Valentine's Day - A Family Thing

Being a hopeless romantic from a very young age, Valentine's Day always disappointed me a bit. Of course, expecting a handsome knight on a white charger to show up at my doorstep at age 11 was probably a tall order, but I could dream, right?

During elementary school, you brought Valentine's cards for everyone in the class. It was always fun to see if that month's crush had given me a special one or if there was some subliminal message on the card he gave me. "He-Man wishes you a Happy Valentine's Day!" Yeah...not much thought put into that choice.

Middle school and high school weren't much better. You could send a flower gram or a candy gram to someone else in the school. I'd secretly hope to get one from the boy I liked or perhaps a handsome boy I had yet to meet. I think I got one from a friend once and maybe once from Tony or Angelyn, but alas, never the imagined dozen roses from a secret admirer.

But through all the disappointments of imagined lovers that never declared their undying love, my Valentine's Days were never a complete flop. Mom always saw to that. Each year, she'd make a special dinner and decorate the table all nice. And we had chocolates and sometimes a special little gift or keepsake placed lovingly by our plates. Over the years, Valentine's Day evolved into more of a family holiday for me. Though she may never have realized it, Mom was a wonder at soothing my rumpled romantic spirit.

For now I don't have to worry about dealing with my kids' romantic escapades- we're quite a few years away from that yet. Unless, of course, Esther decides to take after me and it looks like she may. But I'll know what to do when she comes home from school crushed that Prince Charming didn't show up. I'll don my apron and start cooking.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sad Girl

This morning Esther was a klutz. She tripped over the little ride on car and hurt her tummy. Then while I was out of the room she tried standing on it with one leg and then her sweet brother decided it needed to be moved. So she crashed onto the windowsill and put a hole in the inside of her upper lip with her tooth. And her cheek was a bit swollen, too. Of course, this caused much grief to her as she dealt with it during the day (though she managed to forget all about it while playing in the snow). Shortly before Daron got home she was having a cow about something and I held her close to try to calm her down. I tried to downplay whatever was bothering her (something about Nathan having a car she wanted) and told her lovingly that she was a silly girl. "No, Mommy," she replied, burying her head further onto my shoulder. "I'm just a sad girl."

Global Warming?

This is our third snow this year! Unfortunately, living in Texas, we're not really equipped for snow playing so we did the best we could. Their tops stayed warm but their bottoms were rather wet and cold. But hey, with three snows this year, maybe I should have invested in snow boots!

Frustrated!

The kids and I took the van in to the dealership to get serviced this morning. They told me it would be about two hours. I figured I could handle that. They have a little play area (though none too clean) and I brought snacks (always a life saver). I would have taken the kids for a walk but there is nothing around it but highway and the nearest store would include a walk by the busy frontage road. So we were stuck...for four hours! Granted, the kids were actually pretty well behaved. But there is only so long that one can sit with two small children in a stuffy, none too clean room!

By the time we left, it was 2 o'clock and the children had long before eaten all the snacks. We were all starving so we grabbed a bite at Chic-Fil-A. Eh. It was now too late to put Nathan down for a decent nap so we made our returns and did the errands I'd been planning on doing three hours before. And finally made it home at 5pm just after Daron arrived home.

We ate dinner, put the kids to bed, I went to a meeting, and that was that. What a day. How do trips to get the car fixed always seem to turn into such nightmares? Any tips?

How do you keep the kids busy at the mechanic's shop or dealership?
How do you find a good mechanic you can trust (that won't take so long!)?
What do you do when they tell you your car really needs such and such and you have no idea what they're talking about?
If you're married, how do you handle who deals with the car issues? What if neither of you knows much about cars?

Whatever advice, experiences, humorous quips, etc. you can share would be much appreciated!

Drumroll, please...

Today we finished paying off our student loans!! Hurrah, hurrah, hooray!