Snow Angels Arizona Style..

In honor of the lovely winter weather hitting many other parts of the country, Isabelle wanted to join in and make snow angels.

Except we live in the desert and even on the coldest winter days, our "snow angels" look a lot like this...

Cheers to our 75 degree "chilly" winter weather. To our family and friends back home, I hope that high of negative 7 feels warms.  Remember, this is a great place to visit... come see us!  We'll even teach you how to make Arizona "snow" angels!

Until next time,

Angie

The beautiful sights on the road...

Living in Arizona, we are surrounded by beautiful landscapes.  Yet two weeks ago, when we were leaving to head back to the cold tundra, we were reminded just how pretty this state is.  Here are some pictures I snapped as we were heading down the highway at 75 MPH.  

Even before we were two hours from home, we ran into snow.  I love the picture below.  While the sun was still shining we could see the snow clouds moving in and the snow falling on the red rocks.  Such a pretty sight.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas was what we were all singing as we rolled down the windows and smelled the fresh pine air.  It was breath-taking, and I don't just mean the view.

Its hard to see but in the picture below, the snow clouds were below us.  In the fog of this picture was actually a huge drop off the side of the mountain.

While the views outside the car were completely gorgeous, the views inside the car, were pretty good too!

Until next time,
Angie

Frozen in time...

Both Jarrett and I grew up in small town Iowa.  The same small town actually.  As an adult now, raising three kids in a suburb of the 5th largest city in the U.S., I clearly see just how wonderful my childhood was.  Growing up in small town Iowa had many advantages, and honestly it wasn't until I grew up, moved away and became a parent, that I realized there were even more benefits than I ever knew.

While we don't get back "home" more than once or twice a year, I try to stay connected to my "roots" by talking with family (the rest of my immediate family all live in the town I was raised in) and by reading the local paper.  My wonderful mother and father-in-law, who were also born, raised, and raised their family in the same town, still have a subscription to the Tribune and share past editions with me when they are done.

So many heart-warming stories, like the one story titled, "Veterans receive Quilts of Valor".  My grandpa's featured in that story.

Just tonight I sat down to read through the bi-weekly newspaper for the last couple months and as I read story after story, it hit me.  While I've grown up, moved on and continue living life in the busy city, I think of my wonderful childhood community as a place frozen in time.  It's true.  When I think of the way things must be happening back in good old NH, no one grows older, the same stores provide the same services, everyone greets everyone with a smile and a friendly conversation about the weather and nothing changes.  That's the way my heart convinced my head things must still be.

The fact that we just were back home less than a week ago, I realize very clearly, my hometown is not frozen in time, but almost the exact opposite.  Standing in the grocery store talking with a familiar face, who I last saw more than 15 years ago is enough to make your mind race.  While we were back home we visited our hometown fitness center (a place that didn't even exist when I was a kid) and just as kids do, my kids immediately became "friends" with some other kids who were playing ball.  As I ran around the track and watched the boys make friends with two other boys, I tried to figure out whose kids they were.  See in my hometown of less than 2000 people, everyone knows everyone and if they don't know you, then you must be a visitor from out of town.  While I ran, I saw a few teachers/coaches from high school and at one point I thought, "maybe those boys are one of my old high school track coaches kids"  After I finished running, my old high school history teacher came up to me and we briefly caught up.  I asked him whose kids  my kids were playing with and he told me they were the kids of one of our old classmates who graduated a year before Jarrett and I.  As I put the pieces together and realized my high school track coaches kids are now in college, I couldn't help but realize just how many years have passed.

And that leads me back to our hometown paper.   I love to read about what is happening back home and to stay updated on the latest news.  In a way, I imagine it would be like reading the newspaper from Mayberry in the Andy Griffith Show.  Unlike the news we see here in the city, small town papers are wonderful in that, they highlight happy news more often than negative.  The paper is littered with stories of couples celebrating big anniversary's, pictures of newborn babies often outnumber the obituary section, and the opinion pieces often reflect on the important things in life... helping out other people, giving thanks for blessings and the real reason for Christmas.  Nope, not stuff you see on the pages of the Arizona Republic.  

Take for example, this story.  Bill is my grandmother Virginia's brother and its hard to believe they've been married for 60 years.  In my mind it should be more like 40.  

And yet, as happy as those stories are, I can't help but feel nostalgic about what I read.  Part of it is my heart yearns for a life where my kids experience the childhood, the true feeling of community, the love and support and encouragement a teenager feels as they grow up in a place like my hometown.  Where you are not just a number in a larger whole, but you are an individual whose worth and value are recognized in contribution to making a greater whole.  

