So Thankful.....

On Thanksgiving, right before we were getting ready to eat, my text went off, and I checked it, only to see an unknown number.....with an attachment.

Should I open it?  Was it OK?  Would it make my cell phone crash?  Was it spam?

I hesitated.....but I opened it anyway, and to my great delight (& surprise) it was pictures and a message, "Your son with his companion after a fun game of touch football this morning."
(I love how she clarified that it was touch so I wouldn't worry about him getting hurt in tackle football or breaking the rules by doing so!!  She's a mom - she knows how we think!)

 My son, as in Ryan, who is away from home, serving a mission, on his FIRST Thanksgiving.

 A minute later, I got another text; this one with the message, "It was quite muddy!  This is Kristi H.....a sister from the ward."

I have heard so much about this GOOD family from Ryan's letters.  They are so great to him; having him over for dinner often, accompanying them when they teach the people, working hard to get permission from the Mission president for them to proselyte at a high school football game where there would be many important contacts, serving him, driving long distances to help, etc. etc.  The list goes on and on.

I sent her a text telling her I've heard all about her family and thanking her for all she does for Ryan.

She replied, "Your son is a wonderful missionary and we love having him here."

By this time, the Brenchley's were READY to start our feast, but Matt & I were on our phones looking at the pictures & texts.  Matt's mom (I don't think she knew what had happened?) had to scold us saying, “Now, I made the teenagers put away their phones for Thanksgiving – you put yours away, too!”  And I was like, “I’m getting photos of Ryan, I’m not putting it away!!”  What a rebel "teenager" I am!  ;)
This is about as close as we can get to having any contact with him - except for the Christmas and Mother's Day phone calls (or Skype?) that are allowed in the future.  The way technology has changed the whole missionary correspondence - amazing!  I was so thankful for this "tender mercy."  I did get a little emotional and teary after that, though.  Just KNOWING he was OK - more than OK.....Turkey Bowl?  Nothing could be better!!  He's so passionate about that annual tradition!  But, he's away from us, yet he's still getting taken care of.  It's a mixture of feelings; not really too sad, but relief, assurance, and thankfulness. 

A little more than an hour later, my text went off again.  Kristi was sending me more....

 ....with the caption, "I promise he's not starving today!"

"We were happy he could spend Thanksgiving with us."

There were actually two families from the ward in this photo.  I guess they both wanted the missionaries for Thanksgiving dinner (along with 5 other families from the ward - what competition!) so they combined forces and did it all together.  

I have heard a lot about this other family from Ryan, as well.  In fact, Ryan has already "pegged" one of their daughters as Kyle's future wife because he wants to be a part of their family, they're so awesome!  ;)  This family has done so much for Ryan, too.  For example, they have been known to drive 30 minutes to sit in on & fellowship at an investigator's lesson, just to be "stood up" and they have to drive all the way back home for nothing.....but, at least, invite the missionaries for dinner still.  (It makes me feel lazy!)  They have a missionary son out, too, so they understand the life.

I am so thankful for these fantastic families who are working in the Lord's vineyard located in West Virginia!  I'm so thankful for these "surrogate mothers" he has to watch out for him while he's away - it's such a blessing!  They are doing such a good job!!  I love them (his family away from home) and I've never even met them.

Something funny happened in the middle of all this, too.  I kept looking and re-looking at the texts on Thanksgiving and somehow the wrong button got pushed because all of a sudden, I see that my cell phone has dialed Kristi's phone number.  When I realized it, I was like, “Oh No!  Oh No!” and I was frantically trying to end the call as fast as I could, but it wasn’t working.  That would be a big NO-NO to try to call him - or her if she was with him - but I didn't mean to, I PROMISE!  I don't want to be One of Those Moms!  ;)  I don’t know if she answered and heard all the commotion, but if she did, I also hung up on her!  ha-ha. 

Ryan's end of the story was that when Kristi's phone rang (from my inadvertent call), she pulled out her phone and showed Ryan the screen.  He was like, "Oh, no!" and he shot out of the room!  But, she did realize and told him it was just a "pocket-dial."  Whew!

