the best thing ever!

OMG!
I found the BEST thing today!!!
Jeus Bandaids!!!
Can you believe that they make Jesus bandaids?
ooh, Jesus, he heals your heart and your wounds.
Jesus, he puts you back together.
And coolest of all, inside, like cracker jacks, was this free prize!
A Jesus pencil topper!!!
OMG how cool is that?
this stuff is the best!
I can't wait to cut myself so I can use the Jesus bandaids.
:)
OK, I take that back. Knowing me, I will put them in the bathroom with all the first aid stuff and forget about them till BT hurts himself and has to wear a Jesus bandaid to work.
LOL!
What a great evangelism tool.
for sure.

speaking of evangelism tools, RLP has officially introduced people to Hugh and his new blog. He is reading the bible and making very Hughlike comments about them. This can only mean one thing...craziness ensues.
check it out here... Hugh's Bible Blog

Peace be with you...

Marie Clay

It wasn't like we cared if she ever went to the latest parties. It wasn't like we even wanted to know what sort of car she drove. We certainly never saw her on the US weekly or on a gossip blog, but she was famous to me.

In truth, I remember thinking, she was just a grandma. Just someone who had a family and grandchildren and possibly great grandchildren and she lived her life simply, I figured. But she was also a researcher, a learner, a brilliant mind and she will be missed.

Marie Clay, to those of you who don't know, was the creator, founder of Reading Recovery...a reading intervention that has helped millions of struggling readers learn to be successful. I am a Reading Recovery teacher and I know first hand the legacy she has left behind.

Let me tell you about Markeesha, who had never had a book at her house until I handed her that green bag filled with books she could read. It was as if I had given her gold. She had two brothers in her house who were already in trouble, and she was just trying to stay afloat. Her mom was working two jobs and her dad was in jail and she stayed with grandma most of the time. She wasn't a reader when she began, but she BECAME a reader. She became successful and empowered. She became someone, and she knew it. Her whole personality changed. She became a child who believed in herself and in others around her. She moved from the timid, shy little girl, to a confident learner and reader. This was because of Marie Clay. This was because of Reading Recovery, and what I have learned through training for Reading Recovery.

I am forever thankful for the opportunity to learn to be a Reading Recovery teacher. I am thankful for the knowledge that I have gained. And I am thankful for Marie Clay, who looked like just a grandma, for making it all happen, for helping hundreds of teachers help millions of kids like Markeesha, learn to be someone in the world.

Rest in Peace, Marie Clay.
We will miss you.

Heard Yesterday

Deonte: (after being asked to share what he was thinking) Ugh, I don't know. My brain got unplugged and I don't know how to plug it back in!

Matthew: you know what? I hurt my finger once in the door and it hurt sooooo bad! I cried and cried and cried and then the flowers grew. I mean, all those tears!

Yeah, first graders aren't dramatic or anything!

more coming...

ok so my readers have done a nice job of bugging me about posting.
This is the beginning of many posts, I hope.
Although I can't promise anything!

I gave up candy for lent, which is HUGE for me.
Easter has the best candy of all times of the year.
Isn't it funny how each holiday has it's own special candy?
Christmas: candy canes...chocolate...those spice drop things
Halloween: candy corn and snickers
Valentine's Day: conversation hearts
you get the idea.
But Easter... oh, Easter is full of Jelly Beans and peeps, and little jelly candies in the shape of a bunny. Then there are the chocolate things, bunnies, eggs, baskets.
wow.
the list goes on and on with the Easter Candy.

BT, in his sweetness, has for the last several days, brought candy home from work.
Sour Patch kids (awesome) and the best of all...Dr. Pepper Jelly Beans!
But of course, I can't eat them till Easter. grrr...

I had the most bizarre dream last night.
In my dream, I had stuffed the ENTIRE bag of Dr. Pepper Jelly beans in my mouth and had started to chew them when I realized I had given them up for lent, so I spit them all out.
I can still taste the faux Dr. Pepper sweetness in my mouth now.
But luckily, the bag is still safe, on my desk, unopened.
:)
How many more days till Easter?
Maybe that dream was a premonition of things to come?