Tonight, I find myself reading the obituary section and understand what my grandparents and parents must feel as they read the news.  And that I why I can't help but feel nostalgic too.  Seeing obituaries of folks, of family members, of community leaders, old teachers, even parents of my friends, is emotional.  I read the brief 7 or 8 paragraph summary of the loved ones life and can't help but grieve.  If life doesn't have enough reminders that we are only here for a short amount of time, reading your childhood newspaper 15 years after you've left home, will give you a reminder you won't forget.

Life doesn't stop moving, stop changing and as must as I'd like it stop and stay the same; life doesn't work like that.  Its just another reminder to cherish the here and now.

While I love my life here in the desert and know we are in the right place to raise our family and provide a life for our children, I think I'll always be a small town Iowa girl at heart.  Knowing the community I was raised in was pretty much a modern day Mayberry, was truly a gift (although I didn't realize it at the time).  And that's why I think I've kept that image of NH frozen in time.  Seeing the community I grew up in and love, change, morph and become different isn't bad, its just different. And some say different is good.  Different is what just reminded me time's a moving and I better make the most of the time I've got. 

Until next time,

Angie

Our home... on the road.

Earlier this week we returned from our trip to Iowa and spent two full days in our van.  It was actually quite a traumatic trip for all of us.  Kids included.

That there van, was our lovely home that safely transported us to and from our home to our family in Iowa and back home.  

We left on Monday morning and less than 23 miles into our 1700 plus mile journey we ran into snow.

This was the view that we watched out our window for the majority of the trip.

 Snow that lasted for two full days, turned into blowing snow and bitter cold and a trip much longer than we hoped for.  In all honesty, it could have been worse, I've lived through worse snow storms (reminds me of the trip my mom and I took that one day when I was in high school.  That was a terrible winter storm... the wind chill was -60 and the snow was blowing so hard we couldn't see the road, the windshield wouldn't stay defrosted so we only had a small circle to look through.  And even though schools for miles were canceled, local authorities warned people to stay off the roads, we drove an hour to the nearby town, just so I could get my braces tightened... serious.)

Having lived in the desert for more than 9 years, I'd be happy to admit my winter driving skills haven't been in use in a long time.  Therefore Jarrett, did most of the driving (all but 23 miles).  And he did a great job.

As we pulled into the driveway on Tuesday night at well after 11 p.m., I jumped out of the van and couldn't wait to get into my bed.  It wasn't until the next morning, when I had to go get groceries, in the same van that we had been in for so long, that I realized how traumatic the driving experience was.  I loaded the kids in, buckled up Isabelle and climbed in myself.  Immediately, my stomach turned into knots and I felt like I was instantly back into the road trip... the never ending road trip.

There are definitely some memories from our drive across the country that I cherish.  Here's one of them...

Isn't that sweet?  It was so quiet, for a whole 37 minutes.  Yes that is all.  Of the more than 27 hours we spent total on the road, the kids only slept for 37 minutes. Still though, that's better than nothing.

Notice how much space, open, leg room space you see in that picture above?  Well actually what you can't see is that there is no leg space.  Every nook and cranny of that lovely Chrysler Town and Country with the stow and go option was filled with gifts, clothes, bags and other lovelies we brought back.

Most of the space in the van looked like this...

What's that nice garment bag you ask?  Well, that's my sister's wedding dress we transported back to Iowa.  When I sat in that seat, at least I had a nice fully pillow to use against the window.  I don't think she'll notice the extra wrinkles in the dress.  That's why they will press it before the big day right? :-)

Even though we were all jammed in like sardines, the kids were so excited to get to go to Iowa, they never complained.

Here's Isabelle on our way, notice the sunny skies and the lack of winter jackets.  This is on our way to Iowa from the warm sunny desert!

Don't worry, we were stopped in this pictures, we make sure the kids are buckled in at all times.