Again.....I'm so thankful.

The Benefits to Having a Missionary in the States

Both Matt and I served our missions [for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints] outside of the country (Okinawa & Fukuoka, Japan).
My sister and both my brothers served their missions outside of the U.S. (Ukraine, Mexico, & Brazil).
All of Matt's brothers (5 of them!) served missions outside of the country (Puerto Rico, Spain, Chile, Uraguay, & Venezuela).
SOOOO.....I've always associated missions being synonymous with out of the U.S.  So, when Ryan got called to serve his full-time mission within the States, it was a NEW CONCEPT for me.

And I've come to realize how GREAT it is as far as the MAIL situation is concerned!!!
I can actually send him mail AND packages [for fairly inexpensively]......AND he actually receives them!!!  So many other MM's do not have that luxury, they will not be able to send their missionaries anything for the whole 18 month/2 years - I have been told I am very lucky, and I believe it.

Even before he ever got his mission call, I saw an idea of what I wanted to do for my future missionaries' care packages......and then his IN STATE mission made it possible.
It has been very fun!!
In the beginning, I sent him a small box tied up with 12 different colors of ribbon or pipe cleaner.

It included an explanation that he'd be getting color-coded care packages each month for the first year.  The color of the package would provide the CLUE to which tie he was suppose to cut off that month.  At the end of 12 months (and 12 color coded care packages), he could open the tie-free box.
(Shhhhh.....but inside the box he will find a picture of Christ, and a message from Him to Ryan, because he is one of the missionaries for His church.  The letter contains gratitude and encouragement to serve for one more year, etc.)

Did I mention this is FUN?!?

The first month (September) was GREEN.....BECAUSE that's what he was - GREEN, fresh out in the mission field.  For some reason, I did not take a picture of it before I sent it, but PICTURE THIS:
Each flap of the box was covered in green decorative paper, and I wrote on each one:
"Good Luck, Greenie!"
"How's our favorite 'Green Bean?'"
"We LOVE our 'Greenie.'"
"It's not easy being 'Green'" ~ Kermit the Frog

It included things like:
a can of green beans
Andes mints
Sprite
Apple Jacks cereal
Mike & Ikes
Listerine strips
a green Sharpie
Wet Ones wipes (green pkg.)
sour cream & onion Pringles
green apples
Ghiradelli mint chocolate squares
winterfresh gum
pad of paper (green border)
plus.....several other green items - you get the picture.

In October I did ORANGE.  But, this time, I had my brain and I took pictures.

 {The contents}

{All packed up in the box}

These FLAT RATE boxes (provided for FREE by the post office) are the way to go (if you're sending more than 2 things) - whatever fits in the box, can be sent for one rate - it can be as heavy as I want it to be, and it costs me the same!

In contrast, if I were to put it in my own box, and they determined the postage off of weight, it'd be  like $40+ just to ship.

The 4 flaps say:

"ORANGE you glad you're a Missionary?!?"

"ORANGE you glad it's time for another care package?!?!"

"ORANGE you glad We Love You!!!"

"ORANGE you glad you survived your 1st Transfer?"

To which Ryan responded in his next letter back to us:

"Thank you so much for the care package....ORANGE you glad I got it?"  ;)

Are you having fun, yet?!?  

In November, it was BROWN.

 {The contents}

 {All packed up, ready to be sealed shut}

The flaps say:

"A little BROWN-NOSING never hurt anyone!!"  :)

"What can BROWN (substitute Elder Brenchley) do for you?  ~UPS

"Yes!  We're trying to score BROWNIE points!"  :)

"Oh, the WONDERFUL THINGS Mr. Brown (substitute Elder Brenchley) can do!!"   ~Dr. Seuss 

In the upcoming months, hopefully, I'll post them as I do them, once a month, instead of in a group, playing catch up....
Colors still up on the docket:
Gray
Red
Yellow
Pink
Purple
Blue
Black
White
Fuchsia


My other kids all LOVE these packages, and wish they were for them, saying it's not fair, but I try to tell them, they live at home and get our presence, love, & attention (not to mention free access to the pantry) every day, but Ryan does not, so THIS is an attempt to give him some of that, too, while he is sacrificing/serving away from home. 

