A Full Day

Today was so full and enjoyable that I wanted to write about it.  Nathan had the day off because it is Mexican Independence Day, believe it or not.  I told him to enjoy it because it's the last job he'll have that closes shop on that day!  He had planned to mow the lawn and then go fishing with Annalee, but we woke to rain, rain, rain.  (And a very wet double jogging stroller I had left in the backyard.)  The lawn mowing was cancelled, but the crazies decided to try fishing anyway.

The first place they went wasn't open.  When they got set up at the second they cast only a few times before Annalee declared she was wet and cold and wanted to go to the bookstore.  Nathan packed everything up.  As soon as they were in the car Annalee said, "Let's go catch some fishies, Daddy!"  I guess she thought that picking a new fishing hole every 10 minutes was pretty fun.  Daddy didn't, so they went to Barnes & Noble.  Daddy likes to sit down with a book while Annalee "reads" some books to herself and plays with the wooden train table they have there.  Sometimes Daddy reads to her, too.

I spent the morning with Vander.  I fed him some applesauce (which I'd canned last Fall, how domestic of me!) and then read a book while I nursed him.  Right now I'm reading the many books in a series by Steven Brust about an assassin named Vlad Taltos.  Nathan got me hooked on them.  They are different than most other Fantasy I've read--written very light-hearted and with plenty of dry humor.  When Vander took a nap I relaxed for a while by checking my email and Facebook, and watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager on Steven's Netflix account.  (I love that he still lets us use it!)  I got Vander up before he was really ready because we had a lunch date.

We met my dear friend Heather at Olive Garden and had lunch with her and her very pregnant, very overdue sister Lindsay.  I've known Heather for five years.  When we moved to Idaho Falls I noticed someone in our new ward that I'd known in high school: her husband Steven.  They had just had a cute little baby.  We became fast friends, served together in the Young Women's, had a blast at their annual Halloween Parties, and have shared many life experiences.  Recently, they moved to Hawaii (lucky bums!) and I have sure missed her.  We had a very good talk, and she said some things that I really needed to hear.  I know the Lord sent her to me today!  She appropriately oo'd and ah'd over Vander and then she was a big sweetie and paid for my meal.

Daddy was home with Annalee by then.  He fed her lunch and then put her down for a nap.  I decided to take advantage of having only one child with me and stopped at Walmart for a few things.  I got another pizza pan so I can make more pizzas from scratch.  Vander was laying down in the child portion of the cart with his feet sticking out above the quilted cart cover I have for him.  So many people stopped to smile at the source of those little wiggling feet.  One little boy even dragged his mom over from a few aisles down to see it.  It made me smile.

By the time I got home Vander had fallen asleep.  We woke up Annalee and packed the diaper bag, then dropped the kids off at my friend Lezhai's house.  (Pronounced "la - zjay", like the "g" sound in lingerie.)  I've known her since I was 13.  She was in my ward growing up.  We don't hang out very often, which is a shame, even though we both live in Idaho Falls.  She was so sweet to watch our kids so Nathan and I could go on a kid-less date for his birthday!

We had intended to go to a movie with some free tickets we have to the discount theater, but the only thing playing that we were interested in was Pirates of the Carribbean 4, and it didn't start until 9:00 p.m.  Instead, we drove to Shopko.  Woo hoo!  Shopping date!  Actually, it was pretty fun because we had a $10 gift card I'd had in my wallet forever and never used, and we got to decide how to spend it.  I was drawn to the wash cloths because all of ours are a little old, ratty, and stinky (anyone know how to get stink out of towels???)  But then Nathan wanted to spend it on bath puppets for the kids.  We walked around a little more and looked at the Halloween stuff.  We expressed our mutual disgust with the costumes: me for the prices (forty to ninety-nine BUCKS for cheap plastic and felt?!?) and Nathan for the flooziness of the costumes for pre-teens (speaking of lingerie...)  For a few minutes we both got really excited about spending the money on new handlebar grips for Annalee's trike (the current ones are in pieces, held on with packing tape) but they didn't have any.  We were going to get streamers for her handlebars but decided she would be excited enough by new grips, which we'll look for later at Walmart.  We looked at some pretty $300 wood dining sets that we would never buy (our formica table never stains, burns, or scratches) and wondered why people would pay $4000 for something "fancier."  We are just not into fancy.  We ran past the candy aisle while studiously looking the other way, and made it to Electronics: Nathan's playland.  After that, we decided to go get some new washcloths after all.  They had some garish summer colors on clearance, 6 for $4, so we bought 12.  (I've decided that matching towels are highly overrated and nearly impossible to maintain.)  Then we strolled, giggling, back to the candy aisle and spent the last $2 on a giant Kit Kat bar because we'd "earned" it.  We also decided we were definitely not going to call Dave Ramsey's show and ask him if it was okay to reward ourselves.  (Are we the only ones who listen to dumb callers ask dumb questions that they should KNOW he is going to shoot down?  We are?  Hmmm.)  Next, we drove to Baskin Robbin and shared Nathan's free birthday cone (thank you, Sandi, supreme internet couponer!)  It was Oregon Huckleberry.  We ate it at the table outside.  The last half hour of our two-hour date was spent at Barnes & Noble.  We sat next to each other (Nathan gave me the only soft armchair and grabbed a cafe chair for himself) and read books we can't afford to buy and don't want to wait for on the library waiting list.  Then we drove back to Lezhai's.  "I hope Vander was good for her," I said.  Just then, the door opened and she appeared holding our baby who had obviously been crying for some time, as his face was red and fluid was leaking from multiple orifices.  Dang.  We expressed our effusive thanks and took the kiddos home.