Perhaps one of the most traumatic experiences of driving across country with three kids is the pit stops one must make.  Thankfully, we greatly limited the fluid intake of the kids, actually all of us, to avoid unnecessary pit stops.  Honestly, we were all pretty much dried up raisins by the time we got home.  Here's how we handled the stops we made.  Jarrett would fuel up the car, and I'd take the kids to the bathroom.  Because I'm have an extra worry gene, I made all the kids come with into the same stall in the women's bathroom.  The boys highly objected but went along with me after I explained there was no changing my mind.  After several stops, and having four of us in normal sized bathroom stall, the boys found a position to stand in around the throne and we followed the same routine and position stance at every gas station.  I've learned that gas stations restrooms are kind of like the lottery, you never know if you're going to win or if you've found a big losing ticket.  Some stops have restrooms cleaner than my son's bathroom, and some restrooms, well.... I won't go into details.  I'll just say instead of using the restroom with the illegal substance using folks in the next stall, we left the women's one to go take over the men's washroom, while I repeated over and over to the kids, "DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!!"  To say the men's restroom was a step up from the women's is scary enough.  Please excuse me, while I go wash my hands again!

The saving graces of our trip, the whole reason why I still have hair, is because of the DVD player in the car and the I-Pad.  Jarrett and I made a rule this summer when we drove back that the kids could watch as many movies as they'd like when we were driving, and this trip we implemented the same rule.  We watched Christmas movies on the way back and all different movies on the trip home.  Between Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and How to Train Your Dragon 2, Isabelle played on the I-Pad and the boys recorded the trip in their journal.  I have no idea how families in the 60's, 70's, even 80's did it.  Technology is not a want in long distance road trips, it is a need.

While I joke (kind of) about the trauma we went through on the drive to (Iowa) and from (Iowa), I am thankful the van and its amenities, for the overall very good behavior of the kids, for Jarrett driving so I could tend to the kids, and mostly, I'm thankful for the safe trip.  We had so much fun on our vacation and we are so thankful to be home,   All of these things I'm thankful for, in part because of our home on the road.

I wonder how long it will take before I can get back into the van again and not feel like I'm going on a never-ending road trip.  Hopefully soon, we have more road trips in our future!

Until next time,
Angie

They got my heart...

Some days the boys can make me crazy (literally) and then there are some days, I look at my boys and think I am so blessed.  Today was one of those days.

After our whirlwind trip back to Iowa, we returned home with a to do list a mile long.  Between the suitcases still sitting in my bedroom waiting to be unpacked, to the Christmas decorations (and there are a lot of them) that look at me and scream "take me down", to the thank you lists, and just the normal weekly tasks that have to be completed; this is going to be a busy few days I told the kids.

This morning I shared with the kids all that I wanted to get done.  After yesterday's exciting activities of having a rock fight in the back yard.  Yes, I did say that correctly, the boys had a "rock dodge ball fight" in our tiny back yard.  Thankfully no windows were broken, but the boys clearly know now that we do not support throwing rocks.  As a result of yesterday's choices, the boys were granted the exciting tasks of helping me all day.  They were thrilled when I announced all the things I wanted to get done.  Thrilled may be a huge exaggeration.

But to task we got bright and early, and to my complete surprise they willingly jumped in and started working hard.  I let them help me with tasks I normally would have done myself,  See I'm a tiny bit of a perfectionist and my mom once told me, if you want to have something done right, you might as well do it yourself.  I think she'd openly admit she follows this mantra.  I seem to have adopted the same behavior too.  But I tried to be more open today and to let the boys try some new things.  I let them climb up the ladder to remove the decorations.  I let them take down the Christmas trees and shove them in the box.  I told myself, it doesn't have to be my way, it just has to fit into the box.  Surprisingly, it worked.  I didn't get stressed that it wasn't perfectly put into the box and the kids had fun helping.

All morning we continued to work and before I even knew it, I looked at the clock to see it was 12:30.  I could tell the kids were hungry, they were asking for their 4th snack, so I told them I'd stop what I was doing so I could make them lunch.  That's when the boys chimmed in and said, "Mom- can we make lunch?"

Here again, my perfectionist attitude tried to come to the surface and just as I was about to say, "No, I'll do it," I, instead pushed it back down deep inside and said, "Sure, what are you going to make?"  They looked at me with wide eyes, almost to question, "Did she say what I think she said?"  and simply responded, "Mom- we want to surprise you, so stay out of the kitchen until we say its time to eat okay?"  I agreed and went on putting away the decorations. I told myself it was a win-win.

Less than 30 minutes later, with minimal check-ins from me, I sat down at the table to a gourmet salad (complete with lettuce, spinach, carrots, cucumbers, croutons, strawberries, tomatoes, and oranges) along with salmon (granted it was left overs but they put it into the oven and took it out) (I watched them closely) and a fruit salad of bananas and strawberries.  I sat down to my plate already filled with food on it.  Gabriel and Michael said, "Mom you take a bit first, there is a surprise in the salad"  I wasn't quite sure what the surprise was, but I went along with it.  (It was the strawberry and orange in our lettuce salad).  And actually it was all really good.  I ended up having two helpings of the salad and the boys were so happy.  Gabriel said, "MOM- you must really like our cooking because you are eating a lot!"  Not only was I really hungry but I actually liked their meal and was completely impressed.