The WEEVILS

they're baaaaaaaack!!!!
Ugh. I hate mopping!

Weevils

The other day, the kitchen floor seemed unusually, uh dirty. I had just swept and mopped it the day before but it was really dirty. Well, that is normal for us. We like to cook and therefore, we like to make messes. Normal. But this was strange.
Really strange.

It didn't take long to realize the dirt was sort of uh , moving. Yeah, moving. In all directions.
MOVING.

I can remember a friend of mine talking about how in third grade, she sat behind a girl with very long hair. One day she told her teacher that the girl's hair was moving. The teacher wasn't understanding and totally blew her off till she saw... the hair WAS moving. Or at least the bugs in the hair were making it look like it was moving. GROSS...

so anyway, back to my floor.
I pull in BT because, who wants to look at something gross without others?
And BT says that we have fleas. FLEAS!!! Like an influx of fleas all over the house.
Needless to say, I FREAK out! I mean, imagine that! Fleas.
Where would they have come from? How in the world will we get rid of them?
I sweep, mop (again) and get the bug spray out and start to itch all over. Then I do what any person in 2007 would do... I google for pictures of fleas, scratch, and curse.
OY VAY.

But something isn't equalling out for me.
These don't quite look like fleas. Nope. These are bigger and well, less jumpy.
And then it hits me... look in the pantry.
Now, we have the most bizarre pantry in the world. It is a little closet with shelves all around. It is literally a walk in sort of thing... and sure enough, on the floor are the same bugs. HUNDREDS of these bugs. WEEVILS.
Ugh. of course! No matter how well you ziplock the flour, they will attack.
oh my.
So, after sweeping what seems like millions of dead weevil bodies and mopping the floor again, I realize something.
Inside the word Weevils is the word EVIL. And no doubt they are evil. Evil for making me mop, which I HATE to do. Evil for making me itchy, and evil for making me throw away a newly opened box of girl scout cookies. Ugh.
EVIL!!!

Hula BOOLA!!!

Here I was thinking I was the Hula Boola Saint... Turns out I am the POPE!!!
I need my hula boola hat!


You're a Hula Boola Pope.
Take THE HULA BOOLA TEST today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

All Hail the Hula Boola Pope! Big hat, fancy outfit. Waving around burnt toast like Silly Smoke to clear the Temple. Let's not forget the Ring. You got it in the Pope Pops Cereal Box and everyday you get more clues. Wait, here comes one now... YOU WON! Go Pope You!

Hula Boola Quote : "Throw your hands in the air like you just don't care!"

I spent some time reading old SRO posts today. If you haven't read them, you totally should.
They are brilliant!
:)

NEW YEARS RESOLUTION

Also known as... the post in which I list all the crap from 2006.

My new years resolution... drum roll please... is to totally not be electronically jinxed this year.
For sure.

Last January, it began. I help out at this church camp for teens... about three hours away from home. It is a weekend thing and is loads of fun, but not when you are electronically challenged.
My one job that weekend was to do the video... walk around recording things, download them to the laptop, and then create a fabulous video of the weekend to show to parents when they show up the last day of camp. No big deal. Just DO the video. OH but that was before the curse of technology.

