play dates--the big switcheroo

This week both of my kids have had friends over to play after school.  On Thursday  Lucy was able to bring two little girls home on the bus with her, twins in fact. I enjoyed having them over and everyone had a great time the whole visit.  Friday, Adam had a friend from class come home on the bus too. He stayed the afternoon, had dinner with us, then we took him home. Everyone had a great time on this visit as well. All the kids gave me a great insight to my own children and  how they "play" at different ages. I just completely had an incorrect vision as to how each of these days were going to go!

I thought for sure the three little 5 year olds would be quietly playing dolls or dress up and doing what they do. I thought the boys would be out of control wildness, aggressively enacting some sort of military operation. ABSOLUTELY NOT. :)   I couldn't have been more wrong. Let me repeat that I enjoyed having ALL of these kids together and I will have them over again in a heart beat! But....such a different experience than I had anticipated.

The girls DID play dress up and dolls and kitchen, but they did it with absolutely every single piece of dress up taken out of the closet for close inspection first. They chose every single doll and put them into families laid out on the bed and floor. They took out every single stuffed animal and toy horse and led them into a giant animal toy parade. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. This all took place in her bedroom, then continued on into the playroom where a full on 7 course meal of plastic food was created and served in the toy kitchen. In between these activities, there was My Little Pony video watching and a game of "catch the cat". All done while singing of course. It was beautiful bedlam.

The boys were a different story. They came in and went straight to Adam's room where they discuss the finer points of Minecraft and what they needed to do to create the best world. They came down for cookies, ate them quickly and quietly-all business- then retreated for some Tom and Jerry on TV while talking about how they can set up "chat" on their iPods with each other. (not that I was listening in...)  Moving on---Legos, Furby, general silliness and laughter, but all in his room,  the family room or the playroom. There were no battles, shooting sounds or even ONE farting armpit!!  (do I sound disappointed?)  At dinner, they took a booth by themselves and invited Lucy to sit with them at the "kids table". They ate while they played and laughed and talked more about the best apps and homework. (Minecraft and Angry Bird BTW, and homework stinks-they have it now that the the big Immigration research project is done) And then moved on to planning the next time they could get together, but this time a sleep over so they would have more time.

I enjoyed ALL of these friends and loved how these siblings included each other and were kind to each other while they each had their own friends over. I loved that they all cleaned up after and were polite to the parents! What a great week these kids have had together. Can't wait to have them all over again!!

Christmas Story wordle

how getting kicked out of the blood drive turned out to be a good thing

Two weeks ago, our church held a blood drive. I haven't given in a very long time and by the time our worship service was over, something had grabbed hold of my heart so hard that I just knew that I was going to donate that day. I whispered over to Mark what my plans were. He looked surprised, knowing that I'm no fan of needles, but said "good for you."  He took the kids to get a little snack, and enjoyed a cup of coffee for himself and would wait for me while I gave. So I hesitantly walked in and began facing the multitude of questions that are in the giant folder of information required for a happy, healthy blood donation. No, haven't been out of the country (boooo). No, haven't had -insert scary disease name here- (yayyyy). Done. Next, I was sent on to the screening panel of wonderful people at Heartland Blood Center. On a sidenote, they really ARE an amazing group of people doing honorable work! This is the part that you answer a couple of verifying questions, get your blood pressure taken, and a finger prick to float your blood in some sort of liquid to check for something very official. This is also the part that I failed.
The gentleman working on my chart frowned, and decided to take my blood pressure again, And again. Then he went and retrieved another friend to take it again on my other arm before stamping my paperwork with a "denied" block and apologized ----but my blood pressure is too high to donate blood today. Then I had to face the music and tell my husband. And call my doctor. Honestly, I've been thinking about calling the doctor for many weeks. I just haven't felt "right" but there hasn't been anything concrete or serious enough to get me to make that call. Until now. So I called. He got me in right away --conveniently on the same day I already took off to take my son to his own check up. I figured it was nothing...but that wasn't quite right.
So the nurse took my blood pressure. Three times. And then stared in  my face asking me "so how do you feel RIGHT NOW?"  ("a little freaked out that you're staring me down ...thanks.") She went to get our long-time doctor (awesome!) and I could hear her talking to him in the hallway about my blood pressure. ("Look at her BP and she's just sitting there without chest pain or anything!") Ugh. Doctor and I talk, he takes my pressure too, does what he does and wants to see me next week. Turns out much of my feeling "not right" is due to super high blood pressure that can be managed with a bunch of meds. So....although I was bummed that I couldn't give blood....I am happy that it resulted in a visit to avoid scary things like "permanent heart and kidney damage" and clearly resulted in saving someone's life. Mine.Thanks be to God. And getting kicked out of the blood drive.

She's coming home!

It's been forever since I've posted anything new. Mostly, I think it is because life has been moving at a pace that is much too fast. I have found myself in quite a "funk" (see Glee link) and just not wanting to write about my mood. BUT...today....my dear friend who has been teaching in Brazil for 2 years...shared with our small group of BT friends that she is going to come home. She will be home of course for Christmas, and we have already been looking forward to this. But she will be coming HOME home, after finishing this school year. She will miss her new friends terribly. She will even miss the birds calling outside her window before she's ready to wake up, but we are so so happy that she will be back around us. I needed this news like I needed to breathe today. Thank you Megan. Couldn't have been anything better to hear today!!!