The Run-Away Bottle, and Other Things to Make You Smile!

I have a story to tell on myself. One that must have been hilarious to anyone looking on. As many of you know, Dale Bailey passed away last week, and his viewing and funeral were last week as well. The viewing was on Wednesday night, and the funeral was Thursday morning. We attended the viewing on Wed. night because Paul was not going to be able to get off of work on Thurs. to attend the funeral. However, myself and the children attended the funeral on Thurs. a.m. Anyway, I pulled in the parking lot of the funeral home about 10 min. before the funeral was supposed to start. I had three of the children with me (DaNae had spent the night with a friend). All of the cars that were going to the graveside they parked in rows, and very close together, I might add. Jonathan and Jeffrey got out of the van and I had decided to go out the side door of the van since I needed to get Makayla out of her seat, etc. I have the diaper bag over my shoulder and am lugging her out of the van, trying to squeeze between the back of her car seat and the back of the passenger seat. I hand the diaper bag out to Jonathan, and when I did, Makayla's bottle fell out of the bag and rolled under the van. It was drizzling, and the pavement was very wet. I asked Jonathan if he could reach the bottle. He tried, but since she wasn't able to kneel on the pavement without getting his pants all wet and dirty, it was just out of his reach. So, I handed Makayla to him, and reached in the van for the umbrella, hoping to be able to reach with it. It was one of those little short ones that collapses down so that it is real compact (not exactly what I needed at the moment). I tried pushing the button so that it would give me a little more length, and of course the whole thing went up. I could see this was not going to work. I put the umbrella back down to its smallest position, and took my place on the wet pavement. As I reached under the van, and stretched to get just beyond the bottle to roll it toward me, I accidentally bumped it, and guess what, it rolled further under the van. The bottle is now IN THE MIDDLE OF THE VAN. I looked in the van for something longer to reach with, but to no avail. So, out loud, I began asking for the Lord to help me. At that instant, as I am still on my knees, I look down the long row of cars, and at the end I see the parking lot attendant, very curiously, watching me. We make eye contact, and I start laughing. He says, "Do you need help?" And I wanted to say...well, never mind. Anyway, I told him what had happened, and he said that he could help me, he'd just get a broom or something.

He comes back about a minute later, and goes on the opposite side of the van from where I've been standing. He pushes it through, and about the time it gets to where we're standing, Jonathan accidentally kicked it, and it rolled under the next vehicle parked beside us. About this time, the parking lot attendant says: "Did you get it", and when I told him that it had rolled under the next vehicle he said, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me". By this time I was so tickled. Jonathan went on the other side of the vehicle parked next to us, and it had rolled to the other side, and he was able to get it. It was soooo funny. I think the attendant probably thought I was nuts. Here I am, rushing in at the last minute with all of these kids parading behind, and then this. It was hilarious, and I'm sure that if anyone else was watching, they must have been quite entertained. Anyway, then we have about 30 seconds to gain our composure before we walked into the funeral home. But we did it!!!! (Wet knees and all!)

This picture just makes me laugh when I look at it. The other night Paul went in to play the keyboard, and when he realized I was taking his picture, this was the response I got. I must say, my husband has such a contagious laugh (Jeffrey gets his laugh from his daddy). When you hear them laughing, you just can't help but laugh too. It was good to hear him play again, it's been a long time.

I've found a new spot for Makayla when I'm working in the kitchen. She like to be up where she can see, and she tires of her high chair quickly. One of our Mennonite friends used to put her little boy in her kitchen sink, and I thought that was a great idea.

Makayla loves it because she is up where she can see what's going on, and I can give her toys and things to play with, and I don't have to worry so much about her throwing them on the floor. As you can see in the picture below, she's enjoying her graham cracker too.

The kids put this hat on her tonight, and I just couldn't help myself. I just had to grab the camera. She is quite the "ham" these days, and she's finding that if she does something, and it makes the other kids laugh, well, by all means, lets do it again.

Jeffrey lost his first tooth today. He's pretty proud. He came to me today wiggling it, and it was bleeding. I asked him if he wanted me to pull it, or if he was just going to leave it. He said that he would leave it. About two minutes later he came in proclaiming the news that he had pulled it. He was so excited. Sure hope the tooth fairy doesn't forget her duties tonight.

This weekend, Jeffrey and DaNae both learned to ride their bikes without training wheels. Need less to say, I could hardly keep them off of their bikes today. It's quite an accomplishment for them, and now they can't seem to get enough. They've found a new freedom and Mama's reminded again just how fast they're growing up!