Conversations at Our Dinner Table

Last week when Melissa came home from her trip she left her backpack and her suitcase out on and around the kitchen table.  One of the items left out was a bag of goldfish that her friend gave her so she would have a snack on the plane ride back home. Melissa's mistake was leaving them in the kitchen...and not wrapping them up and putting her name on them or putting them in her snack basket in the pantry.

Nope...she just left them by her other things....where her brother could see them...and the temptation was  great for Benjamin.

While he sat and played computer games, he ate a few of those goldfish.  And a few more....and a few more.  Over the course of an afternoon, he ate the whole bag.

Yep. There was screaming by the girl when she found the empty bag.

Tonight's dinner conversation she reminded him that he owes her food.  Goldfish would be preferable.

This is not the first time one of her brothers ate her food....and probably won't be the last....

I've Tried!

I really have tried to post in the last week or so, but I was using my phone and it was NOT cooperating!  I type several lines and then it closes out the blog app. Very, very annoying.

All in all, my phone annoys me.  The battery only last a few hours now. I've even tried to order a new one and Wal-Mart was the one that didn't cooperate. On-line they cancelled the order and in person they didn't have the right "sim" card.

For right now I'm stuck with a phone that does NOT want to hold a battery charge...or let me use some of my apps...and that freezes...  First world problems, right?

So. Back to what I WAS trying to post!

Ben - high school soccer is alive and well - and keeping us busy. There was talk among the coaches about playing Ben on varsity, but by the time of the first real (not a scrimmage) game they decided to just have him on junior varsity. Which is TOTALLY fine with us.  Being on JV means he play just about the whole game.  Being on varsity means playing only a little.  I do think that IF he plays well, then when the JV season ends he'll be moved up to varsity for the last weeks of it's season (which is about two more weeks).

Melissa - is flying home as I type.  For her 18th b-day she wanted to go sky-diving.  Which for a brief few days, we actually thought about letting her do.  But a friend that was a para-jumper in the Army talked us out of it. I'm sure at some point in her life, she will jump out of a perfectly good airplane. We just want her to be older. And for her to pay for it. As her "cancelation" prize, she got a plane ticket to see her best friend from Guam that now lives in St. Louis.  This was the first time she traveled by herself.  And I think she's enjoyed every bit of it.  I'm so looking forward to hearing all about her trip tonight when she gets home.

William - he's home from college and totally relaxing...sleeping and playing video games to all hours at night.  We supposedly have our internet to turn off at 9:45 pm, but we have a sneaky suspension  that the boys have figured out a way around our limits.

Other happenings...we hosted several dinners in the last weeks.  One for the office - have a great time! One for friend as a baby shower and card game. I did have  good time at that one, too, but was annoyed when people didn't RSVP!! urggg.  I knew they probably won't do that, so I put "regrets only". And still.  People didn't.  So, we have over a dozen baked potatoes left from our bake potato bar which I made into potato casserole Sunday after church.  As Drew said: at least it wasn't some too expensive.

And I've been working on a tee-shirt quilt for a niece.  I'm almost done with the piecing. Today I bought the fabric for the back and the batting.  As I was working on it last week, I misjudged pin placement and the needle went through my finger. Yes, there was blood . And yes, it hurt.  And thankfully, I'm good with my tetanus shot. I did NOT go to the doctor as I was able to pull the tip of the needle out myself....but thought for a moment I would have to bug  a neighbor to help me....

That's life here...we are all looking forward to Thanksgiving with all the family!!

Shocked and Mismayed

Today at lunch I ran into a classmate of William's from high school. We got to know this family during the three years or so the boys played soccer together. I think around junior year this friend quit soccer to focus more on school and other activities that could help get him a scholarship for college.  I had not seen him in probably a year - and haven't seen his mom in about two  - maybe even three - years.

But I was shocked at what he told me....  He basically flunked out of college (even though he's really smart!), had no plans at the moment to go back, and his parents has split up. She living in another part of the state, the father in Texas, and he stayed here and was living with his grandmother and was working.

Frankly, I pretty much lost my appetite for my lunch.

I don't know what happen between this couple...didn't know them well enough to say what type of relationship they had...but just find it very sad....upsetting... This is the third couple that I know that have called it quits just this summer.

It mystifies me how some make their marriages work, but others don't. While it takes two to make a marriage work, it really only takes one to walk away.  I've seen friends fight with everything in them to save a marriage only to have the partner throw it all away. Other friends get totally blindsided when the spouse walks out.  And I have to admit,  Drew and I have a few friends that we are totally amazes they are still together at all!

But however a marriage ends, the end always saddens me....and my heart breaks for both parties. And especially for the kids involved.  Divorce scars run deep.

I tell my kids that they have a special legacy with not only their parents still married (in December Drew and I will celebrate 26 years), but both sets of grandparents have been married for over fifty and even sixty-five years of marriage. Also, both of my grandparents celebrated over fifty years.  Such a special legacy...not many have this today....and not this young man  that I saw today...the divorce scars are new to him...and very apparent today....he seemed a little lost... I'll be praying he finds his way.

Book Update

I read another book in the Julie Garwood series. The mystery itself wasn't an interesting as some of the other ones in the series -  I did pick up on the one hint as to who was the bad guy.  Maybe the other books had hints and I just didn't pick up on them....or maybe this book wasn't as good as some of the others.

I did have problem with the part of the love story. The hero was partner of the heroin's brother. This brother and some of the others were not as protective as I thought the author would have them to be. Just excepted it to be part of the story....maybe that was part of the reason I was slightly disappointed in this one.

And yes, it pretty much went by her "formula".

I did read another book  this week that was delightful: Letters from Paris by Juliet Blackwell.  I really liked the story.  The author is from California and I think she needed to do a little more research about the state of Louisiana. At one point she mentioned a "county" fair.  Now...anyone that's been actually IN Louisiana knows we don't' have counties...and so....we don't have "county" fairs.  We have State Fairs and festivals....lots and lots of festivals. And as one friend pointed out, most of our festivals are named after food. Maybe a few animals....especially the ones we can eat...  But the story itself was very nice.

But since I know she got a few things about Louisiana wrong, makes me wonder what she got wrong about Paris (where the majority of the story takes place), but since I've never been to France, I don't know what's right and what's slightly off.

The author took an old French legend and wrote how she thought the real story could have possibly played out.  It was just a delightful book!