Yes!  I can see, now, how it's pretty beneficial having a missionary in the States....how did I, and Matt, and all our siblings ever get our packages in those foreign countries?  Oh, yeah......we didn't.
Or they were just few and far between (If they even made it!)  And they took forever.  And cost an arm and a leg.

BUT, this may backfire on me, too, if my other children all go foreign, and they don't get any care packages......but remember that Ryan DID.....uh oh!

The Day of Awakening

You gotta get through 18 3/4 years of the [back breaking, heart aching, mind going crazy, blue-in-the-face] daily grind FIRST, but it finally comes.....it's the day when your child realizes AND admits JUST HOW GOOD HE HAS IT!  (and always has had it.)

We got this letter from our missionary son, Ryan, this week:

The letter was partially spurred on by him receiving some family photos we had taken before he left on his mission this summer.  They finally came back from the photographer, so I sent them to him in a little album:

We were kind of surprised to have our letter addressed to us in such a way, "My Eternal Forever Family" - such an upgrade from the usual, "The Brenchley's."  ;)

Then the content of the letter provided even bigger "revelations" to us:
"I am so grateful for what a great family I have!  The pics are just too precious!  Maybe it's the great color scheme or all our great smiles, but The Pictures just glows every time I look at it.  I took the album to church with me Sunday to show to some families and it got passed around to a couple of the other sisters in the ward.  Everyone who saw it was all, "Oh, what a Beautiful family you have!"  The other missionaries around the house were all commenting how much younger my family was.  (They're just jealous because their family grew up and isn't as cute as my family!)  I love you all so much.  You are all one of the main reasons I'm serving a mission.  I KNOW the happiness I have knowing my family can be together forever and I want nothing more than to share this message with others, and have them have the same Happiness I have!  I Love You all so much!"

(I think I want him to stay with this current group of missionaries who refer to us as the "YOUNG" family amongst the group!  ;)  In fact, when Ryan was telling his companion that his parents went on a 20th anniversary cruise, his companion pointed out that he's older than Ryan's parent's marriage!  His companion was born a few months before we were married....and he's the 4th child in his family to give ya an idea of the age difference in their parents!)


So, basically, now Ryan thinks we really are great!
(That's why we send them away!)  ;)
One child down, four to go!

A Sure Way to Have a Whole Month Fly By Without Even Realizing It

If time is ever moving too slow for you - just dragging on and you're wondering HOW you can make it go faster.......just GO ON A CRUISE.

Because it takes a WHOLE WEEK of pressing preparations before you can even leave:
Laundry
Writing up lists
Shopping
Making an instructions guide for our children's caretakers
Packing
Accomplishing THE LIST
ON TOP OF the extra hours at work that I had to pick up for others in trade to get the cruise week off, and Matt had to work to get all the things done that were needed for deadlines that would come up while we were gone or very shortly after we returned.
PLUS, add a daughter's birthday and party in there with my annual girls' shopping weekend in Park City on the side....

....and pretty much I was going non-stop for that first 8 days of the month.

THEN we made it on our [20th anniversary] cruise!  Aaaaaaaaaaah!!!

 The Allure of the Seas, Royal Caribbean

Relief.

No Responsibility.

Restful.

{Haha.  Matt took this "selfie" on the first evening.  

I was so worn out by the time our vacation actually started, I fell right to sleep waiting for the show to start!} 

 Recreational.

{Yes!  There is a operational Carousal on the ship.} 

Rejuvinating.

 Refreshing.

Royal Treatment.

from our awesome waiters, "Jeff" & "Lito"

 Romantic.

 Rewarding.

Sadly, that week went by way too fast.

