First you have to admit that you do indeed have a problem

How on earth does someone spend 2 and a 1/2 hours at Walmart?

I needed eggs.

Shawn had an actual list of the two things he needed.

I had just happened to let it slip in Shawn's presence of my current eggless situation.
He picks up on those things really quick.

I had a few other things to do first.
So I did them.

And after getting a few other things done, and after Shawn getting his shoes and socks on, and then hovering over me for at least a good hour.Every ten minutes or so saying "I think my ears perked up when I heard you say we need eggs. Walmart has eggs, don't they?"

side note; Shawn has never met a saying that he didn't fall instantly in love with, and manage to work into conversation whenever possible. Thus we have his ears perking up over any number of things.

It is true that Walmart has eggs. I also needed a new Maybelline eyelash curler and I was getting low on Fabric Softener.

Shawn pointed that one out to me too. He is quite taken with all things laundry, but he seems to have a special devotion to Fabric Softener.

So by the time 12:30 rolled around, just guess who was headed up the road to Walmart.

If you guessed me and Shawn, you would be correct.

"This will be a short trip" I told myself. "I have several other things to do today and I really don't need that many things so I should be able to be in and out of Walmart in under 50 minutes."

Why do I set myself up for failure this way?

The first thing I do is to follow Shawn to facial cleansers to take care of the two items on his list.

I am absolutely sure that the Noxzema cleanser he has on his list is the exact stuff that Don got for him not more than two weeks ago.
The fact that he can go through something that is clearly meant to last a month or more is a sore spot with me.

I know it's the same stuff because he copied the name of it off the tube and onto his list.

Shawn will never use a tablespoon of something when a fourth of a cup will do. Now I admit I haven't ever actually seen him use his Noxzema, so technically I don't have proof, but I do know that he likes things in large doses.
This is why he is always out of everything. Because he uses so darn much every time.

The other thing he desperately needed was some more acne gel.

In keeping with his general philosophy of always wanting the most expensive brand of everything, of course his acne gel was around 5 bucks for a little more than one ounce.

And just like with his face wash, I had just bought him a tube of his acne stuff at the most, three weeks ago.

Well we managed a compromise.

We got him the Equate brand face wash, instead of the Noxzema one. And for his willingness to go slumming with a store brand, I did get him his pricey acne gel.

With one important caveat.

It stays hidden in MY room and I will put a small amount of it on his finger each day after he has washed his face. This is so he won't end up with one big shiny glop covering his entire forehead.

Well we were done getting the Shawn stuff.

I sent him off to the movie section so he could relax by reading (for the umpteenth time) all of the info on each DVD.

It was around this time I ran into one of my favorite Church friends.

Even though we don't know each other real well, I still really like her. She's just one of those people you can't help but love. Also one of those people that you could talk with forever.

I think we must have talked for more than half an hour.

We said our goodbyes. I decided it was time to get down to business and finish what I was there for.

Of course it didn't take me long to get side-tracked.

I can't get to the food section without going past Women's clothing. I figured I was pretty immune, I've seen everything they have for us larger ladies, and haven't been terribly impressed.

So I really have no explanation for why all of a sudden these same tops, that I had seen at least seven or eight times before, suddenly caught my eye.

I realized that these tops, that I had been seeing as a part of the latest Mu Mu trend, were actually more of a peasant style. I can do peasant style. I was a child of the Seventies after all.

So of course I had to take a few minutes to try on.


I got a dark blue and a green one.

On to the grocery section. I should mention that since I was almost done I went and gathered up Shawn from movies and he was now with me.

We got yogurt. We got cheese sticks (I had a coupon). We got little applesauce cups. And I didn't even forget the eggs. I also got a five pound bag of flour.

Stocking up you know.

I was in the home stretch. I noticed the time and couldn't believe that we had been in Walmart for a little more than an hour and a half. "Good Grief" I told myself. "So much for getting anything else accomplished today."

It was right around this time when Shawn let lose with another favorite saying. "Ya know, I think I'm a little bit hungry."

That might sound like a rather innocent thing for Shawn to say, and I guess it is, but here, let me decode it for you.

"I'm hungry mom. And don't bother asking me what I would like you to make me when we get home because I don't want anything that comes from our kitchen. Oh no, I want to get something to eat, at some fast food place."

