Thankful Thursday!

I'll have to say, this week just wasn't "Thankful Thursday", but we're going all out for - "what a thankful week!"

Heading back to Tuesday, when the snow began to fall and didn't bother to stop, we had a total of twelve children show up for swimming lessons at the Y that evening instead of the usual forty to fifty.  It was lovely.  I had several good one-on-one parent discussions.  For those, I was thankful.

Wednesday, Micah and I volunteered at Feed My Starving Children's South Metro Manna Pack held at Berean.  For a greater part of five hours, we put labels on bags, bored beyond tears.  But the one time I went to the snack room, the woman making supper for the FMSC staff, pulled a container of HOT spaghetti sauce out of the oven, spilling quite a bit on herself.  I'm thankful I was there to help "cool the burn".

Thursday, one could only be thankful for the sweetest kids in swimming lessons.  I'm glad they were mine!

Friday's thankfulness?  Read on . . . 

"Anything you can bake, I can bake better . . . "

This all began three weeks ago Friday . . . 

When Katie and Hannah brought ginger snap cookies to me at their 11:10 swim lesson.  Right after their lesson, I had Riley, one of the dad's, in a CPR class.  

I asked Riley as I was eating one of my ginger snaps, "How come you've never made me cookies?"

He replied, "You don't have my kid."

Well, he's right.  I am not his son's current teacher, but I did have his older son a few years back.  Bless his co-workers who began team harassment all through CPR, "encouraging" Riley to bring me cookies! 

So two weeks ago, Riley came through with Scottish shortbread cookies for Kate and I - and I let his co-workers know two things:  Riley brought cookies and they were good!

This week, Hannah and Katie brought scotcheroos - delicious!  But the best part had to be when their mom turned to Riley and said, "So can you top this next week?" 

Kate had already left and I was just walking out the door, when Riley, with a thoughtful expression on his face, said, "Do you like pumpkin?"

Stayed tuned . . . as the bake-off continues!

 

"We're Really Really Good!"

In our awesome hairnets - Chris, Bob, Nancy, Eden, Brian, Margo, Mary & Micah

"We're neighbors in the 'hood!"

Yup, these are the neighbors (minus Erik and Tom who were working in the warehouse) who joined us at Feed My Starving Children Manna Pack Friday night.  According to Eden, our group packed twenty-one boxes of food.  Our time slot packed 544 boxes of food, providing 117,504 meals to starving children around the world.  

Sweethearts!

Back in the day, when birthday treats were allowed in elementary school, my mom bought SWEETHEARTS for me to give out for my birthday - the hazard of having a birthday close to Valentine's Day.  EVERY. SINGLE.  YEAR. SWEETHEARTS.  From kindergarten through sixth grade, SWEETHEARTS.  She liked them. She thought they were funny.  She thought they were cute.  I despised them, save for the "nasty" ones my girlfriend gave me one year (think "you stink" rather than "I love you").  I found those hilarious! 

I am happy to report that I read in today's paper, after 116 years, those tasteless, chalky SWEETHEARTS will no longer be made.  Truthfully, what good is candy without chocolate? 

Paying It Forward . . .

Some of you will remember, that a little over a year ago, while I was walking Annie, I found my neighbor Kent who had fallen off his roof. He had multiple injuries but is doing fine today - as evidenced by downhill skiing with a friend on his one year "fall" anniversary.   

Neighbor Kent called just as I returned from having my blood drawn this morning.  Today, while Jill-from-the-top-of-the-hill was walking her dog, she fell in front of Kent's driveway, injuring her ankle.  She crawled up his icy driveway, pounded on his door, he brought her home and I'm not sure if her husband or an ambulance brought her to the ER.  She's pretty sure her ankle is broken.  We're still waiting to hear.  

Kent was just grateful that he was home and able to pay it forward.

I, on the other hand, am thinking:

1. Stay away from Kent's driveway.
2. Do not walk the dog.    

Fantastic Friday!

You know it's a great day at work when . . . 

• Gabby's mom is thrilled that you have her doing "front blast off's" by herself with her face in the water - something she's never done before!
• Sidney's mom is thrilled that you're getting her to move her arms correctly on her front and back crawls because even PT and OT can't get her to move her arms that far!
• Kate and Hannah's mom is thrilled that her daughters are learning to swim and doing it well! 
• Margo is thrilled that Riley brought her cookies and she doesn't even have his kids! Of course, I do have to share with Katie, Riley's kids teacher!

Husband Rant

Sam didn't have school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of this week due to bad weather.  He caught up on a lot of correcting and made some lesson plans.

This morning he went to school.  At 8:45 a.m., the phone rang.  

"Margo, I forgot the papers I corrected at home.  Can you bring them to school before you go to work?"

"No."  (Don't worry. I didn't bring stuff to the kids either.)

"Can anyone else bring it?"

"No."  

Lest you think I'm totally cold-hearted, I did say, 

"I'll bring them after work."  

"When will that be?"

"I don't know."

I did have an idea that it would be around one or later, but I really couldn't give him an exact time.  He was lucky.  I got them there before 1:00 p.m. and I waited until I got home to have lunch.