Side Note:  My #1 tip for married couples:  Get Away Together (alone) often! (anything from a date night to an extended vacation)  There's really no substitute.....but that's a whole other blog post for another time.

And then we came back home.  Here's another adjective beginning with the letter "R" to describe that experience:  Rude Awakening. 

Not only was is COLD, but I had to now cook my own food, pick up my own towel, wipe my own nose......Oh no!!  

  
(It's been pretty much back to work non-stop again)

So, on MONDAY, I worked my shift all day and had to go to the grocery store for all the, "Mom! We're out of (fill in the blank with anything & everything)! items the kids bombarded me with upon my return.

On TUESDAY, I worked my shift all day and had to catch up on paying bills.  What in the heck was the current status of our bank account?!?

On WEDNESDAY, I worked my shift all day and did the miscellaneous "office" stuff...and finally decorated for Thanksgiving!  With a side of planning our ward's Christmas party.

On THURSDAY, I finally had a day off work, so I got around to unpacking all my luggage.  I also tackled cleaning the stove which appeared as if a 10 gallon pot of an assortment of foods & other stuff had exploded all over it in my absence.  I also slid on in to the Post Office in the nick of time - 4:56 p.m. - to send off this month's missionary care package (a blog post for another time) for Ryan Elder Brenchley.  (It's that time again, already?!?)

So, there's another week that's gone by in a FLASH.  It's November 20th already!?!?!  That means practically the whole month is gone!  And then Thanksgiving week always goes by fast and after that, November's over.  I really can't believe how quickly it went.  Here I am left reeling.

There you have it.
Prep week + Cruise week + Catch up week.....
How to lose a month in 20 days. (but what only seemed like a few)

What are THESE?

The temperatures have DROPPED way low here in our neck of the woods.  Thanks to the November-that-feels-like-January we're having due to the Arctic Chill that has come from the North, affecting most of  the U.S.

(Yet, ANOTHER rude awakening in returning from our Eastern Caribbean cruise.  The Islands, high 80's.  Utah, 30's.)

So, Brookelle was complaining she didn't have any warm clothes to wear.  It's true - I hadn't done the official [season changing] closet/drawer clean out project, changing all the short sleeves/capris/shorts/lightweight fabrics and replacing them with the winter clothes - it was still in the 70's when I left!

So, I pulled the big Rubbermaid tote of "Size 6 Winter clothes" out of the basement that I'd been storing ever since Katelyn outgrew them 4 years ago (AND which had many hand-me-downs of Haylee's from before then, too!)

Usually this ritual is like "Christmas," opening up a plethora of  outfits to wear; an instant "new" wardrobe!  The girls & I get all sentimental, while gushing, "Oh, I loved this!  This is soooo cute!" remembering the clothes they used to wear, and what event they wore them for, etc.

THIS TIME when Brookelle started pulling out all the long pants (the main thing she was looking for), it was NOT like that.  She was NOT thrilled or impressed or even grateful.

Her response was more like......

What are THESE?!!?

When I answered, "pants," she started to giggle.

SHE SERIOUSLY THOUGHT I WAS JOKING/TEASING (like I frequently do, and she's become pretty good at discerning when I am, based on the absurdity of what I say)
so she responded, "No, they're not!"

To which I replied, "Yes. They ARE."

She retorted, "What's wrong with the bottoms???"

I said, "They're flare jeans."

Brookelle:  "Flare???  WHY would they make them FLARE?"

Me:  "Because they're cute!"

Brookelle:  (giggling, thinking I'm joking again) "No, they're not!"

They're not?????  

But, your sisters wore them!

They used to be!

And then I realized that sometime between the last 4-6 years and the modern day, flare jeans must have gone the way of the dust.  In Brookelle's [short!] lifetime, she has never been exposed to flare jeans and, therefore, has absolutely NO understanding/attraction to them.  In her opinion, they belong in the costume box, categorized under, "clown pants" MORE THAN they belong in a sane person's closet!!
Skinny jeans are acceptable, though!  ;)

(Weird to think that I'M living through style changes!  Isn't that just for old people?)

