Random Notes from the Sandwich Life
1. Overall a pretty nice weekend. Didn't make it to the farmer's market but given that I still had some things left from last week it's just as well. Instead I got together with a good friend for coffee and then watched all my boys paint. I let the boys convince me to buy them their first Lego Star Wars sets on Sunday. God knows I am a sucker for those guys.....they showed me what they wanted on the computer and Leo earnestly explained to me that although on the computer they were only $10.99 each it would still be cheaper to go to Meijer where they had seen them for $11.99 each because then we wouldn't have to pay for shipping. So I looked at those big brown eyes gazing at me so hopefully and said o.k. We trotted off to Meijer's and the boys were beside themselves with excitement. All the way through the store and the check out they clutched their little boxes and kept thanking me over and over. Leo told me that I was the best mother in the history of the world and kissed me.
2. After the three guys of the house finished the last coat of orange paint we went over and picked my mother up so we could drive out to the cemetery and see my father's headstone. It was a beautiful day and the stone is beautiful as well. The boys put zinnias from our garden in the little vases and then Owen asked if he could take two zinnias out and put them in front of Grandma Alice's grave. I said of course. Leo even let me take a picture. Look at the size of that head! Guess I need to get him a haircut.
3. Here is my dining room. Woo-hoooooo!
4. I sat and talked with my mother yesterday when we got back to her house. We were talking about my father---she mentioned the time he was stopped in the middle of the night while driving down the wrong side of the highway. She asked when that was and I told her that was in 2004. Then as she traced some other things---her skin cancer surgery and recovery in a nursing home, Dad's prostate surgery and his carotid artery surgery, etc. I said," yeah, that was in 2004." "Really, those were all in 2004?" Yep....and the two huge trees in your yard came down in a storm on the same day as Ernie's prostatectomy. "oh, when was that?" she asked. "2004" I replied. "oh, and Ernie's mother Alice died that year too." She looked at me in disbelief and I said, "yeah, that's the year I started taking antidepressents." We both laughed because that's all you can do.
I mentioned that Dad had not done well while she was in the nursing home that year but that when she was back he was more himself. "He loved you so much....he really needed you" I told her. She nodded and said, "I knew I had to outlive him so I did....and then her eyes filled and she said, "I guess he didn't know how much I needed him."
5. School starts for the boys this week. Do I have their school supplies? Nope. Have I bought clothes for them? Nope. Have I got new shoes for them? Nope. Leo says he doesn't want new shoes. I told him he could not wear shoes to school that had his toes sticking out of them. He said, "well, they only stick out a little."