Pay it Forward

I've never seen the movie; but I know the concept. Well, friends, we were on the receiving end of a random act of kindness last night. Let's start at the very beginning. (a very good place to start)

Wednesday is a "busy day". Not that other days aren't busy, this is one of the busier ones. Shuttling to and from school, gymnastics for Grant and then in the evening Eliza has a Rock Climbing class. Not too bad seeing as how Jacqui's gymnastics class used to be at 1pm and has now been moved to Friday. But things were compounded a bit today by the mountains of unfolded laundry and hideous dirty dishes in the kitchen. It's called "House Hang-over" or "Weekend House". What with Grant's accident and Spencer leaving, I just haven't caught up yet.

So after I picked up Grant, I decided it was an eating out night. I drove to Winger's because their kid's menu is fabulous. Cut up food, fruit snacks and drink included with the entree. Oh, and popcorn before the meal! I herded the kids to our booth and they settled in, sorting through the crayon bucket and playing tic-tac-toe. There was a man & a woman across the aisle from us. I could tell that it was a son taking his elderly mother out to dinner. I sighed inwardly and hoped that the kids would behave and not ruin their nice evening.

Somewhere in the aftermath of ordering and then receiving our food, I noticed the man & elderly woman finish and then he helping her with a jacket. The waiter wheeled her walker over to their table and the son held it steady while she found her grips. And they left. We enjoyed our meal; Eliza especially, because I let her order off the adult menu and get an adult sized drink. Her eyes were too big for her stomach because she was left with half of her meal unfinished. And I had a huge portion of my BBQ Chicken salad as well because their portions are enormous. Our waiter brought us one big box and then said,

"Well, enjoy the rest of your meal and the bill has been taken care of."

"Oh ok. Um, excuse me, huh? I, uh, how, er who?" I kind of trailed off after the spout of stuttering.

"The couple that was over here paid for your meal." the waiter said.

"Oh my, well, thank you, uh, to them, and uh, thanks again!" I managed to blurt out.

I have never had that happen before! I felt kind of guilty, I think it would have been a $40-something meal. I just about wept right there in Winger's. There really are kind people out there! Thank you whoever you were!

A new project

While Spencer was home, we teamed up and conquered the garage. Lugging in box after box of junk (why do we have so much?), slowly clearing out the wreckage. We accomplished that and the first night we parked the car in the garage, it snowed! And hence, there wasn't any snow or ice for me to scrape in the morning! But then I started moving things into their permenant place inside the house and discovered a new project for me.

I have this huge, tall bookcase; one of those put it together yourself deals from WalMart. We've had it for a loooong time and since we've had mobile children, I haven't liked it. The only reason we have kept it around is because of the insane number of books we own. I would usually put it away in the corner of a room where children did not frequent. The strap that anchors it to the wall broke long ago and I haven't fixed it. I put it in my office due to said book overload and it's just too overbearing in my short-ceilinged house. Darn you, Egypt, getting me used to 12 foot ceilings. I was originally going to flip it on it's side, anchor the moveable shelves at even intervals and then divide each now vertical shelf in half and use it as a shoe bench in the garage for the kids. The only problem? It's too tall even when it's laying down. So, I'm going to do the same thing, except use it for my own uses (crap catcher) and pretty it up with some paint. My motivation? Get it done so I can park my car in there again!

YouTube Tuesday

I wavered a bit about picking this video for YouTube Tuesday. I don't want to scare anyone off with Showtunes. But back in January or so, we were doing some music appreciation at home. Yeah, I sound all "home-school-y mama". The real reason was that it was an I'm-sick-of-Egypt week and my Amr Diab & Umm Kulthum saturation was beyond healthy. We were picking music out for Family Dance party and I realized that the kids hadn't been exposed to any Broadway music lately. So I found some music and then we watched some on YouTube. We had to get into the whole explaining what Broadway is and why they sing that way. I found this clip from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and it has resided in my Favorites list ever since.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Personally, I'm not an active Halloween-y participant. I can count on one hand the times I've actually taken kids Trick or Treating. I'm not against it, I'm just not a huge candy person. And tramping around in the cold with sugar-hyped kids does nothing for the experience, either. But since Spencer was around, we did a lot of "festive" things. We made sugar cookies with Grandma, put together worthwhile costumes and Spencer took the kids Trick or Treating. I still got out of it! I did all the work getting costumes in order.