You see? And you thought it was just an innocent little remark.

Fortunately, Blimpies just happens to rent space in Walmart. And it's possible to get a somewhat healthy meal there.

Blimpies it is.

There was a small problem.

Of course there had to be a small problem.

I'm pretty sure that Blimpies is getting ready to cut and run.

I was there two weeks ago and the same stuff they were out of then they were still out of today. No honey oat bread. No meatballs. The smallest collection of chips I have ever seen. I asked the girl helping us if they were getting ready to close down the store. She said that as far as she knew, she didn't know. But that there were only three people left that worked there and they hadn't had a shipment of supplies in a couple of weeks.

I told her I was sure it must be very frustrating for her to have to keep telling people that they were out of just about everything.


I think that cheered her up a bit for me to show a little understanding, instead of getting mad at all the shortages.

We were able to place an order utilizing the few supplies they did have. Although Shawn's Ham and Swiss used up the rest of the ham.

Poor Blimpie's Girl.

We sat down. We ate.
Mid sandwich, Shawn said that he didn't want to eat anymore. "This is odd" I thought, remembering that he really had been hungry. Then it occurred to me. Earlier today he had mentioned to me that he was having, shall I say, Gastrointestinal Problems.

I asked if he wanted us to wrap everything up and hurry home.

He said No, he was going to go to the bathroom there. And he took off like a shot. I did however get a chance to remind him that he BETTER wash his hands.

When Shawn is in the bathroom, time seems to no longer exist.

And I don't mean that in a good way.

I waited.
I ate some sandwich.
I drank some diet Pepsi.
I waited.
And waited.
I had a few Frito's.

Finally, I spotted Shawn running through the store back to Blimpie's.

He took his seat, told me that he felt MUCH better and finished eating his sandwich.
And his chips.
I happened to look at my cell phone. Up until that point I had pretty much managed to delude myself as to just how long we had been in the store.

It was 2:42.

We had entered the store at 12:38. Give or take a few.

By the time we threw away our Blimpie's trash, and walked the shopping cart out to where we were parked.
By the time everything I had purchased was loaded in the van.
By the time Shawn took the cart to the shopping cart corral,
and got into the passenger seat.
By this time I looked at my cell phone again.

I admit it. I am hopeless. Shawn and I couldn't hurry to save our lives.

It was 3:10.

I'm really way too embarrassed to post this but I figure that part of changing is admitting you have a problem in the first place.

So I will now admit to the world.

At least my little slice of it.


I SPENT MORE THAN TWO AND A HALF HOURS AT WALMART!

Please don't judge me.

Please.

Oh, by the by, several of you have mentioned how much you have enjoyed young Shawn's various lists.
So I figured,
Why not?

And here it is.

On a totally unrelated note.
If you haven't already, be sure to scroll down and enter my little give away.

One more thing. Sorry about all the huge margins. This is what happens to ny blog every single time I put up a picture.

100 post and my first give-away

Well, I have finally reached the golden number of 100 posts!
And it only took almost a YEAR.

I'm not going to even try to come up with any 100 lists.

I find that no matter how much I enjoy other peoples lists, I never make it to the end of them.

So I will save myself all the work, and you all the torturous and tedious reading and skip right past that little blogger tradition.

However, I am not without a certain sentiment for time honored old traditions. you know, those ones that are at least 2 years old.

So I will be having a give-away!

I know that a lot of give-aways basically only have one requirement.

That would be a warm body capable of typing at least a one word comment.

I've been thinking about how I will conduct my first give-away for a couple of months now.
I admit that this really has been a case of having far too much time on my hands.
Especially since I still haven't decided what rules I want to go with.



I guess the first thing I should do is to show and tell you about the item I plan to give to the lucky winner.




I have a great friend that lives about 7 houses away from me. Her name is Lisa Killian. She is one of the nicest and easiest to be with people I know.

Well Lisa's husband's name is Spence. Another really likable person. Spence's mom and dad started up a food business a while ago.
They make and sell this really incredible candied popcorn. I guess that would be the best description of it.


They call it Killian Korn, and trust me this stuff is to die for.
I introduced my daughter-in-law Lisa to it a while ago and she is a hard core addict by now. For Christmas I got her a gift box of it filled with I think, 4 different flavors.

