one of these days....

Spring is going to arrive...the robins are here, the birds singing in the trees but it's oh-so cold out still! When those warm days come, we'll forget this cold, forget the longing we had for sunshine on skin, and it'll seem like spring was always here. But we will love every minute of it, the newborn green of the leaves, the daffodils!


Mariel and our friend Janette and I, at the Monster Jam. Can we talk for a minute about Monster Jam? Over 30,000 fans pile into the Dome, where 200 dump trucks full of dirt have created an indoor mess, so trucks can roar and fill the air with dust and gasoline fumes, driving around crushing cars and racing...people just love this event. They are hungry and thirsty too, and visit our concession stand by the hundreds. They order nachos and Mountain Dew, and hot dogs and pizza slices. Hour after hour of hurrying and serving and running the cash registers, the afternoon flies by, but not without thoughts of How Am I Going To Survive This, thirsty, aching knees, and sometimes, having those short-circuits that come with such busyness: what did that guy just ask for? My head is spinning. This is crazy. It's hot in here. What? We're out of pretzels? And we ran out of popcorn? dang. Then the lady who waited in the long long line and asks for popcorn CANNOT possibly fathom that we have none. She screeches at me. I calmly look her in the eye and state, "I'm sorry, I ate it all." I didn't mean to say it, it just came out. I mean, I'm just doing my best. And I got screeched at. So I said it. Her eyes narrowed as she realized I was being snarky...and I felt bad. So the next time that happened, I just apologized.

Anyway. It was busy, and I didn't want to be there one little bit because my son Samuel was here for the weekend for Army Reserves Drill. He got in on Friday late, after I was in bed, and left early Saturday before I got up, then was here on Saturday afternoon/evening...by the time I got home at midnight, he was sleeping...so I did see him after drill yesterday afternoon for a few hours before he headed back home to Virginia, but it was SO hard to be at the fundraiser while he was here visiting. ugh.

Anyway. It's a nice quiet Monday morning. We had lots of company yesterday: Sam was here, and Emily and Abigail and Mirielle and Molly, with Zac and Lydia, and Margaret and Adrian and baby Wulf, and Joseph's fiance Bethany....we had chicken wings, 20 pounds of them, and a huge salad. There was Norwegian chocolate, and a triple batch of chocolate chip cookies.


Let's just say today is a new day, and leave it at that, okay?

Paul is in India now, so yeah, I stayed up too late reading. I actually brought my computer, the Sunday paper, AND my book to bed last night...I hadn't had a quiet minute all day, so it was lovely....I only read the Target ad and the Aldi ad, but still, it was fun.:)


The girls are anxious for me to stop writing, so we can get going on school...the quicker we start, the quicker we're done, we have some lounging around to do, ha!