As we pulled up to the camp and unloaded the things, I noticed something strange. The electronic alarm/door lock on my car wasn't working. It would give a very weak beep, if that, and mostly wouldn't work at all. (Bum Bum Bum)
Then I pulled out the camera and got to work. Oh the funny things that I saw through my little lens! What a masterpiece this would be! I had oscar dreams!
I recorded and recorded all the first day. Oh what a delight!
And then I noticed. I had forgotten the cord that went from the camera to the computer. I had no way of downloading my entire day of images. OH great! We searched and searched for the cord. I was sure I had set it aside to pack. No not there.
Ok, I said, "Maybe I can run down to the Wal-Mart and get a cord." Surely Wal-Mart, the only real store in Gilmer, Texas, would have a cord. Surely.
I prayed and prayed and prayed about it that night. I woke up early the next morning and drove my happy self to the Wal-Mart, camera in hand. I was ready. I should have known though, when the little toothless man in the blue vest with his name on it was the only one in charge of electronics that morning, that I was in trouble. "We don't got no cords in Gilmer, Texas" is what I heard.
OH great!
We finally got a cord brought town and I finally could piece together something. Nothing wonderful or even Oscar Worthy, but it was something. That was all I could ask for at that point. Score one for the technology...sweet electronics. You won your first match!

Oh, then around March, my beloved laptop Hobbes just sort of died. I had seen it coming. The mixed up screen, the problems when I would turn it on. I tried to make it limp along and pretend nothing was wrong but then the day came. The laptop totally flipped out. Needed a new logic board, they said. Would take 12 days, they said.
I am beginning to sense a pattern, I said.

My laptop hadn't gotten home and comfortable when the ipod started doing strange things. It would skip, then it would not even go to certain songs. "Oh, I see," I would think, "you don't want to play that song today. I guess I play it too much anyway. OK. We can listen to a different one." But then the terrible triangle and the exclamation point. Oh the triangle, symbol of woah and angst!
That was it. The pod was toast. Blah.
Scoreboard: Susie 0, Technology 3..

August rolled around and the church camp happened again. Time for another chance to redeem myself with the video thing. This was the year of Oscar Worthy Greatness!
I had used the camera, it was working fine. I had all cords needed, plus some...oh I had learned my lesson. Things were great. As soon as we got things unpacked and ready, I was ready to record, and that is when I noticed the camera was dead. Not a "let's just charge the battery" kind of dead but a real, honest to goodness, no matter what you try it still won't work, dead.
But aha! I had called for backup and asked someone else to bring their camera! I was no dummy!
So I used that camera all weekend. I directed, I moved, I knew it would be fantastic!
Once again, using the cords, I realized with the new borrowed camera, I still didn't have the right one. I was doomed! There was no way of downloading video onto the computer to edit. No way. Darn you technology! You suck!

I took the tapes home, hoping that I would be able to do something with them at home. Surely I could make a good situation out of this! Surely I could fix it.
I borrowed a camera from someone and eagerly tried to download video. Much to my surprise, there was NOTHING on the tapes!
Nothing. Ugh. It never ends.

I still, to this day, haven't been able to see the video from that camp. I try every once in a while, and then I quickly concede to the technology gods and hope for a better/easier time next time.

Today is the first day of 2007. I have decided that I NEED to be unjinxed by technology. I deserve it.
Or so I thought, until this morning I was working on my laptop and realized that the return key wouldn't work. Neither would the shift key!
NO!!!!!! I will not go down lightly! I have a chance to make it better!!! I MUST make it better!
OH yes. I fixed the keyboard!
I have defeated technology and its grip on my soul.

I VOW to if not beat technology, then to go down trying....

I will let you know how it goes...

heaters

For some reason, at dinner last night, we got on the subject of heaters in bathrooms. Our bathrooms in our house don't have heaters, although the guest bath has a ceiling fan, which I think is quite odd but oh so Texas at the same time.
There I was trying to mentally make a connection to heaters when it hit me...this memory that had been suppressed for so long, I didn't even know I had the brain power to hold it in long term memory that long.

I can remember my grandmother's bathroom. It was a HUGE bathroom and I loved it. There were lots of things about that house I loved, but the bathroom was one of them.
She had drawers and cabinets filled with all kinds of fun things for an exploring kid. You never knew what you would find in there. Bobbypins? Got um. Three boxes of hair dye? yep.
Any kind of band-aid you can think of... sure.
All there.
I learned my best bathroom snooping techniques from that bathroom.