She was thrilled of course. She actually ate all of it by that evening.
I'm supposing that my son and little grandaughters helped out in the looting of Lisa's Killion Korn.

Trust me this is the good stuff.

I will be giving one gift box filled with 4 different flavors of Killian Korn to the winner of my little give-away.


I'll now explain a little more about the different flavors of the KK.

There are two different basic kinds.


They make a wicked good glazed variety and then there are the cream flavors.

Cream flavors are coated in a white chocolate base and then a coating of flavoring.

Glazed is coated in different flavors of glaze and it usually has some kind of nuts mixed in as well.

Kinda like Cracker Jack or Crunch and Munch, only BETTER!

Well the gift package I have put together has 3 cream flavors and one glazed.
The creams are, Lemon, Orange and Vanilla Nut.

The glazed flavors usually come in bigger bags than the creams. Trust me though, the cream flavors are so rich that most people can only eat one handful of it and they're satisfied. (Obviously this does NOT apply to my dear Lisa)

Oh, I almost forgot, the glazed flavor is Macadamia Nut. It's one of MY favorite flavors.
So there you have it. Killian Korn. If you want to find out more about this yummy stuff, you can go to their website. It's http://www.killiankorn.com/.


All right I think I have come up with the rules.

Just leave me a comment.

If you are usually a lurker and I don't really know you, then please introduce yourself and tell me how you found me.

You won't get any extra entries for it but I figure it's the neighborly thing to do. I would really like to meet you after all.

I guess I should give a way for people to earn extra entries. Hmm, okay,
here goes my ego taking over.


Let me know which of my posts you have enjoyed the most. Or, (and even I can see that I am being a little full of myself.)
Tell me the names of at least three members of my family. That includes any family member I have ever written about.

Well, there you have it. Fairly simple, don't you think?

I'll announce the winner next Saturday (Hopefully) around 5:00 my time. I hope you will enter, and if I don't know you already I hope you will introduce yourself. Until then I guess I'll see you all next Saturday!

Goodbye now and Good luck.





Umm, you can go now.






Really.

A First Time For Everything.

Things are a little sad around here today. Something that I have feared for over 22 years has finally happened.

When Shawn was very young he went to the Tri-Cities' Developmental Center.

He loved going and they loved having him go and everyone was happy with the wonderful arrangement. All the teachers and helpers there LOVED my Shawn.

He was also quite popular with all of the other children too.

All through school Shawn was well loved. That was such a relief for me because I had worried so much about people picking on him, you know, calling him a Retard or a Freak or some other horrible name.

Those worries of mine never really materialized though.

Sure over his long and happy School career, there were times when someone would try to be mean to him, but woe to that person. They soon found out just how many defenders Shawn had.

Well this is my sweet boys' second full year of NO school. It's been hard for him to not have his week filled with the constant activity and socialization that was school.

He has happily found a place at the ARC of the Tri-Cities. A worthy organization if ever there was one.

Most Tuesdays and Thursdays Shawn can be found doing all kinds of fun activities around the Tri-Cities with his ARK buddies and their activity leader Amanda.

Today was the whole group day, where they stayed at the ARK building and watched movies, had popcorn and basically just hung out and visited with each other.

A happy day for Shawn indeed.

So you may be thinking what is wrong?

Well I will tell you.

For those of my readers who are LDS like me, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. For my non LDS readers I'll try to make it clear for you as well.

In our Church, when you graduate from High School, there is a Social Group called young Adults. Now young men in our Church usually go on their Missions at Nineteen, but not all of them. For the kids who aren't away at College, or on a Mission, or are back from a Mission, there is the Young Adult Program.

When I was young and single I thoroughly enjoyed my young adult group. My cousin Debbie and I who are the same age went together and we had so much fun.

I met my husband Don through Young Adults by the way.

Now as fun as it can all be there is also learning involved.

Once a week there is an evening called Institute. All of the young adults, well, ideally, all of them, attend Institute where they learn more about the scriptures or Church history.

Things like that.

Shawn had never attended Institute before. There wasn't really anyone to take him, or to be his friend when he got there.

This last December, a jewel of a girl named Xiomara, See-oh-mara, or just See-oh for short was home from college. Xio had been a member of the Buddy Club while Shawn was in High School.