Vander and I got down to business with a book and some nursing.  Then the power went out.  Luckily, there was enough light from the window to read by.  I'm not sure what Annalee and Daddy were doing, but I think they were a little bored with no computer or tv, because they were very interested in when I was going to be done so we could go to dinner.  The power had been off for about 40 minutes when we left.

We went to a Country Day Celebration, which was actually a Mexican Independence Day celebration in disguise.  The three Spanish branches in town had combined to put it on.  Nathan had been invited by the Spanish missionaries (he's the ward mission leader) and by a patient at his clinic.  We were delighted to go.  It was like stepping back into my mission.  You know, the Church is the same wherever you go, but the people are different.  Latino parties are completely different from your classic white Idaho/Utah ward parties.  There was TONS of Mexican food: corn tortillas, puerco, white and fried rice, refried beans, etc.  There was Latin music and it was LOUD.  They even had a DJ (I don't know if they hired him or if he was just someone in the branch that knew how to do that, but every Latino party has lots of music).  A lot of people (especially children) were dressed up in traditional clothing from their countries.  The biggest thing that sets Latino parties apart is that people actually dance.  Couples, groups of ladies, and gaggles of little kids were all expressing their inner cha-cha.  Nathan and I were dumbfounded when Annalee leapt up on the stage with a bunch of kids (the stage wasn't being used for anything) and started dancing without a care.  She NEVER dances!  Whenever we dance and try to get her to do it she gets shy and refuses!  But there she was, shaking her hips and saying "Mommy!  Look at me!  Did you see me?"  It was so fun.  Nathan and I took turns dancing with her but she seemed equally happy dancing alone.  We ate several bowls of ice cream, danced on the stage one more time, and then took our tired kids home to bed.  (The power was back, yay!)

Annalee had a rather dramatic performance again at bed time.  Lately, she has been giving us kinds of crap about "I need this" or "I don't want to" when it's time for bed.  Then, for good measure, she usually wakes up at least once during the night and repeats the process.  We are going a little insane.  Suggestions, anyone?  I relieved Nathan of duty and he went down to his lair to play Angry Birds on his touchscreen cell phone I got him for his birthday (for only $30! Tracfone, people!)  I came upstairs to find Annalee in the bathroom, crying about how she needed my help getting into the pajamas that she had told Daddy she didn't want when he'd put her to bed 10 minutes ago.  What really got me was that she was crying while checking out her face in the mirror.  In other words, she was rehearsing a melt down and consulting the mirror to make sure she got it right!  I considered several possible ways to handle Miss Priss, and decided to try something I'd seen my friend Koreena do once.  I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of her while she was crying.  "Make that face sadder!" I said.  "Stick your lip out!  I want to see a reeeeally sad one, now!"  (Check out the next post for pictures.)  Eventually the tantrum was averted and we got to talk like rational human beings.  She decided to go to bed and said she wouldn't get up until morning.  Heh.

Nathan went to bed soon after.  I stayed up to do a few loads of laundry and write about this crazy, typical, fulfilling, special day with the people I love.  I think I'll go cuddle with him now.