A convo with Nate

So we are sitting at the reception, after enjoying the beautiful (although a tad bit chilly) outdoor wedding of our favorite babysitter, Amanda. She has been the kids' babysitter since they were too old to make complete sentences. She is truly an important part of our family. Miss Duh'manda is what Jenna use to call her.

At the reception, after raiding the fruit tray and having some iced tea, Nate tells me he had to use the restroom. He's a big boy now and wants to go by himself when we are out in public, so I got the light turned on and the door shut, always worried about letting him have so much independence, but knowing I should.

I sat back down to enjoy my raspberry tea and chat with Jenna about how pretty Amanda was, one eye on the bathroom door. I get up and get some more fruit (bathroom door is still shut). I check my cell phone for messages. I send a text message to Rod telling him how much we missed him. Look back at the closed bathroom door. Nothing. 15 minutes later and Nate is STILL in the bathroom.

Getting a bit worried (okay a LOT worried), I go and knock on the door and ask if he's okay. "YES MOM!" he says in an exasperated tone. Sheesh. I am already THAT mom. You know, the one that always makes you feel like your mom is never going to let you grow up. Yep. He said it in that tone. He's FIVE. Come on now Nate, cut your mom some slack here. You are still my baby, dangit!

So he finally emerges and says "MOMMY! that was the BIGGEST bathroom I've ever seen! It's bigger than my bedroom." I peek in to check and say "yes, that is quite a large restroom Nate, but hardly as big as the bedroom at home," followed by a chuckle. "Come on and let's go get some more fruit."

We get back to our table and sit down and I ask him "so do you like the wedding Nate?" And he says yes. Then he says something that had me laughing the next day when I thought about it. "Mommy my wedding is going to be even better than this!"... amused, I asked him how so?

"Mine is going to have a bathroom that you have to walk down a LOOOOONG hall to get to!"

LOL.

Well, there ya have it folks. The key to knowing if you are at a big fancy wedding: if the bathroom is impressive enough for my little Nate. I guess if you spend as much time in there as he does to do his business, then it makes sense that it's the most important addition to any traditional wedding.

tee hee.

Snow Day

In Texas, we don't get to claim a "snow day" very often. Okay, sometime we get an "ice day" or two, but snow is kinda foreign for us. So much so, that you will often hear people refer to ice as "snow". I grew up for a bit in Oregon, so I certainly know the difference.

So you can imagine my joy and surprise when we got the actual white fluffy goodness that can be considered SNOW and be rolled up into balls that are thrown and mounds that make "snowmen". I admit it... I was a kid again and enjoyed every minute.

Of course, we had the BEST snowman on the block, because he was a REAL TEXAS COWBOY. (thanks to my mom's cowboy hat) --- the kids laughed and played til their lips were blue and teeth were chattering. Heck, not sure who had more fun... me, the kids or MY mom! Some people never really grow up... especially when you are making mouths out of raisins.

However, I must admit, I was a bit annoyed when the weather wreaked havoc on my Valentine's weekend plans... the airlines shut down for over 24 hours and after hours on the phone with airlines, and a couple re-bookings... we were able to salvage our romantic weekend, even if it was a delayed start for a day or so. The important thing was we were together and appreciated the time we had.

The weekend was exciting, with its fair share of tragedy (not just the delayed flights). It included a VERY fantastic Miranda Lambert concert (the kids first concert ever... and they did great. Even if Nate slept through part of it, ha), a couple movies, some yummy food, and unfortunately the goodbye of my precious Nikon D90 (along with my favorite red Coach purse, Chanel sunglasses and some other personal things) when my purse was taken... but we salvaged the weekend with some ice skating at the Galleria before it was time to say "goodbye" to Papa and send him back to our other home to spend some time with our other favorite guy.

All in all... it was a fun and memorable weekend. Snow, fun, laughs, love and best of all, FAMILY. I am truly blessed.