The Buddy Club is yet another opportunity the ARK has made possible for regular High School kids to get to know and befriend the disabled kids at their High Schools. Xiomara had been the President of Kennewick High's buddy club her last two years of school. Plus she and Shawn knew each other from Church.

She happened to see Shawn one Sunday at church .
She asked him if he would like to attend Institute with her the next Tuesday.

Boy did he ever.

Shawn went with her for all of the weeks she was home during her winter college break.

He LOVED going.

I asked him if he knew anyone there. Sadly he didn't. Only Xio.

Well, it was a sad time at the Sorensons the week she had to leave and go back to Idaho for school.

For the next month Shawn would ask me on Monday and then several times on Tuesday if he was going to attend Institute that night. I told him "no, I don't think so."

I had really hoped that while he was there those few weeks that someone other than Xio would get to know him and that he could be pulled into the group and find a whole new group of friends.

This was not to happen.

Xio told me that sadly they were a pretty cliquish group. They weren't really friendly to anyone that they didn't already know.

A few weeks ago, my cousin Debbie, the very same cousin whom I had attended Young Adults with, came to mind.

Well more like her darling daughter Aubrey came to mind.

Aubrey has moved here to the Tri-Cities recently. She's been here a few months. Shawn adores Aubrey.

She is just as golden a person as Xio is.

I talked to her and she was more than happy to come pick Shawn up and take him to Instuitute with her every Tuesday.

So for the last four Tuesdays Shawn has again been able to attend Institute once more
.
Here is where it gets so sad.

Debbie called me today to tell me that Aubrey's hours at work have been changed, and that she will no longer have Tuesday nights off.

I guess it's pretty obvious what that means for Shawn.

No more Institute.

I had asked Aubrey the same thing as I had asked Xio. To try to help him get to know people there so that he might have other friends that could pick him up and take him so he can go and have at least one friend there every Tuesday. Sadly Aubrey told me that it was the same situation. That they were not friendly. That no one there had any interest in Shawn or in being his friend.

I'm a bit heartbroken over this.

The moment that I have worried about his entire life has come.

Here he has an activity he wants to do.

A good, worthwhile, activity.

And he can't because nobody there is willing to take an interest in him and be his friend.

I'm also sad for those young people.

If they would give him a chance they would see what everyone else has always known. And that is that Shawn is one incredible guy. If you are Shawn's friend then you are a friend for life.

Shawn has such a huge reservoir of love that he just pours out love for anyone who has ever been his friend.

So I am doubly sad that these people are missing out on getting to know one of the sweetest, friendliest, happiest and most loyal people they could ever have in their lives.

Please help us by saying your prayers for Shawn.

That hopefully, someone will come along, that can be his new friend and take him to Institute every Tuesday, and maybe, find in him such a friend, that they will even be happy to hang out with him at other times. After all, seven days is a long time when you only have companionship a few of those days.

One more thing.

If you don't live anywhere around me, then consider finding a Shawn of your own. A disabled person who could really use a friend. There are more of them than you would think. And they are in every community.

Hopefully we will meet another angel like Aubrey and Xio, who can see just what a funny, sincere, sweet guy my Mr Shawn really is.

Until then Shawn will wait by the window every Tuesday night wishing for someone to come and pick him up, and take him to Institute.


Update: Well, actually a little more information.
My husband Don, has already called two of the leaders in charge of Young Adults. That was over a month ago and we have never heard anything from either of them. I am really tempted to go there one Tuesday night, without Shawn, and explain to them all just how much Shawn is being hurt by their narrow minds. The only thing is I'm afraid that if it didn't make any difference , that I would really be angry and bitter.

Another tag. How nice to not have to come up with a fresh topic.

My sister-in-law Cindy tagged me with this one. It's a fun one. You've probably seen it on other peoples blogs by now. It's gotten around pretty quickly. So here is my version of what I have decided to call,

The First Letter Of Your Name Tag.

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and randomly tag some people.
Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real. . .nothing made up!
If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers.
You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

I'm adding a new rule here, leave a comment letting the people you tag know that you've tagged them.

Have Fun!!

