What it's like now

Saturday morning, we met at Kneader's to celebrate Braeden's birthday.  (All you can eat French toast, which for Mark means going back two times.)

I told them about my dream where I was part of the French Resistance in World War II and we were preparing for an attack by the Russians.  My awake self knows that Russia was not France's enemy during WWII but apparently my sleeping self has other ideas.

Emma told us about her recent dream where our family decided to join Mark on a scout campout which was, you know, a cruise for a few months.  In order to save money we were picking the option of not going to any of the ports and not getting any food.  We did however have all the yogurt we could eat.

We stopped at Harmon's on the way home for lemongrass.  I was a first time lemongrass purchaser.  I thought it would be grassy, like chives or something.  It's more like the hard part of the asparagus you cut off and don't use.

While we were there, Mark got a text that he had church basketball games.

So we zipped home for that.

Like church basketball games everywhere, they were forfeited because there weren't enough players. They played anyway, mixing up the teams, and we watched a little.  Mark had fun.  If he's moving, he's having fun.  That's Mark.

We hosted a mini service project at our house, assembling kits to hand out to homeless people.  It was quick and felt like a good way to spend a little time and money.

On something of a whim, Adam and I went to the BYU Women's Basketball game.  We sat behind Braeden and Dillon and Braeden and Dillon make me happy like Mark and Gavin make me happy.  Plus BYU won.

We came home and I cut Adam's hair and baked a cake for the further birthday celebrations happening on Sunday.

On even more of a whim, Adam suggested we go to the movie at Water Gardens.  It is super cheap plus we had a buy one get one free coupon.  They're pretty much paying us to go to the movie!

The three of us quickly made our Vietnamese pork meatballs (why we needed the lemongrass) and they were delicious and then we headed to the movie.

We saw The Post which I loved.  You can't go wrong with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.  I cried a little when Meryl Streep's character was exiting the Supreme Court and walking past a line of admiring young women whose opportunities were opening up because of people like Katharine Graham.

It was a full day but also a relaxing and hassle free day.

The almost empty nest is a happy place.

*

* *

Sunday we celebrated Braeden's birthday some more.  We made seven pizzas (only repeated one type--margherita--because everybody loves that.  My favorite was the one I created with peppers, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, mozzarella, peppercinis and lots of kalamata olives.  Mark called it my V. I. Pizza.  At the end of the night, he told me there was one V. I. Piece left for me.

And I ate it.

Delicious.

Here's Braeden lighting his candles:

The cake (chocolate with mint frosting--Braeden's favorite) is slightly wonky because that's the only way I know how to make cakes.  Braeden looks exhausted because he's a college kid and has 9:00 church.  He's always exhausted on Sundays.  He's wearing a shirt Adam wore in college and those are the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards he's had since he was six.  Sam brought a box full of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards back from Switzerland and I interrupted the game Mark and Sam and Braeden were playing so we could have cake.

(Sam's cards are in German.  Also he sang Happy Birthday to Braeden in both German and French.)