CRAP!  Now she still doesn't have any warm bottoms to wear!  

Is Christmas too far away to wait to get new clothes?!?

Three Strikes.....on My Idea

Katelyn turned 10 years old this week.  Double Digits!!

It was her year for a friend birthday party and she wanted to have a “Game Show” themed party.
We played "Wheel of Fortune" and "Friend Feud" with some puzzles/questions I made up.

I made the game show boards out of poster boards and paper.

I thought it would be fun & clever to have one of the “Friend Feud” questions be:  
"Name something great about Katelyn.” 
I thought it would be a good way to "CELEBRATE" the birthday girl.

FOR THIS QUESTION, I had all 12 answers worth 100 points each (instead of how I did it on the other questions and how they do it in the real game where ALL the answers only total 100).  This way, the girls could REALLY earn a lot of points for this *BRILLIANT* question.

The 12 "Katelyn" answers on the board [that were covered] were: Friendly, Happy, Athletic, Crafty, Honest, Brave, Great singer, Caring, Helpful, Gives compliments, FUN, & Smart).

Well, this *special* idea of mine?.....it kind of bombed...
because the first person guessed, “funny.”  STRIKE ONE. 
Katelyn:  "WHAT?!?  I'm not funny?  I always make everyone laugh."  (As everyone, literally, laughed!)

The next person guessed, “sweet.”  STRIKE TWO. 
Katelyn: “WHAT?!?” 
Oh no.....she's [thinking she's] NOT funny, and she's NOT sweet!

The next person said, “Awesome.”  STRIKE THREE. 
Katelyn: (practically speechless, with mouth gaping open)


So, the other team gets a chance to "steal."  And they say, “pretty.” 
I was dying because I knew THAT answer wasn't on the board, either, but I didn’t want to give ANOTHER strike.....because what Katelyn wasn't understanding was, that even though all the previous answers given about her were TRUE, and it's what her friends thought of her....it just wasn’t one of the TOP TWELVE ANSWERS ON THE BOARD.
"Pretty" got a STRIKE, also.
 
When Katelyn saw it wasn’t on the board, she hid her face in the couch and started to cry.

Come on - everyone break out into song now, "It's MY party, I can cry if I want to, cry if I want to.....YOU would cry, too, if it happened to you!"

*****************
But, in an attempt to make things better, I let the "stealing" team call out another one of their answers they had brainstormed up together - and it was [finally] ON THE BOARD! (Makes friends easily)

Things That Make You Go, "Huh?"

1.  I saw these cough drops at the store on one of those "mark down" shelves.

$1.49 for a bag - I'll take it!

I like to always look through the items that have been re-tagged with a sale price to see if there is any great deals (that I also *need*.)

If there are multiple price tags on top of each other, it means there have been multiple mark downs.

When I get home, I like to peel off the price tags one by one to see the "price history" - how the price has changed/dropped.

(Then I know what a great deal I got!)

Except, this time when I peeled off the top tag (the $1.49 price I paid), I saw that the previous price was just $1.00!
Huh?!?
I think the price tag put-er on-er needs a refresher math lesson.

2.  Katelyn had some cute, navy blue Toms-type shoes that looked very similar to this:

After wearing them several times, they got a little hole in the toe.

Which, by the way, I have seen many, many times with this type of shoe. NO BIG DEAL.

So, then the next day, I see Katelyn wearing THESE shoes:

I asked what was going on.  Apparently, THIS was her solution to concealing the little toe hole.
(These are, in fact, her navy blue Toms)

Because fluorescent orange duck tape covered shoes are SO MUCH BETTER?!!?
Huh?!?

3.  Our missionary son, Ryan, wrote home eight questions that he wanted our whole family to each answer individually, in a letter back to him.

It was the same 8 questions for everyone, but he was curious to see the differences in our answers.
It was kind of a fun activity because everyone's DIFFERENT perspective of the SAME THING was revealed.

Here is Matt's (dad) response to Ryan's eight questions.

ALMOST half a sheet of paper!