1. What is your name: Susan

2. A four Letter Word: sh-t* (That's an asterisk btw. It means, see below)

3. A boy's Name: Shawn (Duh???)

4. A girl's Name ; Sasha

5. An occupation: Stripper

6. A color: Sky Blue (always a favorite)

7. Something you wear: Strait Jacket (well, not me personally)

8. A food: Shrimp Salad (Is this like Scattergories ? do I get 2 points here?)

9. Something found in the bathroom: Shower curtain

10. A place: Stratosphere

11. A reason for being late: Slept in

12. Something you shout: Seventy five dollars?!? For a T-shirt?!? (At least I sure would)

13. A movie title: Spiderman

14. Something you drink: Slurpee

15. A musical group: Super Tramp

16. An animal: Sloth

17. A street name: Sesame Street

18. A type of car: Studebaker

19. Something scary: Salmonella

20. Ice cream flavor: Spumoni

I'm going to tag my new friends Tabitha and Amanda, and my sweet cousin-in-law Debi, and her old college friend and all around good guy Jeanette.


* what you never heard of the word SHUT?

My interview Thanks Dani!

My sweet friend Dani, has a kind of a tag going on right now. She was interviewed by someone and she offered to send interview questions to any of her friends that wanted to do the same.

So here are the questions that she sent me. Answered to the best of my ability.

1. if you had to live in a state other than Washington, where would you like to live and why???

This is hard. The only other State I've ever lived in was Utah. Plus when my daughter Heidi and her family lived there we visited them a few times, and enjoyed it.

The thing is I don't want anyone to think I would want to live there because I'm a Mormon.

That's actually one of the drawbacks for me.

The other thing is that Utah is Republican central.

I'm afraid that they wouldn't have very good programs to benefit Shawn like they do here in Washington. Sometimes it's good to live in a slightly liberal State.

Oh shut up, Donald.


2. It's time to let your light shine, what talent do you have that you have been hiding under a proverbial "bushel"???is it a talent you enjoy, or do you just see it as work???

I wouldn't say I've hidden it under a bushel, as much as I've just lost a bit of interest.

And that would be sewing.

Sewing used to be one of my favorite activities, and now it's become somewhat chore like.

The thing is though, that I still love to design and come up with ideas for really darling things to make.

For myself as well as my grandaughters.

I actually enjoy it once I get into it. I guess I just mostly don't like the DRUDGERY of cutting it all out.


3. i know you enjoy dining out... what is your favorite restaurant, where is it located, and what is your favorite dish???

This one is kinda hard as well .

I just don't like most food anymore. Especially meat, which I used to love.

I still really like dining out in theory.

It's just that by the time I order and get my food, it doesn't look, smell, or taste good to me.
Sometimes (more often than I care to admit to) I go home and throw it all up.

Hey you wanted honesty, I give you honesty.


4. if you had one (and only one) non material wish/prayer, what would it be???

Now you didn't say that it couldn't be a wish for something impossible.

Did you?

Alright,
I would wish for every single child that was born, to go to loving, capable, attentive parents, who not only had the resources to take care of all of their children, and by this I don't mean they have to be wealthy, but to have at least the bare minimum of material substances, it would take to raise a child in a happy well adjusted way to adulthood. I feel that if this dream could be realized, that crime would mostly disappear. The gangs would no longer exist, Terrorists would become nothing more than a scary story and the world could finally know Peace.

Sadly I do realize how impossible this is.

But I can always hope.


5. what is the nicest thing a non family member has ever done for you??? have you, since, ever done the same for another???

Hmm, Oh I know!
Years and years ago, I knew this wonderful woman named Eva Gubler. She was around my mom's age. She is one of the kindest and most Christ like people I have ever known.

Well, at the time I had my five children and they were still all quite young. One of them, I think it was either Heidi or Courtney, I do remember it was one of my daughters,.well she was really sick and it was obvious that she needed more than just over the counter medicine.

It was a time when we were down to one car. We had made some dumb financial mistakes and suffice it to say that for several months that year we were not prospering.

Eva called me to see if she could come visit me, (visiting teaching for those readers who are LDS) we got around to talking about my sick daughter. She was running a fever and I knew she had to see a doctor. The problem was, that even though we had fairly good insurance, we had not met any of our deductible yet for the year.

Eva told me to make an appt. for her right away, while she was there. She told me that she would drive me to the doctor's. I was so embarrassed because I didn't want to admit that I had no money to pay for a doctor visit and certainly not enough to pay for medicine either.