But my fave memory was when I would announce, like a princess that I thought I would need to take a bath. I didn't really do this on purpose, I guess I just did it naturally which thinking back on it, totally cracks me up. Do I do it now and not realize it? Probably!
So I would announce that I was planning on taking a bath and then my ADD would kick in and I would get busy doing something else. 20 minutes later, I would finally remember my desire to bathe. I would gather my things and walk in to the ginormous bathroom, and a burst of heat would surround me. My grandmother had, every time, heard my announcement, payed attention to it, and had gone to make my bath experience just a little bit better by turning on the heater. I loved that heater. Not only that, but she would always put the towel right in front of the heater to get it really warm and cozy for me. It was fantastic on cold winter nights. I would lay on the floor and put my little toes right up to the front of the heater and get nice and warm, wrapped in that soft warm blanket.

Funny how we take for granted things people do for us. Funny how that seemed like such a natural thing to me back then. Well of course when I go to grandma's house and take a bath in the winter, the heater will be on. Of course.
Funny how it took a dinner and a crazy discussion of bathroom heaters to realize just how much my grandmother loved me.

funny...

Santa and Aliens

The Drunkenhousewife has had a contest going on her blog. She wants to know why and how people are weird. Hugh won although I think my fear of cotton balls should trump his weirdness, but I am not in charge of the contest am I?
I thought of a story that I told BT last night that goes along with Christmas but shows my weirdness all at the same time....I will have to say that this was not my favorite Christmas ever, but it sure was memorable.

I don't know how old I was when we drove to Disneyworld. I must have been still in Elementary School. We left in a Midas, some sort of RV from the 70s that had a bed and a kitchen and stuff like that. It was rockin' in those days. We left El Paso and went East. I honestly don't remember much of the drive, only that it was forever long and that I slept a lot. We started having car trouble in Mississippi. Don't ever have car trouble in Mississippi! Ugh.
We had to stop for hours, days, what felt like WEEKS to get the car fixed. I remember buying groceries at the store and having to go to a hotel for the night while the Midas got fixed. We were not happy.
(Just as a total side note, I had just gotten the book on how to beat the rubic's cube and I was working on that so hard. I finally got it solved and some mechanic guy was so amazed that I was able to put it together that he asked to borrow it to show the rest of the mechanics. I never got my rubic's cube back. Someday I will go to Mississippi and get my rubic's cube back! Some day!)

After that whole messy rubic's cube thing, I was certainly in a mood wasn't in the Christmas spirit and I started asking my parents questions. One of them was, "Kim's cousin tells me that Santa isn't real. Is that true?"
Silence from my parents.
Then they told of their lies, their deceit. THEY were the ones who put together the swing set in the living room. Not Santa. They were the ones who had provided me with the toys, not Santa. My heart was broken. I wanted to know no more. I didn't want to hear about it. It was mind boggling.
But then, I started thinking. What if these people aren't my parents? What if they are aliens that have taken over my parents bodies? They have come down to earth to SAY those things about Santa so they could harm him! Yep. These were just shells of my parents. My parent's souls were in a space ship somewhere, waiting for me to save their bodies! Surely these could not be my parents. I was convinced. I had to ask questions. Lots and lots of questions to know if they were truly aliens and if so, where were my real parents.

I swear I asked them millions of questions. I couldn't help it.
I wanted to know. I NEEDED to know. My parents lives were in danger! So I asked and asked and asked questions only my parents would know. They answered them all correctly, but it didn't surprise me. Aliens steal your brains too.
I watched them very closely all during that vacation, continuing to test and see if they really were aliens.
Somehow they never seemed to think it was strange, weird even, that I thought they were aliens. They never seemed to tire of the questions and were willing to answer any and all I threw out.
I guess they were used to having a weird daughter back then. I guess they were used to me and my ways.
And I guess I will never know if they are still being controlled by aliens. But I will say, I am still watching them... and secretly, I believe in Santa, no matter what they say!

