I Just Had A Wonderful Night

My good friend Clarinne works at the Eldridge Senior Center. She takes the seniors on outings. Tonight, she was taking them to the play, The Hundred Dresses at BYU and asked if I would drive them in the limo. I had such a wonderful time. So far this limo has been a source of fun and joy, it represents freedom and good humor. Georgia once said, it is a thing of laughable beauty. So it is. I can finally take my all friends and their children places, I get to share at a time when I can't do a whole lot to help others, sharing is something I can do. I am grateful to have it and happy to share. And for me, fitting a triplet stroller in there means total freedom.

There ended up being 11 wonderful seniors in the back. I hope to have friend like these in my golden years. I report the following comments as the seniors wiggled their way in back. "where's the handle on this thing?" "These seats are too low. I can't get up.""Whats going on?" "I can't slide my hip over." "Ow, my kidney." "Here let me give you a hand.""What's taking so long getting out, where's the bottleneck?"

Sardine city. I was so pleased to be asked to drive. Not a single one of the seniors had ever been in a limo. (I hadn't either before I bought one.) They were good sports, willing to squeeze in so everyone could go together. They even laughed at how "decrepit" they sounded trying to get settled- their words, not mine. The two gentlemen you see, helped jump start the limo when I dried up the battery waiting for everyone to get ice cream at the Creamery. You can't turn off the car and leave all the bells and whistles on.

I took up five parking spaces at BYU, it really was the only way to park. Those greedy ol' BYU parking cops didn't even give me a ticket, they probably didn't have a protocol for people like me- good, keep it that way.

The Hundred Dresses play was delightful. It is wonderful to have such a fine school nearby to be cultured by. I found that I knew all the songs they sang/hummed/whistled during scene changes and I wanted to hear more. (Old war and jazz favorites) I can only hope my children turn out to be more like Maggie, with a kind heart and a conscience, even when mom is not around.

I Can't Be Good Today!

I can't be good today, Hazel sneezed snot all over my hair and then she laughed for so long I took a picture.

There are babies everywhere! I just roll them around with my foot as I vacuum

Something you don't know about me is I keep N8s swim goggles in the knife drawer and I use them when I cut onions. Then I forget about them and wear them all day until someone comes over. Wilson! Why didn't you tell me?

Here is an update for today: Making butternut squash soup for dinner (yes, I always think about Stephen Murray when I buy butternut squash) I burned it not once, but twice. I cooked it, got doing other things, burned it, salvaged what I could, thickened it, cooked it again, forgot about it, burned it again and tried to salvage it. I know, give up right?

Hazel, Chance and CC undo their masterpiece, Quinn fell off the bed, Wilson smashed into a bookshelf, limo needs a jump start (kids must have left the mood lights on in the back.) It has been one of those days.

CC and Hazel help sort laundry for me. They are good workers (most of the time) and do far more than they are asked to.

There Is Someone Special Reading This

This is my favorite picture, I didn't coach her on this, she has made a bee, with wings, a stinger and the flowers. Only a beekeepers daughter...

Someone very special reads this blog, well lots of special people do. A special person writes it too! That is not who I am taking about. Hazel has a birth mother. I love her, we call her Momma Jessica and she is dear to us. I am posting these pictures for her. Jessica, look what a great artist Hazel is. Her pictures are not guesswork and they have actual detail. She is so quiet when she draws, and so focused. I love and treasure her art.

 

This was one of her first, most kids her age are still scribbling- these pictures have hair and eyelashes, noses and hands!!

She gets more detailed in every picture, this one has a hair elastic, lower lashes, nostrils and cheeks. This is a mothers moment, let us think our baby is one of the worlds wonders, because every mom should think that most of the time.

Sometimes What You Thought Was My Honey Bee

This is a Honey Bee, I have had more than a few phone calls from friends teasing me that my bee stung someone, or come pick up my bee it is in their house. Honey bees are pretty mild. They really don't sting unless threatened, you wanna take their honey or they are trapped in clothing or being stepped on. I have noticed bees like cleanliness, they seem least aggravated while I am digging around in their hive if  I am freshly showered and have my teeth brushed. I have walked thru clouds of bees without being stung. This bee could be mine, but it also could be Travis Stewards or the other family in the neighborhood that has bees. These honey bees are Italian bees, they are brown and gold and make great honey, some other bees, Russian or carniolan have different traits like how they build their hives, how much honey they make and how aggressive they are. So sometimes what you thought was a bee...

Was really a wasp.

Let's Compare

This is our minivan. Roomy? I will now attempt to prove I am not as crazy as you think with a limo purchase.

How does it look? We took our maiden voyage with our good friends and look how much room we had! It is like a second bedroom for our lil' girls in there. Maybe I should bring in a box of toys, scatter some food on the floor and lock all the kids in there! jk. Got guests? Borrow the limo, you don't even have to blow up the air mattress! Note: the babies rear facing in the back. Over head, on the bench where the triplets sit are the controls for the radio, telephone, mood lighting, air conditioning and black n white VCR (oh, yah), there are also controls in the front for the chauffeur, we really haven't figured out all the buttons and jiggers yet.

Look behind Amanda, see the privacy screen is up? A parents dream... In the next shot you will see N8 and Jeffs heads (spitting pistachio shells, chatting up a storm and ignoring whatever is going in the back.)

So I think N8 is coming around to it. The day we got it, I was thrilled, I had been researching and looking forward to it for months! I bought it on eBay and some college students drove it here from Texas. My friend Hannah lived on the road before ours and she saw it coming. She ran to our house, beating the limo. I think she was as excited as I. She ran in the door without bothering to knock. "The Limo is here!" She yelled in between gasping for breath. I Yahooed! and ran out the door. The whole neighborhood was outside. Neighbor kids were starting to climb around inside and Hazel and CC were trying to stake their claim. I was so excited. In the midst of all this, Nathan sat in the house calmly eating his dinner. He didn't even look up from the dinner table when Hannah, Hazel, CC and myself were dancing around cheering and waiting for it to be parked.

He has never been someone that seeks attention, but buddy, you got triplets. You don't go anywhere without people stopping you and talking about your family (I love it!). Nathan, like it or not, you are saddled with attention. For right now, you live in a fishbowl, might as well make the best of it.

Every time we go somewhere he wants to drive it, either he is worried I will crash it or he must like it. I think he decided it wasn't so bad when our friend borrowed it and said he made it through the Wendy's drive thru window in it. What I am trying to say is.. I think he likes it.