Loving... Things

It was a sad evening...  Meri and I went out to our car guys place and cleaned out Hugh Jackman,

Her Ford Escape.  

She'd had so many adventures with Hugh and was loathe to leave him there.

But with a bad engine, there was nothing more car-guy could do and he had to call it.

It took almost 45 minutes to dig through the high school papers and memories that had been too tough to sort through before now.  We came away with only ONE bag of garbage, one bag of stuff to be sorted, most dishes, a few old signs and antiques, 42 pairs of sunglasses, a statue of a turkey and a cement head...

Her adventures usually came up with things like that.

Anyway, here she is as she sorts the last compartment of Hugh and says good bye.

And then she asked if I'd take a pic of her with Hugh.

Ummm I already did, but I didn't tell her that.  

OF COURSE I WILL!

AND today is Career day for Leon's 1st grade class.  This is as close to a professional look as he'll ever wear, just because he's stubborn.  I took Robb's name tag from his work and  put an address label on it to say what Leon wants to be when he grows up.

Not sure if you can read it.  ARCHITECT.

He wants to design houses and stuff.

Then this morning, he lost a shoe climbing a tree.

But after replacing the shoe, he did it again and made it.

And yes, my neighbor has already mowed once this year.  Yikes!  I don't know if our mower will even start.  I guess we'll find out...  or pull out some scissors and get started!

Have you mowed yet?  Or said goodbye to a car tearfully?

or climbed a tree?

Ripping Into Projects

Well, it's official.  I am NOT making the Belle ball gown.  And that's ok.  

I just don't know how to tell Meri, that the blue dress that I'm making for her to wear in the play will also double as her prom dress...

It's been a hairy morning already.  2 hour delay and no one handy to help pick people up, get Leon ready and fed.  He requested the awesome breakfast for the road this morning when we went to pick up his dad.

Awesome breakfast menu

peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with toast

a baggie of fruit loop cereal

apple juice

In case you were wondering...  

We had a discussion of what college he needs to be an archaeologist or paleontologist this morning on our drive.  It's adorable hearing him garble up those words.

And discussed Meri's love of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie when she was about his age.  I just finished the last one on Netflix and am amazed that we let her watch the first one at such a young age.    She has a thick pirate book somewhere that has all pirate-y things in it with little hidden pouches here and there and treasure maps.  He's not interested in pirates apparently.  

He wants to go to college so he can be rich.  I don't think he understands how that works...

Anyway, the day awaits.  Let er rip!

SUUURREE!!!!

On Friday, I got a text from a niece that asked if she and her boyfriend could stop by as they would be in Iowa for the weekend.  She lives in Minnesota and wanted us to meet him.  

We were a bit apprehensive...  In the past, when we met a new boyfriend OR girlfriend of a relative, they broke up soon after.  Once on the drive away from our house...  

We feel like we jinx them.  

MAYBE we better just wait and meet him at the wedding....

But instead, we said SUUURRE!  We'd love to!!  and invited them for pizza night.

In addition, I invited her brother, who is attending college close by.  When I texted him that his sister and her boyfriend would be by for dinner, he asked which sister.

I do realize she has a twin, but her twin has a husband now, NOT a boyfriend.  So after clarification, he said SUURRE!

For the record, it was his sister's purse...

Leon was thrilled that Josh was coming too!  He used to call him his best friend, but as of Friday, changed the status to "cousin".

Before they came and while I was preparing the pizzas, Leon moseyed into the kitchen and nonchalantly said "When I grow up, I want to be a murderer."

?????  

"Um, no you don't." 

 "Yes I do!!!"

  "No"

 "YES!"  

"Why?"

"Because a murderer gets to live!"

He does have a point there...

He was so frustrated with us for not going along with his plan.

For me, he just argued.  But when Grandpa said a stern no, Leon threw himself on the ground and started crying as if we'd snatched all hope for his future away from him.

We're so mean...

So Robb got him on his lap and explained that a murderer is a bad guy.  Leon responded through his tears, "But I'd be a NICE murderer!!!"

Just then, Ryan came in and I quickly , quietly and through some chuckling, explained to him what had transpired.  

Ryan said flatly, "He said Immortal."  