I started to cry and she dragged the truth out of me.

She gave me a great big hug, and told me that, that was the one thing I was not to worry about. She told me that she had her own private little savings account that with her husband's blessing she had set up for herself.

She told me that she would pay for everything no matter how much it was.

I don't think I can possibly state enough the overwhelming relief and love I felt at that moment.

I told her I would pay her back as soon as I possibly could.

She told me that she never wanted to hear another word about being paid back. She told me that someone had done something similar for her when she was a young mother herself.

All that person had told her was "I don't want you to pay me back. I just hope that someday you can do the same for someone else." Well I was her someone else. I also inadvertently found out that she had done basically the same thing for other someone elses.

I have never forgotten that act of love and I never will.

And I have been able to carry on her love.

I wrote about this in a previous post so I will keep this as short as possible.

One day a few months ago, I raced to City Hall to pay my water bill before they closed for the weekend.

I had forgotten all about it.

I got there in time, much to my relief. The woman who had been in front of me got up to the teller. She was really sad and obviously stressed to the max. It came out that she was quite over due and her water was set to be shut off that day if she didn't at least pay the minimum due right then.

She had sixty dollars in cash and that was all. She still needed I think around 29 dollars or so.

I could see that the teller hated to have to be the bad guy but she had to tell the lady that her water would be turned off. And when that happened she would have to pay another fee to have it turned back on, and that would be on top of the amount she already owed.

I wanted to step forward and offer to pay it for her, but I didn't want to embarrass her that we others in line could hear what was going on.
I waited for her to leave, she was in tears.

I stepped up to the teller and asked her as quietly as I could if I could pay the amount that was left.

She smiled and told me that yes I certainly could. She was so excited to not have to send orders to turn off the lady's water. It felt so good to know that I could help someone who was in such a desperate situation. The teller wanted to know my name so she could give it to the lady when she called to tell her the good news. I told her no. I said "just tell her it's someone who has been there before.

Someone who knows how scary it is to be in that sort of situation.

I just felt so happy that day knowing what a difference I had made in someone else's life.

Well Dani, this completes my interview. Thanks for the lovely questions, I have enjoyed answering them all. If anyone wants me to send them questions for their own interview, send me an e-mail and I'll try to get them to you soon.

A Slight Correction: In question #3, I hope I didn't give the impression that I make myself throw up. Trust me I am not bulimic by any stretch of the imagination. I try really hard not to puke. It's just that I can't stop thinking about what I ate. And from there it escalates to my stomach feeling shakier and shakier and try as I might sometimes there is nothing I can do. It just comes up in spite of everything.

Trust me. This is NO fun!

Sunday Dinner

Every Sunday, as a rule, Donald and Lisa and the girls come to my house for dinner. It is one of my favorite times of the week. It's also the one day of the week when I always make dinner.

Sometimes the only time of the week when I make dinner.

Lisa and I both love this. For us it has become our family tradition. I like to think of when the girls are older.
It tickles me to think of them saying to friends, "sorry I can't do that on Sunday night, that's when we go to my grandma's."

Don't worry, I'm not so deluded as to think that, that will always be their response. But I think there will be times when it will happen, and, not just to get out of unpleasant Sunday activities, either.

I will give you an example of a typical Sunday dinner.

Depending on what I have planned for dinner, I usually start around 4:00.
Most of the time, I cater to Lisa and the things she likes best. Not because I love her best, although I do love her very much.

No, it's simpler than that.

Lisa is one of the best people in the world to cook for because she is so appreciative. Don is pretty good too, but he doesn't rave like Lisa does. For most of my cooking career, I have gone to a lot of trouble only to hear, "yuck, why did you have to make this?"

So you can imagine how wonderful it is to hear Lisa say "Susan, this is so good, I think you've outdone yourself again!" This is when Donald interjects, "I don't really like this at all."

Donald, my first child, and my, original picky eater.

Around 5:30 - 6:00, I will see them pull into my driveway. Alexandra and Lorelai, have made it a source of pride to always race mom and dad to the front door.
And since mom and dad have Elisabeth and all her accessories to gather up and bring in, the girls always do get to be the first to come in.

The front door crashes open. By crash, I do mean crash. They get a little excited.

Don't worry, my front door can take it.

The next thing I hear is "Hello? Hello?!"

