The Weekend

There is no place like home, but I don't think my mom's new house is far off. =-) It was such a neat experience this weekend helping my mom and step dad move into their brand new 2600 square foot home. They cared for 6 kids, 6 sons-and-daughter's-in-law, and 11 grand kids in their 1300 foot home. Holidays were warm and VERY cozy! The new house was built for grandma and grandpa to be able to have everybody over (and then some) without tripping over each other.

Eric and I and and the kids regularly travel to Wichita to spend the weekends. At the new house Eric and I have our own bedroom downstairs (queen bed!) and there are other beds for the kids to sleep in throughout the house (rather than the palettes of old!). It's just nice. Very nice. I am giddy for them.

So... Friday before we left for Wichita we drove into the drive way and saw that flowers had been delivered. What?! I'm telling ya'll, I work for the best agency in the land. My co-workers had sent me Get Well Soon flowers all the way from WA state! They were gorgeous, so they made the trip up to Wichita with us so that they could be enjoyed all weekend (rather than sitting here and wilting all alone in our house). So pretty.

My sister Amy has been housing my parents for the past 6 weeks while they were waiting for their house to be completed (they sold their old house a bit early). I knew Amy had done a LOT for them so I felt impressed to buy her a thank you gift. I am my mom's oldest daughter, and Amy is my step-dad's oldest daughter. Let's just say that I hate NOT being the oldest--Amy ups me by 1.5 years! Anyway, we just bought her a little gift of thanks, and I could tell it really touched her. She teared up a little bit.

The next evening Amy told me to sit down and she brought me a tub of warm sudsy water to soak my feet in. She and my mom were exchanging knowing looks. Well, come to find out, Amy was gifting me with my first ever pedicure. [She is a pedi and mani specialist.] She did all of this scrubbing and scraping and massaging. It is really humbling to sit there and let somebody do something like that for you. My feet never looked so clean! Then she painted them with Oklahoma Sooners crimson and cream (with silver). She even added tiny "diamonds" on my big toes!! It was a very touching gift.

Bright has been falling asleep all over the place lately! Last week he fell asleep at his chair during lunch. Then yesterday he fell asleep STANDING UP while leaning over onto a couch. You should have seen his knees buckling and him waking up long enough to reset them--over and over and over again!

This evening the big kids had taken the dog on a walk. Bright stayed with us at the house. Eric and I are making dinner and busy in the kitchen. Bright comes around with a bag over his shoulder and says, "Bye! Walk!" I said, "Bye Bright! See ya later!" with my little "how cute is he to pretend like he's going on a walk" giggle. 3 minutes later. Uh-oh. "Where's Bright? BRRRIIIIGGGHHHHTTTT!!!! (out the backdoor). No Bright. That's when I noticed the front door was ajar. Ack! I go out the door and he is no where to be seen. I look around the corner of our house and see my (almost) 3 year old child traipsing down the block with his bag in tow. I yelled at him and told him to get back here! He looked at me like I was a moron and said, "Mommy! Told you go walk! Told you!" It was like, "What are you mad at me about? I told you I was leaving and you said bye!"

Yeah...this child....he's a whole new ball of wax for us around here!

One more interesting thing about Brighto. As his English gets clearer we do sometimes wonder if we don't hear a bit of a Ghanaian accent. To someone who hasn't heard Ghanaian English it might just sound like inexperienced talking, but the way he says some things (like "eight" as "et") it sounds like like the kids I see in Ghana. Very interesting. I know it's pretty much impossible, but I would love him to always have a bit of an accent.

Anita

P.S. To have the life of a cat! And...feeling fine. Still coughing blood 1-2 times a day.