Theology

First Grade style...


Teacher: (to Julian) tell Mrs. Susiederk your prayer please...
Me: Whaaa? Is that allowed in a public school?
Teacher: Trust me on this one... it is worth it.
Julian: ok I will say my prayer.... Our farter, who art in heaven...
(Try to keep a straight face with that!)

Child overheard while working: Gangsters love God too.


During a writing lesson:
Me: Raymond, Do you have a Christmas tree up at your house?
Raymond: Yep. It is in the living room.
Me: Wow. Did you decorate it already?
Raymond: Yeah. We put lights on it and balls and silver stuff and candy canes and cheeses.
(silence)
Me: Cheeses????
Raymond: Yeah, Cheeses!
Me: uh, what kind of cheeses?
Raymond: Baby Cheeses! The kind that was born on Christmas. (I could almost hear a "duh" in his tone of voice)

Of course! Baby Cheeses and Our Farter they love the gangsters too.

You don't get it...

I have said for a long time, "You don't get it, till you or someone you love GETS it."

My grandmother died of emphysema, from smoking. I GET how someone can die from smoking. I GET it.

Our friends right now are dealing with a suicidal child. I can't even imagine what they must be going through on a daily basis. The terror, the worry, the constant feeling on edge. I don't GET what it is like to live day to day with someone like that. I can listen, I can talk, but I don't really GET it. Luckily for them, they have friends who have gone through this sort of thing and understand. They relate. They GET it...All of it. The highs and lows of it. The worry and the stress. They have felt it. They know the impact. They see it in action. They know.

BT is the researcher in the family. Mention something he doesn't know a lot about and he will spend the next several weeks researching and learning all about that thing. He wants to GET it.

My Best Friend Forever Infinity has AIDS. He has for a long time. I am just now beginning to GET it.
December 1 was World AIDS day. December is AIDS awareness month. Please, take the time this month to be researchers, to learn and not judge, to GET it, before someone you love does.

some quotes

I can never claim that my job is boring!


Child:"I don't like seals! They are scary! They are dangerous! They bite!"
Me: uh, OK. Did one bite you once?
child: No. But they will bite you if you fall at the zoo.

A different kid: Did you take a shower today?
Me: uh, yeah...
kid: oh. I was just wondering.
Me: uh, yeah... why? Do I smell like I took a shower today? (holds breath to wait for the answer)
Kid: Yeah, I guess.
Kid's Teacher: (rolling eyes) Ugh, she got to take a shower this morning and that is all she has talked about all day.
Me: whew... I thought I was really stinking...

(overheard from the classroom near my closet)
child #1: You saw your mom naked yesterday.
Child #2: Nuh, uh... not yesterday!
Me: (thinking to myself) WTF???

Hold On

"Be careful with this treadmill... you might want to hold on. I was running on it last time and it just suddenly stopped. You really might want to hold on."

I admit it. I hadn't exactly been to the gym in a while. Busy schedule, you might say. You know your life is crazy when you don't get home till 8 pm every night.
So when I noticed a clearing in my schedule, I took it. I couldn't wait to work out. Strangely enough, once I get motivated and get my happy self there, I love working out. I love to put on the headphones, turn on my ipod and run. I can drift and think about nothing, or rehash the day if I need to. It was my time to just veg, or think, or whatever I needed to do.

I had already run a mile and a half when she came up to the treadmill right next to me. I was lost in my world. I didn't even know it when she first started talking to me. I had to pull off the headphones quickly and say, "Excuse me? Are you talking to me?"
And there it was... the warning. "Careful with this treadmill... you might want to hold on. It stops suddenly. It did it to me the other day and I nearly hit my head on the bar. Watch out!"
Uh, ok.
thanks.

So the whole rest of the run I wondered, second-guessed, worried. Would the treadmill stop at a moment's notice? Would I need to hold on? Why hadn't this happened before? Would I have rather not known?