Like we should have known that.

"No he didn't!  He SAID Murderer!"

"He MEANT Immortal because we were just talking about that earlier with his video game. 

Leon!  Did you mean you wanted to be Immortal?"

"YES!!!!" with the biggest smile laced with tears that you've ever seen.

FINALLY someone who understood him and OOPS, that was the wrong word, wasn't it?

So now I have to find out how to make him immortal...

I'm just glad we'll be able to sleep without having to lock our bedroom door.

We told the gang over dinner, AFTER Leon had left the room briefly and got a healthy chuckle out of that.

What did he THINK we would say to his request? 

SUUUURRE!!!!

???

When I Grow Up...

Just to warn you, I'm probably going to ramble because my head seems to roll that way...

This morning I had a conversation with Meri before dropping her off for school about next year's 7th grade band. She's been learning the clarinet and we rarely hear her practice at home. From what we've been told and have experienced, 7th graders NEVER bring home their instruments, so this 6th grade thing is a little new...So I asked her if she's any good, how her lessons go and if she enjoys the clarinet, because next years plan was to move her onto the saxophone. Clarinets are a gateway instrument to many others. If you can learn the clarinet, you can learn just about anything!

She told me that she's been thinking about what she wants to do in the future. She wants to go to a music college and learn as many instruments as possible and maybe be a music teacher, band director & vocal teacher, all rolled up into one! wow. and you know what? I can see her doing it!

We come from a musical family, at least on my side. My aunt and uncle and ALL their kids are very musical and 3 of them was/are band teachers/band directors. At all of the Thanksgiving talent shows, the family band plays Christmas carols. Mostly clarinet. In my family, just about everyone played an instrument. I started piano when I was 5 and violin in the 5th grade and took lessons in both, up and through college. I'm not very good... The only thing I remember on the piano is Bobcat Boogie and the only thing on the violin is how to rosin the bow. I suppose if I practiced more...

My sisters and brother played viola, piano, cello, flute, trombone and my mom was the church organist. My dad even played trumpet in the Marine band when he was in the service. So I was pretty impressed with Meri's thoughts about her future!

When I was in high school, I changed my mind VERY frequently about what I wanted to do. When I didn't have a boyfriend for SOOOO long, my sister decided that she and I would become the first Lutheran nuns. In fact, there was a convent only a few miles away from our home where my mom would threaten to leave us when we acted up in the car as young kids. Not sure if they would have taken us as 18 year olds... Ruth Ann was a wee bit too snarky for the nun-hood. And since we were/are staunch Lutherans, they probably wouldn't take us anyway... I'd seen The Sound Of Music so many times tho, I was sure I'd fit in. I loved to sing and I knew ALL the songs from the movie!

I saw a movie with Melissa Sue Gilbert where she was a nun in Africa and got killed at the end. I was very moved and told my mom that I wanted to be a missionary in Africa! She was thrilled and started making phone calls for me. Not sure why she wanted to ship me off so badly... That idea only lasted a week and then it went away. It went away???

One week, when I was reading Silver Wings For Vicki, I wanted to be a stewardess. Did I ever tell you that I could be impressionable?

(That shows my age, they didn't start calling them flight attendants until I was probably 25...)

One week, I wanted to be an architect. Then a teacher, then a seamstress, then a famous clothing designer, then a hair stylist, then an artist, then a nurse, then a doctor, then a gardener, then in advertising!

I never once thought I'd be a computer programmer until well into my Senior year... Ruth Ann and I were constantly competing with each other, because she's a smart Alec and it's fun. She's only a year older than me and when she started college in BioMed engineering, I took a look at her books and thought... I can do computers!!!

We had one of the first Commodore 64s with no hard drive. It was AWESOME!!! until you accidentally kicked the cord at which point it would turn off and you'd lose everything... But I digress.

Back to Meri's future and my past. In looking at all the things I wanted to be at various times, I believe I've achieved my dreams. Being a wife, mother & programmer, every single one of my aspirations were used in at LEAST one point in my life. So except for the millionaire status dream, that I never mentioned, did I? Oh, and I haven't been to Africa, yet... All of my dreams have come true.

I just never got paid for them.

She can do whatever she puts her mind to. I believe in her!