Scary

This morning at 7:15 I said goodbye to my son, telling him I love him and wishing him a good day. At 7:45 he called me with panic in his voice to tell me to come get him because someone is coming to the Jr. High with a gun to kill everyone in the school. Apparently a text message was sent out last night (to whom, I don't know) saying that this was going to take place today. Needless to say, I made it to the school in record time, boldly defying the 20 mph speed limits. At the school I was told that the threat was possibly just a rumor and that students could go home if they wished but classes weren't officially cancelled. Austin couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Today my heart goes out to all those parents whose children have become victims of school shooting sprees. As parents we trust that our children will be safe at school until they are returned to our care in the afternoon. I can't imagine what it would be like to be the parent of a Columbine student who never made it home.

Goofballs Gone Wild

Ever have one of those days where you are just stir crazy and can't find anything to do? Austin and I had one of those days yesterday. We were bored. We were silly. Bored silly and left to our own desperate attempts at self entertainment. My little point and shoot camera happened to be laying nearby and before we knew it we'd taken several good blackmail shots of each other.



Gosh, I love this kid!

Christmas Shopping

Yesterday was momentous. Aaron and I went Christmas shopping. Together. The last time we did that it was probably 1995. We decided then that considering Aaron's aversion to shopping and his ability to make any shopping trip quite miserable, that it would be easier for me to just take care of it myself. So for the past 12 years or so, Aaron found out what the kids got for Christmas when the wrapping paper was ripped off on Christmas morning. This has worked quite well for us all these years but in the last couple of years Aaron has begun to change. He's started to get more involved in the holidays and has the desire to take part in the memory making. A couple of days ago he told me that he wanted to help do the Christmas shopping this year. One more effort to be involved. I stared at him for a moment or two and said, "Umm.. I don't know about that." Visions flashed through my head of us arguing over what to buy and him throwing just anything in the cart to get it over with. I imagined that he would be growling about the cost of everything and complaining about the commercialization of Christmas the whole time. I had serious reservations about our ability to shop together and have a happy outcome but I eventually agreed. Today I am hanging my head in shame because yesterday we began the shopping and it went GREAT. There was no growling and complaining and Aaron really put thought into what we should buy. I found that I really liked having a second opinion on the gifts I was considering and Aaron had a really good feel for what our kids would like. What I thought would be an unpleasant experience actually turned out to be fun! I know that Christmas morning will be even more exciting for Aaron since he had a part in choosing the kids gifts. Heck, we may even try this again next year!

Oldies

Friday evening after our date, I was driving home our fifteen year old babysitter. We were making small talk on the way there and the subject of music came up. I asked her what kind of music she likes and she proceeded to tell me that she likes to listen to some oldies but not ALL oldies, like she really doesn't care for the 80's music. WHAT???? Since when has 80's music been classified as "oldies"??? I grew up listening to 80's music! Boy did I suddenly feel old.