In contrast....

Here is my letter/answers.

Page #1

And Page #2 

Huh?!?

(I KNOW missionaries like letters!)

I Got the Message...

We had my nieces & nephews staying with us one evening while their parents were out on a date.
Brookelle and my 3 1/2 yr. old niece came into the kitchen, where I was working, to get something to eat out of the pantry.
While they were close-by, this is what I overheard:


Niece:  "Brookelle, your mommy is REALLY fat."
Brookelle:  (Nervous laughter. Then, looks at me to see if I heard, or not.  Sees that I DID...)  "Come on, (niece's name), let's go!"

....and she's OUTTA THERE!


#ibetteraskforafitbitforChristmas

This Weekend:

* Our elementary school had a “Color Run” and Silent Auction this Saturday.
 No one wanted to really run, but they wanted to get “colored” so we went down
to the school for the event anyway.

  They had a couple of “COLOR BOMBS” as a group out on the field, so Katelyn & Brookelle got all pink, blue, green, yellow, & orange.
Katelyn DID jump in for the 1K (without an official race number bib) and ran with a bunch of kids.   
One of the baskets in the auction was a U of U theme, so Katelyn TOTALLY wanted to get it
(in honor of her die-hard-Utes-fan missionary brother)!
There was another boy classmate of hers that was hanging around close by
to always UP his bid on the U of U basket if anyone else ever placed a bid.
She got it out of him that he had $100 that he was capable of bidding for it.
She was BEGGING and BEGGING me to give her $105 so she could beat that other boy!  Ummm....NOT going to happen!!!
  (Actually, I think he was mostly trying to flirt/tease her just to see her get riled up,
and so that she would keep talking to him and paying attention to him!
I could see it in his smile & eyes!)


* My nephew, and my kids' cousin, Cameron, tested for his BLACK BELT
in Tae Kwon Do on Saturday afternoon.  It was a 3 HOUR test!
We went for the last half to cheer him on.  There were 7 boys total testing.  Interestingly enough, there were multiple times
when one of the boys couldn’t quite make his kick high enough or clear a hurdle he was jumping, so the owner of the dojo would ask his peeps to cheer for him,
and it seemed like EVERY TIME their crowd started making some noise/chanting his name, the boy was able to DO IT!
Who doesn't believe in moral support?!  There's POWER in it, I tell ya!

  As part of the test, they had to break boards – 4 with their hands with different kinds of strikes,
 and 4 with their feet with different kinds of kicks all in consecutive order.
The owner and his assistant held two of the boards, but then the boy was suppose to pull
two other people from his crowd to hold the other two.
Kyle said, “I ain’t holdin’ no board!”
He was afraid his wrist would break when Cameron hit it.
So, Cameron's dad, Mike, and Matt were the ones who went out on the floor to hold the boards.
The photographer got a pic RIGHT AS he was striking the board Matt was holding.
Look at Matt's face -  SO FUNNY!
BUT, Cameron is OFFICIALLY A BLACK BELT, now!!!!
What a great accomplishment – we are happy for him!

* Matt & I had tickets to the ReAL game on Saturday night, so we went – someone spilled beer at my feet, so it was pretty exciting!  haha.

2-0 WIN vs. the San Jose Earthquakes

 

* We went to the missionary farewell of one of Ryan's long time friends' (all through childhood) on Sunday morning.
He is going to FIJI and he GETS  to wear a SKIRT with his white shirt & black missionary name tag on his mission!
(THINK:  “The Other Side of Heaven” movie)  COOL!

{Jared & Ryan, circa 2008}

I can't believe these two little boys are grown up, serving missions now!!!

  * We went to our own church later.
Some of the pink is still in the girls' hair/on their scalp TODAY
and they still have it around their mouths a bit, too!  Nice look for church!  haha

* One of my former Young Women was the youth speaker in our own ward (I'm so proud of "my" YW!)
She gave a talk on the parable of The Great Supper (Luke 14:16-24).
I’d kind of forgotten about it, but it is a really good!
When she was talking about how the man invited many, but most of them had excuses
why they couldn’t come, I leaned over to Matt and said,  
“That sounds like what happens to us; whenever we invite other couples to go out with us!”   
Bwa ha ha ha!
BUT, THE REAL MESSAGE is about US fully partaking of the Gospel, without excuses, and then we will receive the FULL blessings.