I love hearing that Hello. Alexandra has been entering my house in just that way since she was two. Lorelai, a quick learner, has picked it up as well.

They are followed my Donald and Lisa and Elisabeth.

Donald puts down Lizzy, makes a token effort to make sure nothing is needed, and then races upstairs to my computer/TV room.

This is a never ending puzzler for Lisa and I both. Donald has his own computer at home. Likewise, he even has his own computer room. Lisa and I would like, just for once, one good reason why He is so drawn to my computer.

You would think that mine was made of solid gold and gave back rubs or something.

Lisa usually sits in one of the chairs in the living room and feeds Elisabeth, and if Elisabeth doesn't need feeding Lisa will read one of my magazines.

I love to see this.

I know that she doesn't have much time during the week to do things like magazine reading.

Oh yeah, I can't forget this.

There isn't really any nice way to put this.

Donald is a SNOOP.

And I, am a candy lover.

He knows this. He also knows that I have little candy stashes all over my room.

I try to have dinner ready within half an hour of their arrival. Sometimes it works out that way, and sometimes not. So Donald, every Sunday, will go into my room to root around for candy. And, as if that, isn't bad enough, he has trained Lorelai to do the same thing.

The problem with Lorelai though, is that she doesn't understand that there needs to be a certain sneaky factor in all of this. She doesn't get this at all.

So here she will come into the living room, right up to me, or Lisa, with a hand full of elicit candy.

And a great big smile on her face.

My line here is : "Lorelai, we haven't had dinner yet, so you need to stay out of grandma's candy." to which Lorelai replies, "can I have some M&M's after dinner." My next line is "yes, you can, but I will get them for you."

This is one thing at grandma's house that Lori has done without the example of big sister.

Nope, on this one Daddy showed the way.

But Lorelai, being the generous sort, usually makes sure that Lex has some of grandma's candy as well.

After dealing with Lorelai, I call everyone to dinner.

At the table, everyone has pretty much staked out their own place. Alexandra, sits next to grandpa, and Lori sits between Donald and Lisa.
I, sit at the head of the table. I guess I am the head dog on Sunday night.

After all I made the dinner.

Here are a few of the dinners I've made in the last two months or so.

Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy
Meatloaf, with baked potatoes..
Steak and salad and baked potatoes.
Grilled chicken and baked potatoes.

For some reason Lex and Lori have both decided that they are fans of the baked potato. So I make them quite often.

I hardly ever make dessert during the week, but for Sunday I do quite often. Of course I always have lots of ice cream. And of course the girls are aware of this. So if there's nothing else, the girls basically refuse to go home without having their bowl of ice cream.
Ice cream is almost always scooped up and delivered by either grandpa or daddy.

This is Lex's first year of school. Which means that they try to have the girls home by 8:00. It's a little sad for me because we used to hang out until closer to nine.

But Lex needs her beauty rest.

Summer is coming up though. And then we won't be under the clock quite so much.

Well there you have it. A basic outline of Sunday dinner with the Sorenson's.
The only thing that makes it better is when Jeff and Heidi and Abbey and Lindsay are here.

Double the family and double the fun.

But that is a story for another time.

Happy Birthday to Don!

This will be short. That's how he would want it. Today is my husband's birthday. Before I met Don, 33 years ago, I always thought of February 2nd as Groundhog Day.

Now I know better.

For me, as it has been for the last 33 years, Feb. 2nd is Don's Birthday. Don doesn't usually enjoy people making a big deal about his birthday.

So I will try not to.

I will state only the facts.

Fact #1: Don was born February 2nd, 1956.

Fact#2: That makes him 53 years old today.

Fact#3: Don is and always has been a great husband.

Fact#4: He is my very best friend.

Fact#5: He never misses a chance to let me know how much he loves me.

Fact#6 He is incredibly responsible. If he is in charge of something you
never have to worry about him. I, on the other hand, can be pretty irresponsible. Which makes us a really good match.

Fact#7 He has no interest in my blog or any other blog. Meaning, I could probably write whatever I wanted to about him and he would never know. Fortunately I only want to write nice things about him.

So there you have it. Seven true facts about my guy, my husband Don.

Happy Birthday Honey, I love you.




PS, I tried to put a picture up but for some reason I couldn't get it to work. I did try though.