I told the boys they could cook more often now that I know they are such great "cookers" (their terminology, not mine). Upon hearing that, they got even more excited and started brainstorming the next things they could make.

Lunch was such a nice treat, and not only did they cook everything but they served it all and cleaned it up.

And as if my day couldn't have gotten any better, the boys continued to surprise me by helping me get the rest of the decorations down and put away.   I am one happy momma today.

This year I told myself I wanted to make a conscious effort to be more appreciative for the daily blessings I take for granted.  Today was one of those days when I have no shortage of gifts to give thanks for.  Today my boys made me so happy and proud to be their momma.  They showed great help and generosity in pitching in to make my day easier.

I'm so thankful to have them in our lives and to call them my sons.  Even if they try to throw rocks at each other and risk breaking our windows.  While I"m not soon to let them have a dodge rocks contest, they sure made up for it today.

I love you boys and am so thankful for you help.

Until next time,
Angie

Ringing in the new year... but first, where did 2014 go?

While I am happy about several things that happened in 2014, I wholly admit, I'm disappointment in myself for not not blogging as much as I'd like (seriously, one post in December, how can that be, its my favorite month).  Hopefully that will be something I can change in 2015.

But for now I'll reflect on a few of the highlights from the last month of so. 

I never got around to posting pictures of the Turkey Trot at the school.  Here's Gabriel and his buddy getting ready to take off on their 1/2 mile run.  

We also finished up baseball (Gabriel) and soccer (Michael)... and I wish I had more any pictures of the boys actually playing their games, but the truth is, most of my time is spent at the playground with Isabelle while the boys play ball.  For some reason she isn't interested in sitting to watch them play games.  So instead I take pictures of her playing at the park where the boys play their sports.

Cheese... close up!

Isabelle and her friend Frankie, getting ready to go down the slides together.

 well, then this was. I'm so excited to share that my sister and her husband are expecting their first child, a girl (after several years of trying to get pregnant) and so we decided to share some of Isabelle's baby stuff with them.  Below is just some of the stuff we handed down.

Here's Michael pointing out just how spoiled his sister is.  "See Mom, she has WAY more stuff than Gabriel and I together!"

As we boxed up the baby stuff to hand onto my sister, I had to admit, it was way more emotional than I ever thought it would be.  I'm so thankful that I was able to experience the baby phase and while I would love to have had it lasted for a few more years, I clearly know after the baby stage comes several other stages (maybe not as fun... ahem, toddler tantrums, 7 and 9 year old "I know it all mom" stages) and so with that clear awareness, I humbly pass on the baby stuff so someone else can experience the fun.   

In the midst of what seems like the busiest November and December I can ever remember, we decorated the house for Christmas.  Here's Michael and Isabelle decorating the Christmas tree for the boys' bedroom.  

  One of my favorite highlights from pulling out all the decorations each year, is getting to cherish and reminisce about Christmas' past.  My grandmother always loved Christmas and she gave me several Christmas decorations I love and cherish to this day.  Just one of those decorations was this nativity scene.

In the bottom corner of the box she wrote:

 I wonder if she knew at the time, how much her words would mean today and every Christmas.  Just another reminder that although she isn't here with us in person today, she is always with us in memory, in our hearts and in our thoughts. I miss her so much.


As we lost Jarrett's grandmother this year, Jarrett and I have spent time reflecting on just how quickly life passes by and how spending time with those we love is ever so important.  This summer when we were back to Iowa for a week to honor Grandma Hazel, we were reminded how much we enjoy our family back there and how our hearts were calling us to come back home for Christmas.

In the 5 years we have been parents, we have always spent Christmas in Arizona.  With so much happening back home (my brother, my sister are getting married, my other sister is having a baby), and the fact that we have never given our kids the experience of a Christmas in Iowa, we made the decision to go home for the holidays.

I knew going home to Iowa was going to make more work for me, but I knew the benefits and fun would far outweigh the extra holiday work.  So after Thanksgiving Isabelle and I started preparing.  We dug through the kid's closet to try and find "winter" clothes for them to wear.

Here's Isabelle all dressed for Iowa... She put on her boots and said, "I go to Iowa Mom!"  It wasn't too long after going through the kid's closet that I realized, our kids have NO idea what winter is really like and they do not have the "accessories" that accompany an Iowa winter either.  (Boots, hats, gloves, a real winter jacket... just to name a few).


