No whoopie pies?!?

Ann and the nephews came up on Saturday while Jon and Kurt were both taking tests (Jon--Praxis, Kurt--single subject tests for math and physics). One of Luke's favorite treats is only twenty minutes away at West Coast Whoopies! Seriously, the kid talks about the whoopie pies and knows his favorite is mint and he's probably only had them about three times in his life. Well, he's four and he's been on solid foods for only three-quarters of his life so maybe that's not unreasonable.

Anyway, I decided to take him to West Coast Whoopies all by himself. That's right, just me and the four-year-old. He's toilet-trained now, so I figure what's the worst that can happen?

I must have had some sort of premonition, though, because I didn't tell him we were going to West Coast Whoopies. I just told him we were going to go get a treat. We got in the car (Luke looked at the booster seat and said, "Hey, we have one just like that;" ummmm, yeah--that one is yours Luke-o) and headed down the freeway to WCW! We talked the whole way. Luke is a talker. He's got opinions on everything. For example, he prefers Kutless to Chris Tomlin. My kind of kid.

We got off the freeway and pulled into the parking lot of WCW and I just about had a heart attack! It was closed! Permanently closed! The storefront was empty and it was just ... gone. No more whoopie pies. I hate this stupid economy.

See? Lucky I hadn't told the child we were getting whoopie pies. It would have been a huge let-down. As it was, he's four. He was busy talking and listening to Kutless and looking at the liner notes from the rejected Chris Tomlin cd. So I was able to quickly pull out of the WCW parking lot and take us straight to Frugo's for frozen yoghurt. He was a happy camper (and put together a totally disgusting concoction of chocolate and vanilla yoghurt with gummy worms, white chocolate chips, Captain Crunch, and Fruity Pebbles) and I quite like Frugo's, too.

But no more whoopie pies?!? What is wrong with this country?

Jury duty

I didn't get picked for the jury. Is it weird that I kinda felt bummed? It was like a flashback to all those softball and kickball games when I was the last to be picked. And, even as I was picked, you could tell the team captain was wishing it was like jury selection and he could tell me the team was full and I was excused for another year.

It's ok to cry

It's ok to cry, buddy.

I know this has been a traumatic week for you. On Monday, you said good-bye to your teacher and your friends and your RSP teacher and me. You said good-bye to your school. Then you moved with your mom to a new house in a new city. We had talked about the move and you were excited. And then, yesterday, I got the notification that you were back, three days later, and now you were living with your dad.

I don't know what happened, K. I don't know what changed. All I know is that I found you, sobbing your heart out all by yourself outside the cafeteria. You're a tough guy and you can be a bit of a challenge but today you were just broken. Just really, really sad. You were back at your old school but now you had a new teacher and different classmates and everything was all wrong.

I'm glad I was the one who found you. I'm glad I could hug you while you cried into my shirt. I'm glad you let me hold your hand and walk you up to the office so I could find out who your new teacher was. I'm glad you let me walk you to your new room and then talk you inside. I'm glad you were brave enough to sit back down and just cry quietly.

You're gonna make new friends in your new room, K. And you'll find your old friends waiting for you on the playground. I think it's all gonna be ok.

But for today, on such a scary, confusing day, it's ok to cry. Truth be told, I wanted to cry, too.

First Look

I found this truly old photo the other day and had to laugh because it brought back so many memories! Not necessarily of falling in love with Jon, although I have lots of other photos that bring back that, mmmmm, yummy time. Nope, this photo makes me remember the way he looked when we first met!



This was back in the early 90's. Yes, we are that old. He was sporting jeans rolled and tapered at the ankle, surf-brand tees and sweatshirts, graphic-print sweaters, and ... an earring! The earring didn't last long but I still can't believe I fell in love with a guy with an earring! Ah, yes, the fashion joys of the 90's. Not that I'm one to judge. I was rolling and tapering my jeans, too, wearing truly enormous, oversized sweatshirts, and had my hair pulled back in the ubiquitous scrunchy.

Back to the photo. It was taken while he was on a college floor retreat in Joshua Tree. He's holding a purple ski jacket; we still joke about that. I don't think he'd be caught dead in anything purple today. And he's wearing a bandana! We've been together for 18 years and I have never seen the guy in a bandana.

