It's a blast, blast, blast

Happy Cars 2 Day!

(Frankie's eyes are not looking at me in the picture on the left, but at the theater manager who was standing behind me, 

waiting to inform me was I was not to take my camera into the theater. I had only sort of planned on it,

but for an innocent purpose. I am working on drawings for a new Westates Theater, 

I wanted pictures of the ceiling and the acoustic panels. That's all, I swear.)

Yesterday was a mini-holiday at our house, it was the day we went to see Cars 2. Frankie has been looking forward to this movie since we first saw a teaser trailer last fall. The fact that anytime I take him into any store for the last month there is Cars stuff everywhere has added to his excitement. 

We started the morning with kid time at the library, with a Gila Monster to boot, and then he had Cars 2 juice and Mac & Cheese lunch with Tayden and Jarek. 

We took Tayden to his computer camp, did some shopping, and then picked Tayden up and went back to my house to put together goodie bags that we smuggled into the theater. (I was quite the law-breaker yesterday, it would seem.) Each kid got a new Cars matchbox car, Cars fruit snack and juice, and a treat. Here's the bags ready to go. Yes, they are in Toy Story sacks, Chrissy and I had a moment of delusion or confusion or some such.

Finally, getting ready to go. Tayden didn't want his picture taken, and Jarek wanted to make him.

We were a little overzealous, and got to the theater almost an hour early. Some of my family attended a movie the night before, and it had been packed. Better safe then sorry, but we were the only ones in "line" until 10 minutes before showtime. We broke out their new cars and let them drive them around. Frankie has been wishing for a Cars 2 Lightning. Even though he already has 5 various Lightning cars. He assured me the paint is different enough to need another, and he got his wish yesterday.

We were all wearing purple, not planned. Cute, huh?

We also had Jessica and her boys with us for the movie. The movie was cute. I would say it didn't have the heart of the first one, but it was entertaining. My biggest complaint about it is actually that it was quite violent. I love the visuals of Pixar. You get to see Tokyo, Paris, and London Car-ized and it's sweet.

After Frankie was in bed last night, I reflected on what a happy day it had been. I'm grateful that we have the means to go see the silly 3d movie, splurge a bit and make an event out of it. There are times when it is fun to just have my one almost 5 year old boy, and yesterday was one of those times.

What matters most

In the midst of tying not be stressed about:

A lot of work that needs to be done for MRW.
So many forms to fill out and certificates to order: just to get our adoption application past the pre-qualifying phase.
Illustrations for Nick's game.
A pastel commission I haven't even started on.
A messy house, I've given up folding laundry altogether.
This blog is our family record and it's 2 months behind.
I miss my husband.

And then today I decided to watch the movie that's been on my home page for a week or so. It made me remember to breathe. To think outside myself. Make Play Doh animals with Frankie. And to take it a step at a time.

Please watch.

The world has turned

I have much to blog about. I've been running like a headless chicken since the beginning of May. It all started when I half-heartedly jumped into the task of doing most of the planning of our class reunion with Alison.

At the end of May, we threw one smashing class reunion, if I do say so myself. My favorite part was seeing Lyndy perform. My second favorite part was how chill I was. I was worried that some high school insecurities might come creeping in - but they didn't. I loved seeing people. I had a great time. I could care less what anyone thought of me. It was fabulous. Having a life changing sort-of-near-death experience will do that to you, I guess.

So the reunion ended, and I thought I would return to a normal existence but somehow I haven't. I did flowers for a wedding last week and GOT THE DAY WRONG. Yes, you read that right. And unfortunately it was the day before I had planned. To make matters worse my order at Costco was messed up again. Luckily I already had lilies and my other wholesale order. Family and friends came to my rescue, and we got most of that wedding out the door (including having to search the whole town for gerber daisies and roses) in less 2 hours. I mostly feel bad that I added stress to the bride and the family on the big day. But they were very nice about it.

A funny side note is that Flower Market, where I ordered the other flowers from, offered me a job that day. If MRW wasn't so busy right now, it would be tempting.

In other news our beater car, the Mercury Mystique, finally kicked the bucket last week. My Daddy cleaned out some rust in the radiator, and we think that rust was probably all that was holding the whole engine together. We weighed our options - and decided we really need another reliable, and more fuel efficient car right now. Jerm has had to do a ton of traveling in the medic program, and it's likely he'll be doing more when he's done. So we got to car shop last weekend. I really don't like car shopping. Especially when it's hot. And half the salesman don't know anything. Jeremy made it clear to me when we got home on Friday that I was being far too whiny. I didn't realize I was that bad, but you know.

So last weekend a new (to us) Honda Civic came to live at our house. We'll have a car payment for the first time in 3 years, which churns my stomach, but it is what it is. It's a little 2 door, with a manual transmission, and Jeremy loves driving it. Frankie has named it "Cupcake Racecar." The RAV is mine again - which probably makes me happier then it should.

The last bit of news in this long picture-less post:

After some spiritual prodding, if you will, we sought more spiritual guidance and have decided to take a leap of faith and turn in our application to LDS Family Services to start the adoption process. From the sounds of things it will be a while before we actually have a profile up or anything, but we're excited nonetheless. It really feels like this is what the Lord wants us to do, and really that's all I need to know.