Blog Worthy

Church this morning went pretty well. We didn't stay for communion or the end of the service. Both kids went from church to home to major time outs... hmmm... no spiritual warfare there! We watched a little of Mary Poppins after that. (Lee asked me last night how that movie ended, and I said "Oh, it NEVER ends, it just goes ON and ON with the singing and the dancing.)

We took the kids for a walk after that, but they refused to play on any playground equipment that wasn't at Lincoln school. Then they said they had to go to the bathroom. Well, by that point we were about a mile from home, on a Sunday... the closest toilet was at the park downtown, a playground they had earlier shunned. Yordi kept saying... "No home? Fine. No toilet? Fine." Not sure what she was muttering in Amharic, but we got the drift. Habtamu was no better. Mutter, mutter. AND they kept asking for ice cream. Um, let me do the math on that one... um, NO. Lee and I were befuddled, because why the heck were they acting like this? We got to the toilets, and at least they both went, so we weren't the total chumps we were starting to feel like. Lee and I sat on a park bench, like, "Well, this day is a wash... and it's only 1 p.m."

We thought we'd go for a drive and our friend Jim came to mind. He lives about 20 minutes away with his wife Nikki and 2 little girls. Jim also has a pool. Um, yeah... we'd have come anyway! No, really! Great guacamole!

The kids were hovering around the bench we were sitting on "Home? Now? Home? Home, here?" So we told them we were going to our friend Jim's house. Yes, we're going home, then toilet, then Daddy's car, then Jim's house. Well, suddenly everything was ducky again. What the?! They didn't even know about the pool yet.

So, yes, Jim and Nikki, you guys are totally blog worthy. The kids had a great time, Nikki took pics, they served us dinner. (That burger was seriously delicious.) Habtamu had watermelon for the 1st time. And we collected Yordi's stool sample. Wow! (Oh, I didn't tell you about that? We're going back to U of Chicago to finish up the rest of the tests they wanted to do to get a baseline for their health. The appt. is tomorrow and they wanted stool samples. Can our kids deliver the goods, or what? We mimed to them what we wanted them to poop into, and they were rightfully skeptical, but they both let us know when and at least I can stop thinking about poop for a few minutes.... until we have to transport it tomorrow. Ugh.)

Back to goodness and light... a palate refresher if you will:










































So, Jim and Nikki, not ONLY are you blog worthy, but because there were 3 adults playing with 4 children, I was able to sneak away and publish a little blog... right from your kitchen. You guys are awesome... thanks for being available exactly when we needed you! :)