* My Sunday evenings are now spent writing my weekly letter to our missionary, Ryan, so
when he reads his email on Monday (his one P-day a week), he will have the latest
updates from home.

Don't You Wish I Was Your Mom?

Haylee's Jr. High Science teacher was offering extra credit to any of her students who came to the "Moon viewing" to see the TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE at the school on Wednesday morning.....from 5:15-6:15AM.

But, ya always gotta take advantage of extra credit!

Matt was leaving really early in the morning anyway to take his parents to the airport, so the plan was for him to drop her off at the school, while I stayed home (ASLEEP IN BED) with our other children.

Her school doesn't start until 8:10a.m., so we talked about what she was going to do in between the moon viewing and school.  She just matter of factly told me that she would just walk back home.
Uhhh.....I DON'T THINK SO!  I put the brakes on that suggestion real fast.  It's still pitch dark at that time!  Did she really think that'd be a good idea?

She needed to do some catch up work in the keyboarding lab, so we talked about her doing that - except the lab doesn't open until 7:00a.m. so there was still some time unaccounted for.  Kyle was pretty sure the janitors get there that early, so he said the school would be unlocked.  She decided she would just go into the school and "hang out" until she could get into the lab.

Well, my eyes popped right open at 5:45a.m. and they were already gone, but I started to question whether or not she fully understood our plan for the morning.  And I became restless.  Then I thought, "Wonder if the school is still locked?  Wonder if all the lights are OFF in the school when she goes in?"  I couldn't go back to sleep.  Her comment about "just walking home" kept coming into my head.  That did it.  There was no chance I was falling asleep again. 

So, I got up.  I was driving over to the school.  I figured I'd just walk into the backyard of the school, find her, talk through the plan, and confirm that the school was open, etc.  It was still dark, so I figured I'd just go in my pajamas to save time.  At the last minute, I opted to change my PJ bottoms for my yoga capris instead....to be a little more presentable?

It turns out, the moon viewing was done by the time I got there, and no one was in the backyard anymore.  I talked to other kids who were outside and they told me that a lot of kids were in the school......

So, picture this;  I enter the Jr. High School wearing my pajama top, covered by a zip front hoodie (to cover up the fact that I was NOT wearing a bra), yoga capris, and flip flops.  I had just put on my glasses so I could see and had left without doing ANYTHING else, including looking in the mirror.  I had fresh BED HEAD and who knows what leftover make-up was smeared around my eyes or across my face.  I didn't think anything about it (I had only been thinking about saving Haylee from walking home in the dark) UNTIL I entered the front doors of the school and I saw many Jr. High students (a lot more than I expected!) hanging out all over in the commons area - and I saw their eyes turn to look at me.  THAT'S the first time I thought about HOW I looked.  Uh Oh!  (THAT'S the difference between women in their 40's & Jr. High students!)  I looked like a real beauty, I'm sure!

I proceeded to walk through the halls of the Jr. High and actually found her pretty quickly.  She was laying down on a bench (she got up at 4:20a.m.!) with a couple of friends.  When she saw me, she instantly became alert and she sat up and exclaimed, "MOM!  What are you doing?"  as the two other girls looked on.  I reminded her NOT to try to walk home that morning, and she was like, "I KNOW!  I'm not going to - you already told me I couldn't."  I went over the plan with her - while her friends watched & listened with fascination - and it turns out she had it all under control!  So, I turned around and walked back out of the Jr. High, passed the groups of other students with their stares, and drove back home.

I have a feeling there were some conversations going on amongst the kids about something to the effect of, "WOW!  I wish my mom would come to school like THAT!"  ;)

Bwah ha ha ha ha