Update Saturday morning 6/23

As my college president used to say, "Into every life some rain must fall."  I just wish it had not chosen the weekend of our community yard sale to do it!  We as a family look forward to this giant yard sale every year as a fun activity where we may (or may not) find some special treasure.  My husband and I love to go yard-saling---is that a word?---but find that there are other more pressing matters that require our money, time, and attention.  As a result, our kids don't get to go to yard sales very often.  So, having our community put on a giant yard sale each year is one of the highlights of our summer.  And then, yesterday, we woke up to rain.  This isn't unusual for us in Washington, except for the fact that it has been absolutely beautiful and sunny all week........until yesterday.  Today, there is still a steady rain with no signs of a break.  Soooooo, we may still walk around the neighborhood if things let up this afternoon, but we may have to shelve the idea of this family outing---at least until August when, I think, there is a second community yard sale planned.  For some reason, there were two on the calendar this summer.  Surely it won't be still raining in August!


Do you remember that quote from the Spiderman movie:  "With great power comes great responsibility"?  We have slightly adjusted it to suit Dale:  "With greater mobility comes more opportunities for disaster."  Thursday night, Chad and I went grocery shopping for the week (actually, for a few days........well, I had to run to the store the next day for some things I forgot to put on the list!).  Anyway, this is our regular shopping trip, and the kids are used to being home by themselves with Mandie or Katie in charge.  We called about an hour or so later to tell them we were on our way home, and Katie felt it necessary to warn us of an "incident" that had occurred.  (Why we were not called immediately, I don't know.  I guess they thought that, the later we find out, the lesser the parental impact on their young lives.  They soon discovered differently.)  I knew, of course, that it had involved Dale---refer to quote above---but I didn't have all the details yet.


Are you one of those people who drag out a confession, hoping to soften the blow somehow?  I'm not; I want to be told what happened, NOW, before my imagination fills in too many blanks.  Katie said that Dale was walking down the hall to the bathroom when he fell.  I asked if he was all right, and she said he was.  I asked if he hit his head (I'm thinking, "This poor guy really needs to stop hitting his head!"); she said he had not.  But, apparently, upon impact, the wall lost.  There is now a nice-sized hole in the lower section of the wall next to the bathroom.  Chad wanted to strangle somebody when he saw it, but he knows it really wasn't anybody's "fault"; he just doesn't want to have one more thing to repair.  I had to ask to be sure that it was Dale's bottom, not his head, that caused the hole; to be grossly descriptive, the contour of the hole does fit Dale's rear end rather than his elbow, head, etc.  Ashley and Emily are worried that mice or something may come in through the hole before Dad gets it fixed, but I assured them (hopefully not falsely) that I doubted that would happen.  We simply now have a very visible reminder of Dale's newly-felt freedom of walking!


Unfortunately, Dale seems to place more value on the wall than on his own person.  This morning, he was again walking down the hall, this time away from the bathroom, when he lost his balance.  Instead of putting his arms out to brace himself---he never remembers to do this---Dale tried to brace his hands against the wall as he fell.  He told us afterwards that he didn't want to put another hole in the wall.  :-{  What he wound up doing was falling straight down and only catching himself with his face!  This resulted in a dark and painful bruise on his right cheekbone that hurts when he talks or smiles.  Oh, the bumps and bruises of youth!  He will heal from this, and, hopefully, not let it keep him from keeping on.


The older girls leave Sunday night after church for the big Youth Conference hosted by North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, CA.  They have been packing and repacking for a week now and are very excited to go.  With Emily's birthday being Monday---and they will be gone---we decided to have her cake and ice cream on Sunday afternoon while the girls are still here; then, on Monday, we'll go get Emily's ears pierced!  It's kind of a tradition in our household to get the girls' ears pierced for their sixth birthday.  Why six, I don't know; it just worked out that way for Amanda, and we've held to it ever since.  Anyway, at six, they're old enough to know what is going on---and to hold still for it---but still young enough to allow their ears to heal quickly.  (Put that way, it sounds awful, doesn't it?  What kind of barbarians are we?!)  Since Dale has both PT and SP Monday afternoon, I'll take the younger girls with me and Dale to these appointments, and from there we'll head to the mall and Claire's.  I think, for the first time ever, I'll make sure I have children's pain medication with me to give Emily afterwards; she tends to be super-sensitive to pain, although she's getting better about it as she gets older, so the medicine will help her "feel" better after getting her ears pierced........mentally, if not physically.


Well, it's raining harder now.  This doesn't bode well for afternoon yard sale plans.  Maybe we'll have to take a rain check!  (You know that one was irresistible.)  May God bless each of you every day and hold you close to His heart.


Isaiah 1: 18  "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:  though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."