywhere but her bed.  she just wallers all over the place.  up...down...over...under...on top of you...beside you...face to face...back to back...poking your eye...squeezing your nose.

it really is something to behold.

she's a firecracker, that one.

during her nap today, i actually cracked the door, peaked in, and listened to her talk to her pappy (pacifier) for about 5 minutes.  it was a full conversation between them.  there was nodding, laughing, and whispered sweet nothings.

again.

something to behold.