In preparation for Christmas, we (Isabelle and I) participated in the annual holiday shopping season.  Here we are taking a break from gift buying as Isabelle found what she wanted for Christmas... a six foot tall Mickey and Minnie Mouse...

 

Yes that Minnie Mouse is knocking her over.  She wasn't as happy as mom was when we put them back.

Soon enough we got home and she went back to her normal behavior.... climbing, jumping around and acting like her silly self.

 In other news, Michael was so excited as he got to have a play date with his friend, who is a girl, Bella.  One afternoon she came over and the two of them, okay, actually it was three of them with Isabelle constantly having to participate as well.  We went to the park and worked on science experiments.

Here they are headed to the park to play.

 Right before we left on vacation, I got to go to school and join Michael for his holiday celebration in the classroom.  They each got to build a cool gingerbread house and tree.  While most of the frosting was consumed by the kids, Michael did manage to get some of his candy on the masterpiece he was working on.

 And if building a candy-frosting house wasn't good enough, getting to work on it at the same table as his buddy Jack, in Michael's mind, Christmas came early!

In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the month of December flew by and the time for us to hit the road and drive 1742 miles back to Iowa had come.  We were all so excited to get to go home for Christmas... and I have a lot of pictures to share.  So many so that I have to save them for another post{hopefully tomorrow}.

Christmas 2o14 (my zero key doesn't work for some reason) is one we will always remember.  In thinking about the year in general, I am thankful for the many blessings we were given.  I'm thankful for the health of our family, for the prosperity in time and in having enough money available to drive home to Iowa to spend Christmas with loved ones.  I'm thankful for the family and friends here in Arizona, in Iowa and around, that support and share their love with us.  I'm thankful for the three little people that made us a mom and dad.

As we close the 2o14 chapter and begin writing a new one, I pray for strength to work through new challenges, for courage to push myself in ways I haven't done before, for patience in guiding and helping the three prized possessions we have in making good choices and doing what is right.  I pray for the health of family, friends and for ourselves.  I look forward to 2o15 and I'm filled with hope that prayers are answered, with a faith that reminds me of the daily blessings I have, and to give of myself more to make other lives better.

Until next time,
Angie

It's the most wonderful time of the year... or something like that.

I've been the absolute worst lately about posting on here.  Almost every day on my to do list, I see the line about "blog" and at the end of each day I transfer over the item over to the new to do list I start for the following day.

The truth is there are so many things I want to blog about, so many funny stories and cute pictures to share.

For example, Isabelle's involvement in our meal prayers has increased recently.  In fact yesterday, Jarrett got her breakfast and asked her to pray.  Our meal prayer goes like this:  Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.  Upon Jarrett's request, Isabelle folded her hands, put her head down and said, "Good day, Jesus be our guest..."  Jarrett, tried his best to hide his laughter and came straight to the bedroom to tell me what she said.  We both started laughing and decided in the end, her prayer isn't so bad.  At least she's greeting Jesus with a nice, warm welcome.

And onto the story I logged on tonight to share.  Last night, in the spirit of the holiday season, we decided after dinner to take the kids out to look at Christmas lights.  We've started a holiday tradition of driving around and looking at all the lights displays.   Its just another reason why I love Christmas.  I think part of the reason why I love Christmas is because I dream about it for 10 months out of the year.  In those 10 months I have plenty enough time to forget about the stress of transforming the house both inside and out, of the money spent on gifts and the fighting between the kids that seems to be constantly present.  I forget about all the whining and complaining that Santa didn't bring somebody an I-Phone, I-Pod, I-Pad or a Samsung Galaxy you name the generation.  I forget that all the work of preparing for Christmas morning is over in a matter of minutes and all that's left behind is the mountains of wrapping paper Mom and Dad get to clean up. Oh, it truly is the most wonderful time of the year right?

And that leads me back to last night.  Our goal was to have one of those picture perfect evenings that are portrayed in the movies. The one where the kids, all right next to each other, sit quietly in the back of the car and stare out the window in awe of the wonderful lights they see out their window.  As mom and dad sit in the front of the car, holding hands, and sipping on hot chocolate, the family joins in a perfect unison to sing the most challenging of Christmas carols.  Yep, that's what I pictured when I proposed the idea.

