I keep thinking about funny things that happen and wish I could blog about them but don't do so because, well...it's been half a year since I posted, it just didn't seem right to jump in and pretend like that awkward six month silence didn't happen.
Anywho (casually ignoring the six month silence). . . so the other day I went to IKEA. I was parked in the loading zone, because I was just running in for a sec. When I was done I got back in my van and was messing around on my phone for a bit before leaving. I looked up and saw a man approaching my car with his hand up in the air, in a friendly, "hey wait up lady, you dropped something" kind of way. He got closer and then tapped on the door. So I unlocked it, expecting him to hand over my purse, or receipt or something. Instead he picked up the mail that was sitting on my front seat and started riffling through it. It was then that I cautiously extended my hand to protect my purse, assuming that he was going to grab it and run. After he flipped through a bunch of my mail he looked up at me, and jumped about a mile high. Then he shut the door. Opened it again and said, "sorry, wrong car". And then went and hopped in to the dark grey Sienna parked right next to me. And then I laughed and laughed. It was a nervous laugh though because I really thought I was toast when he started going through my stuff.
We took a spontaneous trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago. It seemed like the right thing to do. You know with Blaine so busy in school, and our income of nothing, why not? No really, it was good. Except the part where everyone else in the entire world decided to go to DL at the same time. In February. And also the part where Ivy had just gotten potty trained the week before. Well, at least now I can cross off "visit every public restroom from Lehi to Anaheim" off of my bucket list (not fun folks, *shudder*).
We kept it a surprise from the kids, which kind of got tricky once my parents started loading their suitcases in to our car. "Oh yeah kids...Grandma and Grandpa are coming with us to pick up dad and take him to dinner...and then they brought their stuff in case they decide they want to sleepover or something". After we picked up Blaine from school and headed off "to dinner" at Wendy's. In Nephi (just where you should take your kids and husband and grandparents for a night out on the town), we decided to tell the kids. It was fun. We got video, I should post it but then I might lose my steam and never post this :). Gwen didn't believe us (because actually we often announce to the kids that we are going to Disneyland, and then tell them we are kidding...which now all of the sudden seems kind of rude). When it sank in that we were actually going she was on top of the freaking world! So happy! (side note: she's being bullied at school, and we were both so excited that she didn't have to go for a whole week! Much needed break from tears and drama). Bentley, upon realizing that we were serious, burst in to tears. Apparently he has a phobia of people in costume and the thought of seeing the characters was just too much (who knew?). Ivy... announced that she had to go potty for the first of ten trillion times throughout the course of the drive.
[NOTE: Hey, I found the video on this computer! But, it is uploading and currently says it will take 800 minutes to upload...and I have episodes of 30 Rock to watch, so I just want to post this, but hopefully I can update and insert the video in here in about 801 minutes]
But on to the funny story! So one night we were staying at the park pretty late. We got dinner at the pizza planet place (rip off alert!). As we were eating, Gwen finished and was laying on the bench and fell asleep. When we were all done she looked so darn cute asleep there that I took her picture. Then we picked her up to go. Ivy, not to be outdone, then laid on the bench and pretended to sleep so we would take her picture. Such a ham. We laughed and took her picture. Meanwhile Gwen had kind of woken up and in a state of somewhat delirium didn't want to be outdone. So she laid back on the bench with a dreamy little smile.
*While all of this was taking place there was a nice guy sitting at the table next to us, smiling and enjoying his dinner*
We laughed and told her it was time to go. Then she inched along the long bench toward the guy sitting at the table next to us. We giggled, "Gwen, come on let's go". Which is when she lifted her head, put it on the guy's lap and wrapped her arm around his leg. Oh my gosh, I was dying! I kept saying "Gwen, Gwen, open your eyes, we have to go". Nope, she wouldn't have it. So there she was, cuddling with some complete stranger. He was so funny too. I could tell he was pretty worried about the situation. You should have seen his face. Finally after a painful two minutes or so I was like "Gwen, DUDE, that is NOT GRANDPA!" Her eyes shot open, and she looked up at the guy, and practically ran to the nearest exit. Oh man, the words don't describe it but I'll put it this way...I will never complain about the price of that pizza (which ironically is all that I did during the meal) because that memory is so worth it.
What a good sport that guy was!
Well that about sums it up, but just to glaze over a few more quick points (for posterity)!
* Blaine is rocking law school! It was scary to decide to go back to school, to quit a perfectly wonderful job in the rocky economy, but seeing Blaine learn and grow and just...THRIVE has been awesome. I can only hope that sometime I find something that I am just as passionate about and excellent at. In fact right now he is taking a shower and I can hear him reciting his oral argument for the moot court competition tomorrow. I love it! He is seriously amazing and I would have spent the rest of my life kicking myself if we hadn't taken this opportunity!
* I'm doing the 30 day shred. Today was day 5 and I wanted to die. Since I don't work out on Sundays I get to do the workout twice on Saturdays (morning and night), so that will be really fun tomorrow. Blerg!
*Gwen loves reading. She reads for hours a day. I love it! She is still struggling at her new school. (We changed from the Charter to the local school which has turned out to be one of the worst decisions ever! Oh hindsight...sigh....), but she has made a couple of friends so that has helped. She is growing so much and she will be as tall as I am soon. Craziness.
*Bentley and I are both pretty sad that he doesn't get to start kindergarten this year. Boo! He finds it hard to be motivated to do anything besides watch shows or play electronics. Which drives me crazy. I try, oh how I try! Puzzles! Games! Bubbles! Parks! In fact one time I told him since he wanted to watch shows all day and never played with his toys I was going to give all of his toys away to his friends. A few weeks later I told him that one of his friends was coming over and he got all excited and said, "Is he coming so we can give him all of my toys so I can watch shows all day?!?" So, needless to say, I am on a quest to find something that the boy will love that doesn't involve electronics. Any ideas?
*Ivy is insane. I feel like that is all I can say about her ever, but seriously...where did she come from? She is a ball of crazy energy. Take for example the three nights in a row that we left Disneyland at 11PM and she hopped (not walked, not got pushed in a stroller) all the way from the Disneyland castle to our shuttle stop, which was like half a mile away. Then as everyone on the shuttle was in zombie mode Ivy was chattering away about Disneyland and how much she loved it. She's bossy, she's stubborn, she's spoiled as can be...but man I love her!
Okay well, I think we're good now. Hopefully I will find the motivation to write once in a while. Because I miss it. A lot. The end.
*Eerie Twilight Zone Music Playing*. Even our kids, when shown the picture of Morgan Bassett claim it is Blaine. I wish I had a better picture of Blaine's head positioned the same way and with no smile, because it would be uncanny. He looks more like this second cousin than he looks like his brothers and sisters!
