Goodness

Things making me happy:

1) Our furnace is working!  We got a second opinion that resulted in a fix.  Maybe just for awhile because the thing is very temperamental but I. Will. Take. It.

2) Today is the first day of the Davis Convalescent Home for Oral Surgery.  That doesn't sound happy exactly but Marianne is staying with us because Desi is having jaw surgery and will recuperate here for a day or two and then Clarissa is having her wisdom teeth out.  Marianne will go home after that but Clarissa will stay on for a few days and eat soft foods.  I'm sorry the girls will be in pain but I'm looking forward to spending a little time with them.  And we're stocked:  applesauce, pudding, yogurt, soup...

3) Last night Emma and I went clothes shopping.  For her.  It still takes an incredible amount of energy and mental toughness on my part.  Emma and clothes and shopping and me.  There's a history there and not a very good one.  We found some good stuff though and we have a nice time together overall.

4) While we were driving, Emma's cousin Raelyn called her.  Rae attends the school in Marysville, WA where a tragic shooting happened last month.  Yesterday some of the Seattle Seahawks players went to the school and met with and encouraged and talked to the kids.  It was closed to the media, they weren't there for attention.  They were there because they care about the kids and that made me happy.  The Seahawks matter to those kids.  They've been through something horrific and it warms my heart that the Seahawks are there.  (I also liked that Emma was on the receiving end of Raelyn's excited phone call.)

5) Braeden and Mark emptied and loaded the dishwasher while we were gone, Braeden's idea.  Mark kept saying, "Why are we doing this?  Did Mom text and say we have to do this?"

Braeden said, "No, we're doing it to be nice."

When Braeden told me the story, I said, "There's the difference between an oldest child and a youngest child."

Braeden said, "Yeah, like Marianne."  (I have told my children about how annoying Marianne used to be when she wanted us to do the dishes to surprise my mom.  It's less annoying when it's my kids doing it to surprise me.  A lot less.)

6) Yesterday Mark and I were learning about gears for his science lesson.  It's a Lego curriculum which is perfect for Mark but the curriculum assumes the teacher knows about stuff like gears.  Mark was peppering me with questions I couldn't answer and I was thinking, I wish my dad were here.  He could explain this to Mark.

Then I remembered about My Dad 2.0 a.k.a. Ammon.  Adam may have known how to do it too but he was at a Jazz game.  He had to go for work--they took the Board of Directors.  I would make some cheeky comment about Adam having a rough life but the Jazz were playing the Oklahoma City Thunder.  They used to be the Seattle Supersonics and Adam hasn't even come close to forgiving the parties involved for stealing his basketball team. At least the Jazz won.

As for Mark and me, we went over to Ammon's in the evening and of course Ammon knew about gears.  They did gears and since Melanee was teaching a yoga class and we were there wrecking bedtime I told Cormac a story and sang Where is Thumbkin? four times in a row to Azure.

Who can resist, "Do 'Run Away' Again!"  Not me.

When we left, Mark said, "That was really fun!"

He may have meant the Legos and gears but I think I had more fun with the kids.