Mark and the six day weekend

Wednesday Mark was sick.  He stayed in the green chair with a laptop, headphones, sweatshirt and two blankets.  I made sure he had a lot to drink but could only get him to eat crackers.  He had a fever and coughed all day.

Thursday Mark was sick.  He moved to the couch though.  It was a bold move but otherwise the day was similar.  He did have some tomato soup for lunch.

Friday Mark was sick.  Or maybe "sick."  It is a really easy sell to get me to let my kids stay home from school.  How important is school anyway?  I mean, compared to home with me?

Truancy officers have wanted posters with my face on them.

(Are there really truancy officers?)

Anyway.  He made a fort that day.  He said he hadn't made a fort in awhile.  I got a grand tour.

Mark is a big believer in chip clips

This is the cultural center with a vase Mark made in art class, a speaker for music and a wooden shelf he made.

additional storage

Here's the bed...complete with Darth Vader alarm clock

Mark wanted to point out that his legs fit when he stretched out...no small feat (the feet aren't very small either).

Adam and I went to a funeral that afternoon (it was a wonderful funeral for a wonderful man--a good friend of Adam's dad).  When I got home, Mark was asleep which added a little validity to me letting him stay home.

Saturday Mark felt a lot better.  He had a church basketball game.  I told him to take it easy.  I told him he would probably get tired easily and to sit it out when he did.

It turned out not enough players showed up for a team so they played a three on three game.  By the half Mark was tired.  His coach told him to just stand under the basket with his long arms.  By the fourth quarter he was done.  Done.  He still managed 12 rebounds.  Long arms + money money money.

Saturday evening Emma was at a Galentine's party and I was Sam McGee cold.  The three of us climbed into bed--I wouldn't let Mark be by me because he fidgets.  The kid is half hummingbird.  We listened to a podcast of The Vinyl Cafe and Mark fell dead asleep right in the middle of it.  It wasn't even 9:00.

Sunday Mark felt fine.  He gave us tic tacs from his Valentine stash.  He would say they were complimentary and then he would compliment us.  Emma gave insultory tic tacs (complete with insults).  Mark also told a lot of cheesy jokes all through our Valentine dinner.  I told him he was well on his way to being a dad because dads always have dumb jokes.

That offended Adam a little.

I said, "Dads are just notorious for dumb jokes...it doesn't mean your jokes are bad."

Emma said, "Well...sort of."

She was the one that coined the insultory tic tacs after all.

Monday dawned rainy.  It reminded me of Seattle.  Except it was President's Day and we had to do flags.  We never had to do flags in Seattle.  I miss never having to do flags.

It was the Young Women's turn so I went to Daylight Donuts for...donuts...and Mark had to come and help too because he's the lucky guy whose mom is young women's president.  Everyone dispersed into cars and I was left with Mark and a newly minted 12 year old girl who had all the strength of a newborn calf.  Oh, and we had the hardest route.  I always get this one and I don't know why.  It's the one where the houses are more spread out.  It seemed less arduous back when Adam and Braeden were helping.  We toiled along, pounding rebar into the frozen tundra.  Then three cars pulled up.  Two leaders and four laurels (including Emma).  They were done with their routes and came to help.  I felt like we were on the handcarts in Wyoming and a rescue party arrived.  Larisa, one of the older girls who can shoot three pointers like they're nothing, pushed the stakes into the ground like it was her job.

Strong people are my favorite.

And Mark is my hero.  He got several donuts.