This was the best picture I could get. And I like the guy in front, too! From left to right, we have: a blood-thirsty doctor, a pumpkin, Dash Incredible and a vampire. Spencer wouldn't take the kids trick or treating if he had to dress up. I thought it was a fair compromise. Mairyn's costume, though, is my favorite. Two nights before Halloween, she lost her other front tooth, making perfect fangs. Someone even thought they were fake. She just loved the make-up and snarling.

Halloween also included the traditional homemade chicken noodle soup and making homemade root beer with dry ice. Dry ice is so fun. I think it's kind of like safe fire. The bubbling, volatile chunk of white ice, creating the never-ending "smoke". Fun times. I did have to send Spencer back to Iraq today, though. Not to end on a sour note, but that's today's update.

What a pain

Ah, Grant. What am I going to do with you? It's still a fact; all of the posts associated with the "injuries" label also include Grant. And vice versa. So, on the first day of NaBloPoMo, Grant decides to take a header into the gravel road at Grandma's. Here, take a look. *warning* they are not for the weak of stomach. I can handle pretty much any injury that comes my way. (with Grant, it's a prerequisite!) But mouth injuries, I'm not so good.



The kids were all running out to Grandma's mailbox. Or should I say, what's left of it. It was a casualty of Halloween. Some jerks (they don't know who) completely trashed it. Ripped the mailbox part off the top, bent the steel post anchoring it in the ground. It wasn't some random baseball smash job. Or maybe it was, I'm no expert on mailbox vandalism. So they're all running out and Grant simply trips, but trips hard. No hands out in front to catch him. (probably running with his hands in his pockets. He likes to do that lately) We're thinking his mouth hit first because that's where the most damage is. His front tooth is pointing inward now and, well, you can see the rest of the damage. I called a dentist friend and he said the ER wouldn't do anything, just bring him into the office in the morning. Great. I've also got to get a husband off to the airport by 11am.




Oh, and think about NaBloPoMo. Why? Well, I see it as a challenge. I haven't done it yet and I really want to try. So there. This was probably one of the biggest obstacles I'll face this month, still managing to blog and deal with a Grant injury, and it's only the first! Wait, no, I didn't type that. Great. I'm jinxed.

Pretty cool

I know, creative title. I'm not good at titles. A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I had to share! This LDS Public Service Announcement entitled, "Swashbucklers" was chosen by the U.S. Media Directors as the best television PSA campaign in the National Media Survey of Television Community Service Directors. Whew. Do you think they could have made some of those names acronyms? Anyway, I'm always a sucker for the LDS PSAs. TTYL. XOXO, BYOB



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A Resolution

Photo taken by Eliza (psst, she's working toward her own camera. she'll get it soon!)

So sorry I've been delinquent in the blogosphere. Between trying to suck all the quality time out of Spencer that I can, battling with cabin people and going to the BYU game in Provo this last weekend, I've barely had time to catch a breath! I meet myself coming and going. And now it looks like I've got a sick Jacqui, I'm going to have even less time. So I'll cover the last few "blog-worthy" events in my least favorite, but efficient, format; bullet points and I'll elaborate soon. I promise.

#1: The Cabin

Last Monday morning, I woke up ready for a fight. I pulled up all records pertaining to the Island Park Incident, found the office's phone number and ate a piece of chocolate (to bolster my resolve). I was ready. I got the phone, dialled the phone number and introduced myself calmly, but assertively. Every possible response from them had a solid rebuttal.

"Hi, this is Lydia Penrod. I would like to speak with Susan, please."

"Oh yes, this is Susan. I talked with the owner and we're going to refund you for the whole amount. I was an unfortunate turn of events and we would really love for you to stay with us again. Is a check ok?"

Huh? Good thing I was sitting down! That's it? Ok, yeah, I'll take a check. Really, that's it. And I think we will try and do it again.

#2: Catching up

Spencer and I have been enjoying our quality time together. As most expats know, keeping up with your favorite T.V. shows is very difficult overseas. **sidenote** hulu really needs to solve that. **un-sidenote** We get around that problem by just buying the series on DVD. I don't mind that I'm a year behind. If I want to watch the next episode and find out if Sylar really is dead, I go ahead and watch it! That's the magic of DVD. I got all of our favorites a month or so ago, but just haven't had the chance to watch them. Wonder why? I told Spence I wouldn't wait, but, he came home and I still hadn't watched anything. So we've been digging into Heroes. Very, very good vacation time!

#3: The BYU Game

To be brief, it was a sweet weekend. I will elaborate with more pictures and details soon. But for now, all I can say is that even though we lost, it was all still worth it. Provo in the fall time, wonderful weather, getting together with old Cairo friends, kids cooperating with a fall photo shoot, and Ikea. What more could one get out of a weekend??