Sometimes there are things that happen, things people say or do, some things that really hurt... those things I would have just rather not known. I would have rather have been running my run, singing my songs, and enjoying life. But now I have to hold on for dear life to the bar and hope beyond hope that nothing will happen to me, or people I love.

8 YEARS...

8 years ago today, we were in Vegas.
Merlin was our minister and the world was pretty easy.
We were playing the nickle slots and getting hassled on the streets to come in and play.

8 years ago today, we were dancing and playing and acting like newlyweds.
Sometimes things change, but the acting like newlyweds part...
that pretty much stays the same.

8 years ago today, we didn't know what sorts of things we would face.
We just knew that we would face them together.
We knew we were a team. We still are.

8 years ago today, my dad made a speech and said that I couldn't have found anyone better.
He meant it then and he means it still today.
So do I.

8 years ago today, we became husband and wife.
Every day since, I have thanked God for you.
Every single day.

Smiles

I like to hear you smile. It brightens my day. I like it when you sound happy, when you tell me good news. I like it when, after a hard few days, you can report good news. I like it when life is going your way. It is about time!!! You deserve it and I love you.

Howdy Folks....

I know it has been FOREVER since I have posted anything new. I know, I know. I hear about it a LOT! I have been busy and I have had very little to say, honestly. I mean, busy... work, church, school, blabbity blah blah.
But since the State Fair of Texas started this weekend, I thought I would write something..... here goes...


Growing up in El Paso, I never heard about the State Fair. We lived almost in New Mexico. What did we know about the fair? So when I moved to the Dallas area, I was SHOCKED to find that not only did the fair happen, but kids actually got to take a day off from school to go to the fair. How nutty is that?
Now, the rest of the world calls it Columbus Day, but we call it Fair Day. Every kid in the school and every teacher as well, gets a ticket and everyone has an entire day to spend at the fair.

I have been to the fair several times, played the games, been afraid of the makeshift roller coaster rides, noticed the carnies. I have done lots of people watching, eaten a deep fried snickers bar, been greeted by Big Tex, ate a famous Fletcher's Corny Dog (ew mustard makes it manageable). I even got to watch my friend LT tear apart a large turkey leg as if he was a lion gnawing on his fresh kill. I have admired the cars and been through the Bonnie and Clyde museum. Been there, done that. This year, Marilyn Monroe will be made entirely out of butter. It was Elvis last year. Some card stacker will even be there. OOOOHHHH AAAAHHH.... Yeah, we aren't going this year.

I have to say, the first few times, the fair impressed me. It was awesome. My favorite part, I have to say, every time we go, has to be the pavilion that is full of the newest little gadgety things...the things that someone invented in his basement and I should have thought of, the things that people pay big bucks for and really require a sales person there with you to really seal the deal. I love love love those sorts of things.
I love being able to be the first on my block to own a genuine blabbity blah, that has 5 (count them! 5!!!) very fun uses! I love getting to show off the cool new thing. It is the best.

So that is why I love Canton so much.

yeah, you find your regular artsy craftsy crap at Canton. Everyone and their mother already must have a million pieces of wood with some sort of scripture written on it by now. Every little girl in East Texas must have at least one bulletin board with their name on it and a boa around it. Yards are certainly all decked out by now in any sort of pumpkin shaped piece of wood you can put into the yard, adorned with all the names of the children on each pumpkin.
Yawn.

But, my eyes are always open. I never lose hope.
My friend G and I are always on the hunt for the latest and greatest. We will endure the 10 minute presentation from the drunk man about how useful the metal pole will be for flower pots and don't we want to buy 4. We will listen to the lady talk about how to make fancy schmancy sandwiches, if we even think it is possible that this thing will be the latest and greatest thing around.
And friends, we have found ourselves a winner!!! Ding, Ding, Ding!
A genuine winner in the "man I wish I would have invented that!" category.

But alas, I can't reveal what it is yet... cause my mom is reading and I bought her one and it would totally ruin the surprise...

