News, news, news

Maddy is walking!! She has gone up to five steps at a time, and she even managed to have the first time be in front of Michael, me, Josh, Sarah and Kat. We all clapped for her, which of course then scared and overwhelmed her, so she took a little while to decide to do it again. She still prefers having something to hold onto, and will crawl to go faster, but is pretty pleased with herself when she gets where she wants to go without falling.

I have really enjoyed have Netflix. Getting movies in the mail is nice, but even better is that they have a lot of movies you can watch whenever you want on the computer. (No, this is not a paid advertisement. lol) I love being able to watch Masterpiece Theatre when I want, and recently found a new series, called The Dutchess of Duke Street. I have always loved British comedies.

Joshua is almost ten. It is hard to believe that just ten years ago I was waddling around wondering when the baby was going to be born, and whether it would be a boy or a girl. (We didn't find out ahead of time with Josh.) The labor had a few complications at the end, so I actually didn't know he was a boy until he was almost four (4) minutes old. He has become such a wonderful boy, and I am grateful that I get to be his momma. He is looking forward to becoming a Webelos scout. He is very excited that this year's Blue and Gold dinner will be on his birthday. Anyone in the area who doesn't have plans is welcome to join us for the Blue and Gold. It will be on the 25th at 6:30 pm at the Henrici building. If any of that doesn't make sense, email me and I will give you more exact directions.

I got a rejection email today. I had submitted several poems to an online site that published poetry. They said that one of the poems was too long, and the other two didn't fit within this year's theme. I didn't know there was a theme. I went back and checked the site, and didn't see a theme in the submission guidelines. Not nearly as promising as some of the rejection letters my mom got earlier this year, but at least they bothered to write back.

I ran into a classmate from grade school at Fred Meyer's this week. I didn't recognize him at all, and even when he told me his name was Chris (I can't remember the last name now) I didn't remember. He said he remembered me as the girl who always ran after the boys at recess, and usually caught them. I said that I did a lot of running at recess, and then he said he always wished he had the guts to come play with my group of friends. I apologized for not remembering him, and told him I was sorry if we had excluded him. He said that we hadn't, and that I had given him a Valentine in third grade that had his name spelled right, and I told him that he had a nice singing voice. He had been very impressed with that. Even now, I don't remember him but I am glad that I took the time, even as a third grader to spell his name right and say something, since it obviously meant enough to him to remember it 25 years later.

Before he went off to finish his shopping for his mother, he was up visiting her, he showed me the pictures of his four kids. His youngest daughter has the middle name Julie. He said his wife's aunt was named Julie, and she was named after her, but he had always liked the name since he had known me when we were in grade school. Given the horrendous week I have had, in many ways, it was a blessing to know that I had done some good in the world, enough that my name was associated as a good thing. I may or may not see Chris again, although I think I will at least remember his adult face if I run into him again, but he gave me the gift of seeing my childhood self as a memorably good person. I thank Chris, and Heavenly Father for that.