Here's how our evening went.  After spending 20 minutes loading everyone into the car, Dad decided he needed to run to the bathroom before leaving.  Back in he went as I looked back to see Michael decided he wasn't going to wear shoes (even though we told them we may get out and walk around to look at lights).  So I threw him back out of the car to get shoes.  Knowing it wasn't a full family event without bringing the dog, Jack paced back and forth in the van wondering why Jarrett wasn't in the car and almost begging us not to take a car trip like the last one we did when he came with us (to Iowa).

At this point, Isabelle, who was napless yesterday, was screaming for something even she didn't know what she wanted.  All she knew was that she was ticked off to be locked in her car seat in a car that wasn't moving.  Meanwhile Gabriel and Michael were horsing around in the back seat, and started fighting because one had more blanket than the other.  Then I yelled at one of them to move up a seat so they couldn't touch each other.  This was even before the van left the confines of the garage.  Finally, Dad came out of the house and got in the van.  Literally as we backed out the driveway, on our quest to go look at Christmas lights, Gabriel said, "Dad can you turn on the DVD player so we can watch a movie?"  Yes, yes he did do that.  Restraining myself from jumping over two rows of seats, keep in mind Isabelle has been screaming at the back of my head for 20 minutes while Jarrett was inside, I firmly reminded Gabriel the whole intention for our evening drive was to LOOK at Christmas lights.  NO, we are NOT watching a movie.

Finally we left our neighborhood and turned onto a main street. Michael chimed in, "Hmmmm, I didn't know Walgreen's puts up Christmas lights? Now that we've seen the lights, now can we watch the movie?"  Actually Michael those are the normal lights Walgreen's has and I'm pretending like you didn't just ask to watch a movie.

At this point, Dad hooked up his I-Pod and put on Church hymns instructing everyone not to talk and to just listen to music.  Isabelle, still screaming at this point, even though the car was now moving, saw Dad's electronic device and said, "Mom- I need to ask you a question."  This has become the prerequisite to her asking to play on some sort of I-phone or I-pad.  Without a pause she said, "Mommy, I need to play on your phone."  To which she was shot down just as quickly as her brother. Look out your window Isabelle!

I turned to Jarrett and said, let's make a note next year to just do this ourselves.  After making it almost through our first neighborhood of lights, Isabelle frantically said, "I have to go potty!"  Never mind the fact I took her before we left home.  If you count the time she had sitting in the car waiting coupled with the fact that it was after dinner, the timing of her announcement was just about perfect.  I knew we had less than 2 minutes to get to a toilet.  Jarrett ripped out of the neighborhood, right in front of on-coming cars, while I begged Isabelle to hold it.  Seeing a Starbucks, just about to close, we turned into the parking lot and "crashed" (Jarrett's term) the car into a space right by the front door.  I raced Isabelle inside the coffee shop and to the bathroom.  Thankfully we made it in the nick of time and a minute later we were leaving.  Not having brought any cash with us, we were just going to drive around, I for some crazy reason, felt the need to announce to the two barristas and a romantic couple (the only other people in the store) who must have been on a date inside, that my daughter was going to pee her pants and I'm sorry but we needed to just use your bathroom.  Yes, as my mouth spewed out word after word, I knew the situation was just getting worse.  I finished telling them how I used them just for bathroom and turn to leave the store, wishing I was invisible.

Getting back into the car, determined to make the event a fun, memorable holiday excursion our children would remember for the rest of their lives, I buckled Isabelle in and jumped back in the front passenger seat.  "Whew", I said, "I'm so glad she didn't pee in the seat.  Can you imagine?"  tossing a rhetorical question out into the universe.  Michael, must have taken my question literally and said, "Yeah, I'm glad she didn't pee in her seat because then we would have had to go home and that would have really pissed me off."  Insert major gasp here, followed by Jarrett looking at me, I looking at him and thinking did he just say what I think he said.  YES!

I flew around in my seat, and Jarrett slammed the reversing car back into park.  With two parents heads swiveled around in their seat, Michael realized he must have said something VERY wrong.  Honestly clueless about the fact that he said a swear word, he quickly said, "I'm sorry for what every I said.  What did I say that was wrong?'  Ten minutes later, after the Starbucks open sign was switched off, our van, yes the one filled with the mother and child who used them for their potty, left their parking lot with one child newly schooled about the use of a certain vocabulary word.

Deciding we had had enough "fun" for the evening we drove by one more house and called it a night.  As we pulled into the driveway, still Christmas music playing in the background, the song, "Its the most wonderful time of the year" started playing.  All I could do was laugh and say, "Yeah, its something like that isn't it.

Until next time,
Angie