Today his ski jacket is army green and he's more likely to pull on a cashmere sweater than a sweatshirt. And that old earring is rolling around in my jewelry box. Can't say I was sorry to see it go.

Consonant blends

I was picking up one of my kindergarten groups on Tuesday, when the following conversation took place between H and me.

Me: Hi, H, ready for speech?

H: Yeah. Mrs. Pilgrim, you got sex?

Me: What?!?

H: You got sex?

Ok, I admit it. I had absolutely no idea what she was trying to say but I knew it wasn't "sex." So much for a master's degree in speech-language pathology.

Me: Um, no (thinking that was the safest response).

H: Well, you got lunch?

Ahhhhhhhhh, the light finally dawns.

Me: Yes, H, I had lunch. And I have snacks. After speech we'll have a snack, ok?

Consonant blends are a big deal. And, for that matter, so are short vowels. H and I will be working on that in the upcoming months. Could be worse, however. I have no idea why, but "f" is a very common substitution for the "tr" blend. And there are a lot of little boys out there who like to use the word "truck." And the parents of these little boys are usually asking me to fix that word before I fix anything else. Yep, consonant blends are a very big deal.

Here's Jon, administering the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation with Luke as his practice client and establishing that, lucky for his parents, Luke wasn't producing the f/tr substitution.

Valentine

On the next-to-the-last-day of February, I figured it was time to document our Valentine's Day.



Yup. We got each other the exact same movie. But I returned the one he gave me because we had agreed that he was only to give me chocolate, so the movie he gave me was the one that had to go.

We might know each other just a little too well.

Las Vegas!

My husband is finally done with comps, which is a good thing because I was pretty sure that his comps were going to be the death of one or both of us. Well, he's sort of done. He's contesting his grade on one of his comps and I couldn't be any more supportive of this. Heck, if he wanted to take it all the way to the dean I'd support him. I read the comp question and I read his response. It's a perfect response. Well-written, well-reasoned, and well-supported. It should've been a high pass. And, yeah, I'm qualified to judge. I went through the same program, I work in the field, and I've actually had situations very similar to that in the question. He's got a meeting with the profs who graded the comp and the comps coordinator. I'll be interested to hear the outcome of that meeting. The guy does very well in an oral argument. Almost as well as he does in a written argument.

Anyway, comps are behind him (us).

We were heading out to dinner to celebrate the end of comps and were trying to decide where to go, when Jon said, "We should just go to Vegas."

And I said, "Works for me."

And he said, "Seriously?"

And I said, "Yep."

So we went to Vegas.

First we had to go back home, make reservations, and pack. We got a great rate at the Hard Rock Hotel. After we got the room, we threw some stuff in a suitcase and jumped in the car. Jon got us to Vegas just before midnight.

Our room was, well, thumping. I mean literally pulsating with the music from the club. So we asked the front desk to switch us and they very kindly did. The next room was nice and quiet and had a great view of the pool and the Strip. We took a moment to take in the amenities, noting in passing that, in Vegas, the mini bar comes with water, mixed nuts, condoms, and a vibrator. Oh, and room service includes lingerie items.

The next day, we headed out to the Strip to find something fun. We saw Bodies: The Exhibition at the Luxor and it was very cool. Mildly nauseating but very, very cool. Jon, having just had comps, wandered around the bodies and named all sorts of different nerves and muscles and regions for me. Much better than having one of those audio tours.

After thoroughly examining Bodies, we looked around for the next fun thing to do. We decided to get tickets for Criss Angel with Cirque du Soleil's Believe show. I've always wanted to see a Cirque show and Jon is interested in magic. He's got a nice, big grad school bill that we'll have to pay off, so we went for the cheapest seats possible. Totally good decision, because, once seated in the second row from the top and off to the side, we got upgraded to sixth row, center stage! Ummmm, ok! The show was good but greatly enhanced by the fact that the seats were awesome!

When the show was over, we went back to the hotel for a late dinner. The next morning, we got up and headed home right away (so as to avoid the infamous "Leaving Las Vegas on Sunday" traffic).

It was a perfect little getaway and a great way to celebrate the end of comps. Love that we have the freedom to just run away to Vegas on a whim!