Day 9 stats:
Wake-up time: 6:28 a.m. Method: naturally, if there's anything natural about waking up before an alarm in the pre-dawn hours. General mood: Considerably unenthusiastic about getting out of bed.
Agenda: I sprang out of bed to start getting ready for church because I could not be late. There was nursery to keep, and I wanted to make a good impression. The ironing board at Shane's house is an over-the-door number, which normally folds down into the Spider-Man room. The night before when she was putting Bird to bed in there, Michelle took it off the door so that ironing could be done after the little darling was asleep. I discovered the hard way that it wouldn't fit on the back door, and the only doors that it might fit on were bedroom doors where folks were still slumbering, so I ironed in the floor. I'm sure it was a hoot to watch, but fortunately no one was around to witness it.
I got to church in plenty of time to be charming for the nursery babies. With Jess as my able assistant, we ran herd on what eventually became a group of six or seven babies. I had to change two really dirty diapers, but they were otherwise very sweet. When it was time to leave, I had a clinger, who cried every time I tried to put him down. It was flattering, but also kinda sad.
I left the nursery to head for my first week of being a teacher in the 4-year-old classroom. Apparently this year's crop of four-year-olds is one of the smallest they've had in recent years, but you won't catch me complaining abut that. We split the kids up and rotate them through centers, and for September I do the Bible story center, so I got to talk to them about King Saul. I didn't share any of the insights I gleaned my from most recent reading of I Samuel, but I think we learned something important anyway. I like four-year-olds, and I think it's going to be a fun quarter with them.
After Bible class, I hightailed it out of there, so we could head to Beebe to get our feed on.
After lunch, the kiddos put on their suits to spend another afternoon flying down the slide. Cousin, scholar, theologian and #1 blog fan and I stayed inside for a while watching Grams hold precious little Josie. I started a conversation with him that I had brought up with my moma, Michelle, and Shane in the car on the way to the Beeb. I asked why it seemed as though our family placed such an emphasis on valuing humor. Being funny is like a badge of honor to most of us, and that doesn't necessarily seem to be a trait that I see everyone else valuing in the way that we do. Mac's initial response, "because we're not pretty enough to value beauty," seemed to prove my point for me. We spent a big chunk of the afternoon discussing who the funniest people in the family were--with the input of the various family members passing through the living room. We also reminisced about our patriarch of funny, Gramps. My moma did her spot-on impression of him in a story. I love it when she does that. I forgot at the time but have since remembered one of my favorite stories about him from before I knew him. When he used to drop my moma and MacMac off at school, he would sing "These Boots Were Made for Walking" out the window as they climbed the long flight up steps to the front door. Bless him, he wasn't much of a singer, and they were mortified by it, which was the point. It was a fun afternoon of stories.
We also watched Pointer's drama camp performance video. Baby girl went to a day camp for two weeks, and they put on a production of Seuss on Stage at the end of the camp. Originally, she was Jungle Citizen #3 and had just a few lines, but when Gertrude McSomething-I-Forgot got braces and couldn't do the performance, our girl got called up as her understudy. It was a big part, and she was precious. She also did drawing for her talent in the camp talent show, which led to the director using several of her illustrations in the program for the show. If they hadn't spelled her name wrong in the program (twice), I would have assumed she ran the place. I t was a really fun show, and I couldn't believe how great it looked after only nine days of rehearsals.
As the afternoon wound down, I eventually made my way outside to see the water-sliders. MacMac had been told about a leak in it that the guy had sewn up before he delivered it, and he warned her it might start to leak again. It was definitely worse for wear by late Sunday afternoon. It had lost some height and therefore some speed from Saturday, but they were still loving it. We were just about to make them stop for the day when MacMac said that it was a shame that she'd paid all the money for it and had it all weekend and still hadn't slid down it. We all encouraged her to go for it. When she started making excuses about having to go put on her suit for one quick slide, Aunt Donna said she should just go in her clothes--and she did.
It was even funnier in real life. As soon as Aunt Donna said it, MacMac hopped up like she was going to do it right that second. Everyone cheered and then screamed for her to stop while we called everyone who was inside to come out. By the time we would let her go up--with cameras rolling, she had lost a bit of her bounce, and so had the slide of course. But it was still a great moment.
We stuck around the Beeb and ate and played until past bedtime and made the trek back to NLR one final time. Pinkie fell asleep in the car, and I carried him in again. That boy is getting so long--and heavy, but it was the only good snuggling I got out of him, so I'm not complaining. Once the rest of the Handful were tucked away for the night, we sat around talking about funniest family members and Christmas plans. We have a new tradition in the making right now that includes all thirty-one of us going somewhere and staying together for a few days after Christmas to celebrate. We're still working out the details, but my little family got pretty excited about the details. I can't wait.
Food consumed: I didn't have time for breakfast, but I did have a bit of breakfast casserole when I got home from church. For lunch we had chicken and dumplings and the third pan of Cajun dressing that we didn't eat the night before plus the accompanying vegetables and delightfulness. We were still working on leftover birthday desserts and such too. I'm pretty sure I stuck with the chocolate sheet cake, though I did have a piece of strawberry at some point. Sunday night we ordered pizza and kept working on those desserts--and the Woo Pig Chewy ice cream. At Shane's house there were brownies and rice krispy treats and more pineapple cheese dip, and I can't guarantee I didn't eat some of those as well.
Bright spot: That moment of cheery high spirits when MacMac hopped up to slide down the water slide in her clothes--the actual event was not as unifying and fun as the instant when we all realized she was really going to do it. It was just so hilarious.
Bedtime: I'm really not certain, but I think it was in the neighborhood of one.
I think other people don't value being funny like we do because they're not as funny as we are.
ReplyDelete