OK, if you want to know what it is and you AREN'T my mom... click HERE.

Cool isn't it???
I know!
I own one, or two...
And I didn't have to suffer through a corny dog to get it! Amazing huh?

And then it was over....

You know how some sitcoms do it? They decide most gallantly, that they will end before their time? So that their fans can savor and remember, and miss the show?
That's what Thursday was for me.
You can tell we were both thinking it. Today was the day I would leave. Our visit was over. It was a bittersweet ending. I hated leaving and wanted it to keep going, but I knew I had to get back to my life, my home, my family, and my cat who was missing me like crazy.
As we walked to breakfast, I realized that we were both a little sad and really quiet.
Hugh finally said the words first, "I can't believe you are leaving today".
"Yeah, Me neither!" I said, and I totally meant it. The days had gone by too fast. I wanted a few more days of fun. I wanted more days of play and singing and dancing and nighttime talks. I wanted more time to know and love Hugh.
And breakfast came and went and it was over. I was off to the airport and he was off to his apartment cause he was feeling really crappy that day. And it was done.
I smiled as I got in the taxi, but part of me was so sad I could feel it in my bones. My heart was hurting. How much does it suck to have your BFFI live hundreds of miles away?

A month ago tomorrow, I was in Hollywood California. I was playing and singing and talking but most of all, I was changing my life and my attitudes forever. I will never be the same. It is that simple, yet so complex at the same time.

Thanks God, for Hugh. Thanks for taking care of him and for constantly giving him hope. Thanks for letting me spend a little time in his world. Thanks for his friendship. Thanks for making him my partner in crime. Thanks for teaching me lessons I would have never learned before. And thanks for the hope of another visit, or maybe several. :)
Till then, thanks for the phone and email...and for love. That is the coolest thing in the world. :)

Wednesday in California

Wednesday was all about the shoes. I pulled them out of my suitcase, as I got ready for breakfast.
“Those are tiny! How am I supposed to draw on those?” Hugh said.
“Ugh, with markers...duh! I am sorry they aren’t billboards like yours” I replied. We have the sort of relationship in which we can say that stuff to each other without hurting feelings.
And so we thought and though about my nice, clean, white new Converse that were now walking, almost skipping, to the breakfast place.
We sat down in our regular booth and got ready to order “the usual”… I had only been there two days and I had a “usual”. How boring am I?
“OH! Monkeys! Robot monkeys!” Hugh said as we got our drinks.
“Huh? What? Oh, yeah, the shoes. Sorry.” I guess I had been watching David Spade flirt with the waitress and had forgotten….plus the whole ADD thing.
We talked about angels, maybe some robot monkeys, some devils, some wings, but we finally decided on my trip to California. Who needs a scrap book when you can have shoes that represent the same thing? No one sees scrapbooks often. EVERYONE will see my shoes!!!
So as soon as we walked in the apartment, Hugh got to work on my shoes. First he sketched the airplane ride, then the Hollywood sign. On the other shoe, we decided on cars and the other side, would have the dog park with Polly chasing a butterfly. (I have a thing for butterflies)
So, he sketched and then he put them down and looked at them. He sketched more and more until they were looking like the best shoes I have ever seen in my life.
Then the markers came out and they became a masterpiece.
I love my shoes!!! (Although the dog park could use a bench…*cough*.)

Again, we played, we laughed, we watched Pee Wee’s playhouse, and Hugh tried on all of his hats. He looks sexy in a cowboy hat for sure!
We laughed, we danced, we played, we made CDs and laughed at how 70s his music was/is. OMG! Sooooo 70’s! It was really getting ghetto up in there.

And when we could barely keep our eyes open, we went to sleep, thanking Baby Jesus that we had each other and our friendship…and my new shoes!

sorry...

Hi all. I know I haven't finished the story of my trip. I am crazy busy finishing up my graduate class and getting ready for this teenage camp called Celebration that I will be working at this weekend.
I promise more to come soooooooooon!
:)