Weekend highlights

It was a pretty good one.

Friday, Emma was babysitting and Braeden was at a birthday party so we had Mark to ourselves.  (It's always a nice way to spend an evening.)

We had dinner and bought Emma a bed at IKEA.  Mark said, "Why do we go to IKEA every other day?"

I answered, "Because we can."

We don't really go that often but it's nice and close and we go...a lot.

Our culminating event...are you ready for this?...was to swing by a grocery store.  We are the parents that put the fun in Friday night.  It was Smith's Marketplace and it is happily almost exactly like the Fred Meyer we used to shop at in Everett.  They are owned by the same company.  The displays are the same.  The floor layout is nearly identical.  The prerecorded store announcements are the same.  It makes us giddy.

We've also renamed the store Fake Meyer.

Mark disappeared to the toy aisle and emerged with a Lego set that was important to his eternal well-being.  We bought it for him.  He has allowance money coming because I'm the worst possible person at remembering to pay my children allowance.  Braeden and Emma forget about it too.  Mark does not.

His owed allowance didn't quite cover it but he beat a level on my phone in Two Dots that I had given up on because it was so hard so I told him I'd make up the rest.

********

Saturday, after a little more yard work, Adam and I went car shopping.  (For the record, our kids are not happy with this sunny weather.  If it were raining every day we wouldn't have to be doing yard work.  I, on the other hand, will take the sunshine.)

Adam and any kind of major-purchase shopping is not a speedy prospect.  The man deliberates.  Couple that with the fact that he drove his last car for 19 years and he's not going to enter into any man and car commitment lightly.  He's looking for a long term relationship.

I am leaving the decision up to him.  I consider colors and contemplate whether or not Braeden's--and someday Mark's--legs will fit in the back seat, but otherwise, the choice is Adam's.  The highpoint of the excursion was a really young and earnest salesman at one of the dealerships.  Adam thought he was a twit and he was but I also felt sort of motherly toward him.  We would ask him questions and he would say, "That's a really good question..."  and then pause a long while, trying to come up with an answer.  At one point he told us that driving the car, with it's superior gas mileage would save us $50 a month, or $1000 a year.  Since, you know, there are 20 months in a year.  During the test drive, he was asking us about ourselves.  He asked Adam about his job and when Adam summarized it for him, our salesman salesboy said very zealously, "Sounds like you're a real asset there."

To both of our credit, we did not laugh out loud.

We probably won't be buying a car from him but I would definitely like to have him over for milk and cookies.

********

Saturday night we had tickets to Clarissa's choir concert.  Emma had also been invited to a birthday party which she decided to go to instead (after great deliberation).  So we had an extra ticket and invited the local Jorgensen representative, David, to go with us.  We took him to dinner ahead of time and had a lovely time visiting with him.  At one point he commented that I reminded him of his mom and I thought it was high praise.

The concert was fabulous!  There is something about watching really good live music performed.  It lifts the soul.  The Women's Chorus and Men's Chorus both performed and their talented voices are enough to amaze but throughout the concert, choir members would pick up instruments and accompany the singers.  They played the piano, the organ, various percussion instruments, guitars, ukeleles, flutes, French horns, trombones, cellos, the saxophone and the trumpet.  When you consider all the years of practice that went into their stellar performances, it was impressive.  I'm glad they practiced!

We hugged our beautiful singer after the concert and invited her over for Sunday evening to boot.  Sunday Braeden also wanted to invite Ammon and Melanee over for "games and frivolity."  Sounded great to me except my phone wouldn't let me text them.  My phone...

Luckily Emma's phone is not as antisocial.  (Speaking of Emma, she is rather antisocial.  She is doing NaNoWriMo...or for the lay person like you and me, National Novel Writing Month.  She has to write 50,000 words this month in her self designated assignment.  So she's busy.  Interrupt her at your peril.)

We indeed had games and frivolity and Mark and Cormac ran around like wild monkeys and ended up bleeding--Mark out his foot and Cormac out his hand.  Neither of them could say why although Mark left a trail of blood aaaaaaaall over the house so we could at least retrace his steps.  Besides that, it was good fun.

It was a nice little weekend.  Our lives are made up of a string of such simple pleasures that it culminates in a fine life.