Thursday, October 23, 2008

That felt great!

After dropping Diego off at school this morning I ran an errand and then went to McDonald's for my Thursday morning treat of a Diet Coke.

While in line at the drive-thru, I noticed a young woman in the vehicle behind me whom I haven't seen for a long time. She was one of my favorite teenagers from back in the good old days. She has fiery red hair and the personality to match. I just love this girl. She and another teenager gave me the nickname "Tree" which they still call me to this day. She's all grown up now with 2 children and a third on the way (soon!).

Well, one of the teams I serve on at Crossroads was given the challenge last week to do intentional acts of kindness. I seized the opportunity when I saw this young woman in line behind me and I bought her breakfast when I arrived at the payment window.

The cashier asked me if I wanted her to say who had paid for the meal and I smiled and said, "Just tell her Tree says, 'Hi.'"

I'm going to be smiling on the inside all day.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Day Trippin'

I went on a field trip with all of the third grade students from Diego's school yesterday. I was given a group of 4 students, one of whom was my son. The remaining part of the group was made up of 2 girls and one other boy. I must say I had a great group. They obeyed very well by staying within eye sight (most of the time) and if they weren't in my sight, they came back fairly quickly when I yelled their name. The classroom teacher gave me permission to use my best 'Mom Look' and honestly, I only had to use it once... okay, twice.

The other boy in my group became very interested in my iPhone camera and begged me to allow him to use it to take photos of points of interest at the Michigan Historical Museum. Together Daniel and Diego shot quite a few photos that were, well, interesting to say the least. Unrecognizable would perhaps be a better term :)

Here's a shot of my group. I have a new appreciation for teachers and totally understand why they get 3 months off during the summer!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Political Signs

About a week ago a political sign appeared in our front yard, Joe had approved it. Diego looked out the front door - while taking his usual detour on his way upstairs to go to bed - and he said, "Well, it looks like we're cheering for Dudley Spade."
What a kid.

Why Do That?

While shopping in a local drug store this afternoon I observed a young woman with 2 children; one was probably 3 years old, the other was an infant about 8 months old. The young woman held the hand of the older child and carried the baby on her hip.

The store has a couple of aisles of Halloween costumes, decorations and candy. The woman stopped at an extremely macabre looking skeleton hanging on an end cap. She turned the baby toward the skeleton and pushed a button on the thing. It came to life, moved and let out an awful sound.

The poor little baby jumped and began to cry, obviously frightened by the skeleton. The woman laughed and said, "Don't be such a baby!" She looked at me, shrugged her shoulders, stifled a laugh, and went on her way scolding the baby for crying.

I had all I could do to keep from shouting, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" That poor baby! Perhaps I don't have much of a sense of humor when it comes to frightening small children but I didn't find that to be funny at all. How about you?