7 Significant Events

Seven recent significant events:

1.  We bought a really cool playset/fort thing for the boys at Sam's Club.

2.  Aaron's mom had gall bladder surgery, which is normally a quick in an out procedure, but she had some complications so they had to go back in to do another surgery, and she is still in the hospital, but she's doing good.

3.  Many times as a parent, it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to discipline and good behavior, but on Saturday we went out to eat at Cracker Barrel and the coolest thing happened.  We were sitting there eating those delicious biscuits waiting for our food, and a woman came up to us and said she wanted to thank us because our kids were so well behaved and were sitting there quietly, and she thanked the boys too and said she really appreciated how good they were.  After she left, I looked at Aaron and said, laughing, "Well, that's never happened before!"  I have noticed that Malachi especially is getting better at listening and obeying, and Izzy isn't doing too bad either.  It's nice to have someone else notice too, for a change!

4.  After that lovely experience, we went out to our van and discovered that the keys were locked inside.  We had to call a locksmith.  I tried to take the boys for a walk to one of the outlet stores while we waited, only to find after carrying my purse, the diaper bag, and Simeon (which probably adds up to about 40 lbs all together), that the store was closed because it was after eight.  

5.  With everything going on, plus the half rainy half sunny days we've had, it had been really hard to even start putting the playset together.  It turns out that our next door neighbor is a carpenter, and he offered to help Aaron.  When I say help what I mean is that he is pretty much building the whole thing for us.  And he refuses to take any money for it.  Even though he is taking up a lot of time on his days off to do it.  With Aaron working so many hours at his job, it is the biggest blessing for him to do that for us.  I have to give many thanks to God for providing someone to help us when we needed it.

6.  I don't know how significant this is, but yesterday Izzy was eating a lifesaver, and all of a sudden I heard a choke/cough.  I looked over to make sure he was okay, and he was crying, but he was breathing, so I felt relieved.  Then he came over to me with crocodile tears in his eyes and said forlornly, "Candy gone!"  like it had died or something and he was mourning it.  Then he gagged and threw up, narrowly missing me.  And there was the candy, amongst other foods he had ingested.  It is a testimony to the good frame of mind I was in that I found this really, really funny instead of really, really horrible.  I just laughed and tried to keep everyone clear of the puke while I cleaned it up.

7.  Today I took the boys to McDonald's for lunch since they have to stay out of the backyard while Bill is building the playground.  I decided that since I was neither pregnant nor watching over an infant, I would go play in the play tubes with them.  The one we went to has giant tubes and even says on the sign that parents are welcome to play too.  So I took Sim, and we climbed all over that thing, which was a little scary.  I wasn't sure I would ever do it again, but when I went down the big tube slide with Sima he just laughed and laughed. After that it was worth it to me to do it again.  I love hearing my babies laugh.