His Prayers Have Been Answered!

Our Nintendo Wii has been out of commission for a couple of weeks now. We have no idea what happened to it, it simply wouldn't power up... until today. It's a snow day so Diego is home from school. He was happily playing with his V-Flash educational game and somehow knocked the Wii off the shelf it sits on and sent it crashing 3 feet down to the floor.

Joe picked the Wii up, placed it back in its stand and plugged it into the wall. Suddenly the Wii had been healed! Diego jumped up and yelled, "Yes! I have been praying the Wii would work again and it is! Now I can buy the Ice Age game!"

All I can say is that God works in mysterious ways.

New Glasses

Both of my boys got new glasses within the past week. I snapped this pic last night. Diego is saying, "Who's a handsome debil?" I think he meant devil.

Hot Dogs, French Fries, and Chocolate Mousse

I've been meaning to blog about this for a week now. After Joe re-told the story last night in our small group I decided it had to be shared....

A week ago yesterday our sweet friend, Chloe came home from church with us to spend some time with her buddy, Diego. Joe had a meeting after church so I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch, came home and we had a nice afternoon.

Around 5:00 everybody was hungry so we decided to go to a local restaurant to eat. We ordered our meal and Chloe saw the dessert menu and asked, "What is chocolate mouse?" Joe explained the name is chocolate mousse and Diego says, "How do they make a moose chocolate?" It was over. Control was lost. Our waitress stayed away, people were staring.

We ordered dessert, and here's the good part, Chloe ordered Chocolate Mouse, Diego ordered a hot dog. When the "desserts" arrived Chloe decided she didn't like Chocolate Mouse, instead she ate Diego's french fries, dipping them into the Chocolate Mouse. I looked at Joe and said, "We've ruined this child's healthy eating habit, she's going to have to be completely reprogrammed." (Did I mention we'd fed her a forbidden meal at lunch time?) She then discovered an Oreo cookie on the bottom of the Mousse cup and dug for it.

Now, I am not picking on poor Chloe, I love that little girl like she's my own. Diego brought his hot dog home... in his mouth! He had not chewed it, he was holding it in his cheek! I asked him what he had in his mouth when he was getting ready for his bath (an hour after we'd left the restaurant!). His reply, "My hot dog." I made him spit it out. Can I just say, "YUK!?"

These two bring so much joy into my life; I am blessed by their naivety, sense of humor, purity, and love. If only we could all be like children in those same aspects.

Perspective

Diego's school was closed today due to frozen/broken pipes and loss of heat. He played the Wii far too long, we went grocery shopping and had some lunch. I needed to go to my office this afternoon and he reluctantly went along with his Cars toys in tow (Cars toys are the toy he's stuck on lately).

Diego got a little bored and started talking about what he would be doing at school at any given time and whether or not he would have had gym class or music today. He then pulled a chair up to the window and stood on it watching the people passing by. Without trying he frightened a kid riding a bike, I don't even think He realized he had done that.

I asked Diego what he was looking at and he said he was counting how many people smoke. He also said he saw quite a few coming out of the door across the street (there are 2 bars across the street).

In typical Diego fashion, out of the blue, he says, "Mom, I know what kind of cars people who smoke drive." I said something like, "Really?" And then he said, "Yes, their cars have brown spots of rust on them and they are not shiny, they are dirty, there's one right there."

He was right, there was a salt covered, dirty gray car with rust parked across the street. Someone who was smoking had just stepped out of the vehicle. It makes perfect sense why he would come to the conclusion he had.

I did talk to him about how that conclusion wasn't quite right but he was out the window again, lost in thought.

Farewell to a Friend

I received word tonight that a faithful, loving, four-legged friend died yesterday. Toby was a wonderful dog. He was a yellow lab. Toby had an extremely important job, he was a seeing eye dog for our friend Doug. And he did the job extremely well.

Toby was always ready and eager to go to work. Doug would bring the harness out and no matter how Toby was feeling he sprung into action to wear the harness proudly and be the eyesight Doug needs. Toby always had a smile on his face... yep, a dog that smiled.

I'm not exactly sure how long Toby was with Doug but I know it was many, many years. Toby was raised for the Leader Dog School in Rochester Hills, MI. The person who raised him was a school teacher who took Toby to her elementary classroom every day where Toby was showered with hugs, kisses, and a lot of petting. Toby loved kids.

Diego named his favorite stuffed animal after Toby (of course it's a yellow lab given to him by Doug and JoAnn). He never goes to bed without Toby. Diego said, "Toby has a long, wet tongue and he licked me with it, on the face! He played with me and I love him." That about says it all.

Goodbye our friend Toby Spade, you were a good boy, we love you.