Tales of a Shoebox Princess

This morning I went for a walk with Hayley. It was surprisingly easy to get her to come with me. All I had to do was yell down the stairs, "Who wants to go on a walk with me?" It wasn't a very vigorous walk since both of us had our electronic devices with us. I took flower pictures and Hayley looked up geeky meme funnies. She didn't complain once or whine in any way. The only disturbing thing she said on the whole walk was "Mom you have a bug on your back." She didn't even laugh as I flailed and shuddered while trying to remove it. Aside from the bug, it was a nice walk. Here are some of my flower pictures. And a shoe picture. You'll have to guess whose shoes are whose.

Beware, I'm going to blog about the cats. This is what happens when 60% of the children are gone and the other 40% are sullen teenagers. OK, Matt and Hayley aren't sullen. They are quiet though. And mostly gone. Hayley works 5 days a week, and Matt has learned to have most of his conversations inside his own head. So I'm left to hang around the cats. Like today. For the past few months, I have been feeding them what I call "Daily Tuna," which is about 1/3 of a can of tuna every day around noon. The cats have come to expect it, and will start getting antsy for Daily Tuna around 10 a.m. Every time I go into the kitchen, they follow me, stare at me, and meow at me. Today, however, Jim was in the kitchen and he asked if I had given the cats their Daily Tuna yet. I said no. So he got the container out of the fridge and put some tuna on a plate. Usually, when I even open the cupboard door to get a little plate, Magic and Servo are right there at my feet, meowin...

This morning we were up early. Jim wanted to leave the house by 7:15 a.m. because of rush hour traffic and because we wanted Paul to be at the airport 2 hours before his flight, which was scheduled to leave at 9:55 a.m. But leaving early didn't happen. Some people are slow to get going, and Elder Evans 2.0 is one of them (I hope the CCM--Spanish for MTC--in Lima whips him into shape). We made sure he had his passport (after the scare on Monday, I felt like I should carry it around with me at all times but I didn't. I put it in a file box where I keep valuables) and he made sure he looked and smelled good. My stomach was churning as the minutes ticked by. I resisted the urge to nag and yell. Instead I sat on the couch and stared at my plants on the piano bench. Matt and Hayley came with us, and finally we were all ready to go at 7:50 a.m. Much later than anticipated. My stomach knottified further. Traffic was bad, but Jim was driving so I just had to make sure I didn...

Tomorrow morning around 8 a.m. we take Paul to the airport. He has spent most of the day packing and sorting through things. We got the last few things on his list, one which was a certain kind of insect repellant that is available only at a few places. Last night we had a collective near-heart-attack moment when Paul couldn't find his passport. Katie had wanted to look at it before she left for the airport, but it wasn't in all the places we thought it could be. My stomach was churning as I helped Paul search. Jim said he hadn't even seen it since we got it in the mail with Paul's travel plans. But he thought he would check his truck anyway, even though he KNEW it wasn't going to be there. And yet it was, in a manila envelope under some other papers. It's a good thing Katie asked to see it, otherwise we all would have assumed it was where it needed to be, and then tomorrow morning would have been even more hectic, scary, and panicky, with possible tears. ...

I sang Happy Birthday to Paul to wake him up this morning. I don't know if it was appreciated or not. He's up though. We have some last minute shopping to do before Wednesday so that's how we'll spend his birthday. We've already taken care of our traditional take-the-birthday-kid-out-to-his-choice-of-restaurant, and we have sung to him in the presence of a cake. The last birthday tradition is the homemade dinner of the birthday boy's choice, which I believe I will save for tomorrow night since I will be out all day and won't have time to fix the requested enchilada dish (no macaroni this year). Granddaddy and Katie leave today. We've enjoyed having them both here. Katie has resumed her role as just another Evans kid while here, although I know she misses Christian. I wish he could have been here too. Maybe next time! Time for old-timey pictures of Paul in honor of his birthday and in honor of his mission. WHICH IS LIKE...IN TWO DAYS.' Li...

Jim and I were awoken early this morning to violent thunderstorms. It rained several inches. I wasn't worried about the rain interfering with Paul's farewell open house because thunderstorms usually don't last that long. They did last several hours in the wee hours, but that much energy wouldn't sustain itself into the afternoon. And I didn't mind the bog in the backyard either. At least the yard got watered. Oh yeah, yesterday? Matt was mowing the lawn and one of the back wheels broke. Like it broke OFF the lawn mower. But he persevered with the three-wheeled mower until the handle broke off. Really, mower? We were getting ready for a party! AND we're sending out a missionary! Hello, blessings? How is a broken mower a blessing? (I'm being overdramatic). After watching Matt struggle with trying to put the handle back on the mower for a minute, I turned to Jim and said, "Just go buy a new mower." So he did. Anyway, we worked hard getting ready f...