One More Week

And the count down begins. The count down is different for each of us. For Shael, it's three more days of school then CHRISTMAS BREAK NO SCHOOL Yaaaahhhh! For Mike it's 4-1/2 work day week then Christmas Party at work. For me, it's one week from today that all shopping, wrapping and cooking/baking has to be done. T minus 7 days.
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Last night the whole Wilkinson clan piled into our Suburban and off we went to Joplin, Webb City, then finally Carthage. I needed to grab some things for my Sunday School class at Michael's so we went to Joplin first for that. I was in such a hurry, and the place was packed, I grabbed something that looked perfect, plus it was on the $1 rack. Perfectamundo, Fonzie. I get to church with them this morning, boy, should I have taken the time to look closely before I bought them. I teach 2 & 3 year olds. These say "for children 7 and up." Great. So, I thought I'd make them for them. Well, that didn't work, either, because I needed to make four of them in about 15 minutes, and when I got one out to start on it, it would take about 30 minutes just to make one. Oops. So, they just took them home to let their Mama's help them.

Anyway, before I followed that rabbit trail...After Michael's (which everybody but Mike and his Dad got out at) we went to Webb City and ate at Mike's Mom's favorite Mexican joint in the 4-state area. Mucho Mexico. I love their tacos and their tamales the most. There were 7 of us, and this place really is a little bitty ole dump. But, great food. We all crammed in there with what seemed like 100 other people squeezed into this place and ate until we could eat no more. Then it was off to Carthage to go gaze at the Christmas lights at the Vietnamese Catholic school/church. Mike's Dad bah-humbugged when he found out about it. It seems nobody told him (accidentally on purpose) and when he found out he was all bitchy about it, saying if he'd had known he wouldn't have come. Yeah. I'm thinking maybe that's why no one told him.

From there, we stopped at Wal-Mart where everybody but Mike and his Dad piled out once again. I went in to buy Mikey some cough drops because he'd left his on the bar at home. Mike's Mom and brother went in to buy her a phone. Mike told me on the way home after we'd dropped all the family off, that when we all went in to Wal-Mart his Dad started bitching real hard about it. Mike didn't let him get away with it and nipped it in the bud with a stern "Shut yer pie hole".

On the way home, we took Spook Light Road. Ooooooooo. Just the mere mention of the name: Spook Light Road, and Shael went from totally obnoxious kid, to quiet as a church mouse kid. She had a death grip on my arm and her eyes were wide as saucers. We stopped once to let Chevy pee and Shael nearly pulled my arm out of socket when I was getting out to let Chevy out of the back. Of course, we didn't see any spook light. But, by the time we got off the road Shael was in tears and we were all laughing. Poor baby. Aren't we mean? I finally had to tell Shael that it was the same exact road that we took on Thanksgiving Day to go between Great Gran's house and Uncle Chevy's. That didn't help her out much. But, it made for a good laugh for the rest of us.

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Today was/is the Christmas play at our church. They took over the morning and the evening meetings. This is the first year that Shael didn't have any part in it. Not that she's too big, she just didn't want to do anything. This is the first year I didn't make her and she was happy to abstain. The kids were so cute this morning. Too cute for words. Tonight, some of the older ones will do their thing and I'm sure they'll be good, also. My Mom went to my sister's church this morning to watch her kid's do their thing, sending her camera with me to tape my brother's kids do their thing. My brother taped the whole thing with his camera so I didn't mess with my Mom's. For one, she didn't send the SD card. Two, the internal memory was full. Three, I didn't know how to work it. I was happy to let my brother do all the work. His kids anyway, right? LOL. I'm too lazy for my own good.

At the end, they play that song "Come on ring those bells" and all the kids in the whole church, if they played a part or not, get a bell and ring it through the whole song. "Jesus we remember it's your biiiiiiirrrrrrrthdaaaaaaay". Well, we talked Shael into taking Nikolas up front to hold him while he rang a bell. One of the ladies sitting on the front row came up and told me that Shael, well, let's just say she had one of those moments that every woman fears will happen and most have happen at least once in their lives. I checked the seat next to me that she'd been sitting in for any signs of her problem and didn't see any, so I knew it couldn't be too awful bad. But as soon as she got off the stage with about 50 little kids surrounding her, I didn't even let her come back to sit down, I made her turn around and told her to get out the back door as quick as she could. My Aunt and her husband stopped her on the back row and kept visiting with her and I was casually trying to shove Shael out while staying behind her so they wouldn't see what I was hiding. We finally got away and we were the first ones out the door. We went to Wal-Mart and I got her some longer defense against embarrassing incidents like that. When we got out the door of the church I told her what the deal was and she didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. When we got inside the car, I explained it to her in great detail and her face got dead serious and completely pink. And it stayed that way for quite a while. I let her go back to the car after a visit to the bathroom in the store and I bought the stuff I needed for tonight's little shin dig at the church after the program.

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I think I'll go take a nap. It's only 3:13, I have time. If, that is, Shael will leave me alone long enough. I should hang a Do Not Disturb Violators Will Receive Broken Bones sign on my bedroom door.

Happy Napping!