The Puddles

• Ainsley woke up this morning and only grunted for the first 10 minutes. No words. None.  Then she got upset because we were running late and thought it all had to due with the fact that Ben came in her room to wish her good morning and had nothing to do with the fact that she refused too wake up and only grunted for a good part of the morning.
• Ben insisted on wearing his suit for school pictures today.  Love it!!
• Madie invited a friend over on Sunday and they celebrated the new Percy Jackson book by making matching t-shirts.  One was orange with “Camp Half-Blood” on the front, and the other was purple with “Camp Jupiter ” on it.  Then they spent the next two hours outside playing a war game of “The Greeks vs The Romans.” Madie has been looking forward to the new installment in the Percy Jackson series.  We even made a shirt for Ainsley that said “Camp Fairy” so she would be included.
• We all went to the pediatricians office for flu shots on Saturday.  Ben got upset because he had to get a shot (the girls received flumist, but Ben can’t because of his heart condition).  He started crying that it wasn’t fair that he has to have heart issues, he had to have open heart surgery, he has to take all of those pills, etc. etc. When we get to the shot clinic, Ben did great, but Ainsley melted and covered her nose like her life depended on it.  I stopped everything, looked her in the eye and said, “Seriously?”  She stopped.  Geez.
• We took two friends home from church.  We had to run a quick errand afterwards. Going to Walmart with five kids is always an experiment.  Luckily this one was good fun.
• My birthday was Monday.  Ainsley cried because I got another year older.  I didn’t cry. Ainsley did. She is worried I am going to die soon.  I wasn’t worried about dying and getting older until the 7 year old started crying.  Now I feel old!
• I offered to take the kids to the movies on Saturday night, and they actually turned me down.  They would rather just stay home.  I think it is a sign that we are doing too much.  There is certainly a need to slow down in the Lake house.
• I volunteered in Madie’s 5th grade class yesterday while they made duct tape wallets.  I learned that sarcasm is a skill developed by most 5th graders and not just Madie.  That is good to know.  It made me feel like my perfect little Madie is just like a lot of other kids her age!
• Yesterday when the kids got off the bus, I met them with Hank in tow. I’m not sure who loved it more . . . Hank or the kids.  They have requested that Hank and I meet them every day.

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“It’s as slow as a sleeping sloth with a bunch of anchors tied to its ankles,” declares Ben. 

I can’t remember what this was in reference too, because I was laughing so hard.

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Such as . . . 

Chris just came back recently from a gathering of his college friends and other TLU alum last weekend.  When he came home and started telling me all about his weekend and filling me in on all of our friends’ life updates, there was a sense of deep satisfaction. I had known some of these people for 20 years and been lucky enough to be a part of their life journey.  So even though we may move around the country and our day to day friends may change, there were deep ties to many people in our lives that cannot be severed by miles. That was a deep satisfying feeling.  It made me realize that the blessings are never ending and thank goodness for that.  These deep ties are one of the bonuses of getting older.  Ties that are tested and true.

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When the negative side of humanity rears its ugly head at events starring Girl Scouts or the church, people (especially myself) are often surprised. You would think that at event sponsored by organization that have such wonderful values as part of their core teachings that everyone at every time would exhibit those values. But people are people and they still behave poorly on occasion.

We (myself, Grandma G., Ainsley, and Madie) attended the BIG event yesterday. It was awesome (pictures to be posted later). All day the girls kept seeing girls with colored stripes in their hair. We couldn’t figure out which booth this was. By the afternoon, the girls started asking around to see where these girls had their hair colored. Finally 45 minutes before the end of the day, we found the booth. We got in line and Madie and her buddy started chatting with the mother/daughter in front of us. At 10 minutes before the end of the day, four girls cut in line in front of the mother/daughter team. The mother told the girls that they can’t cut in line. This group of girls spoke disrespectfully to the mother and said something about that those girls were from their troop and that they could join them if they wanted too. I am thinking that those girls are being awfully rude, but it is the end of the day and I’m trying not to make a ruckus. Right when Madie and her buddy get to the table . . . the troop leader running the booth tells us that they are shutting the booth down because it is the end of the day. I go to the booth leader and tell her about the girls cutting in line and that if they hadn’t my girls would have had their hair done. We had been waiting 45 minutes and the girl cut in line 10 minutes ago. The leader says that it is not her problem and that she didn’t see the girls cut, so there was nothing she could do. I asked her to please just do my girls hair and help them out. She refused. There was one girl left from that troop and I asked her where her leader was. She said she didn’t know (yeah right). But I was not willing to bully a teenager and really wanted to take up my issue with the troop leader of the girls who cut in line. I never did find that troop. I was furious. My girls are devastated and I just want someone to show some humanity for this situation and put a smile back on my girls’ faces. (After we walked away, the booth kept doing other girls hair and one of my troop moms saw it. She went over to the booth to see if they would do my girls hair and they STILL refused.)

So I could either let this situation ruin our day which would be a shame, or I could find those evil teenagers and take my fury out on them which would bring me down to their level, or I could look for the positive and set a good example for my girls. I chose option 3. So even though the girls were so upset, we talked about the good of the event. 1. if we hadn’t stood in line, we never would have met the mother/daughter duo in front of us. They were really awesome and we made some new friends. 2. We now know what it feels like to have someone’s callous actions hurt us tremendously, and we can vow to never do that to anyone else.

So at the end of the day, the girls and I didn’t let this event define us or our day. And since all of the girls in my group spent the night with us last night, we stopped at the drug store on the way home and bought pink and purple hair dye (washable). And I streaked all of their hair. We ended up having a really great time and the girls all wore their “Rocker Chick” look to church today. In the end, only we can let someone ruin our day and we decided we weren’t going to let them. We had a really good day.

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Ainsley certainly is full of something!  Love.  Sweetness. Joy. Silliness. Evil Powers. Spit and Vinegar. A desire to rule the world. Those are my first thoughts when the doctor was talking.  But no.  The doctor says . . . poo. That’s right. Poor kid.  It was so much that she comes to the room and gets Ainsley and I to follow her over to the medical imaging business across the hall to see the xray we just took.  She’s right!  So those tummy aches for the last few years are all do to Ainsley’s inability to get the business done. Now her large intestine is enlarged and has lost muscle mass, so we are on a two week journey to clean her out and then a six months journey to get her muscles a chance to get back their shape again.  Poor kid.  Luckily we have done this before two years ago.  So we should be pros at this.  Right? The difference is that she is bigger and stronger and her personality is a little feistier.  So convincing her to let me give her the medicine has not been fun. But we will make it through this journey too.  At least, it is not celiac and IBS words that she was throwing around at the last visit. So I’ll take this one!  Convincing Ainsley that this is good is another story!

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