The Wild Week

I have blog guilt from not posting for so long, especially when there have been so many interesting things going on!

On Monday we celebrated Winds-day, the first Blustery Day of Fall by watching Winnie-the-Pooh and the Blustery Day while the trees outside swayed mightily in the wind and the cold rain. I love a good Blustery Day, and I love Winnie-the-Pooh and the Blustery Day too. John Mark gave me one of those teenager "My-mother-has-completely-lost-her-mind" looks after I told him it was one of my favorite movies. "Mom, that really isn't one of your favorite movies, right? You were just kidding?" I am not kidding.

The kids attended the annual Rotary Club luncheon on Wednesday, where they are honored for their 4-H achievements over the past year. I have yet to attend this function, since little brothers are not invited. I suppose when Nathanael hits 5th grade in another 5 years, I can go... by then, John Mark will be 18 and probably won't even be in 4-H any more. Scary. I took the Little Guys to Dairy Queen and to the Park instead, where we enjoyed the Perfect Fall Day (though it was slightly muddy, thanks to Windsday.)

On Friday, John and I went on a date (!). Hunting season and Boy Scout Camping Season are not conducive to dating. We enjoyed dinner at Red Lobster and decided to see "The Guardian" since the movie I wanted to see, "Flags of Our Fathers" wasn't in town yet. But the movie projector bulb blew out halfway through the film and we got passes to come again some other time. We decided we'd wait for the video on "The Guardian" and come back to see "Flags of Our Fathers" whenever it gets here. I had to pick up some things at Walmart for the weekend and John saw the perfect opportunity to make a run to Gander Mountain. He could kill two birds with one stone: skip the boring Walmart trip and browse the sporting goods store in peace- what could be better? While he was roaming the store, he ran into some friends from church and explained that he was on a date with his wife. You can understand their confusion about why I was nowhere around.

He made up for ditching me by taking me to Bob Evans for sausage and gravy the next morning when we went out to pick up Becca from a birthday slumber party. We stopped by a store in the mall which was having a Going-Out-of-Business Sale and John talked me into a a new floor lamp to replace the one next to his chair which leans at a 35 degree angle. He lobbied hard for the one with the cheesy-looking table attached, but we finally compromised on a brushed brass lamp with an elegant-but-oddly-shaped shade. Now that it's here, we are both pleased with our purchase- especially John, since he no longer has to wonder if the lamp is about to fall over and hit him on the head.

The highlight of our weekend was a visit from our friends from Baton Rouge, Jimmy and Connie and family. Connie was my roommate at LSU and Maid of Honor in my wedding. Between our two families, we had a houseful with 9 kids! Here's a picture of 8 of them (Maggie, the baby, was already asleep). John Mark was impressed that friends would drive all that way to come and see us. He said we need to get us some friends far away that we can go and see too! (Problem is, you have to move away from your friends first, or vice-versa, and that's no fun at all...) It's great to have friends that love us enough to come and see us. I love that our kids can get to know Connie's kids and also see that hospitality depends a lot more on love than it does on perfection. I told Connie that in about 15 years or so, they can come visit me and John in our empty house and we'll be able to offer them prime accommodations. But I doubt it will be half as much fun!