Talking Points

I was up on time after another pretty good night’s sleep. This was Friday, but my enthusiasm was somewhat tempered by the fact that this would be an on-call weekend. However, on the up side, I was looking forward to a visit from my grandchildren tonight. I exercised and walked Ykraps before the clock struck 6am. There still remained remnants of Monday’s snow storm mostly in the form of stubborn hard packed icy patches. The temperature is struggling to rise above the freezing mark. I delivered Mindy’s coffee then returned down stairs to enjoy a little bit of peace and quiet. After my quiet time I dressed and left for a chilly run. However, it was a bit warmer than the past few mornings. At our current pace, February will go down as colder than average. My run was enjoyable. Jacob didn’t have school today so my after-run morning routine would be slightly altered. He would be leaving with Mindy & Bella. They departed around 7:25am. Taking advantage of the extra time, I played a couple rounds of Wii golf before heading up to the shower. I left for work at 8:15am and arrived at about the time in generally do – 8:30am. I was determined to have a good day, and have a good day I did. Mindy asked that I pick-up Rataouille, the DVD movie, as a b-day gift for one of Jacob’s friends while at lunch. I didn’t mind since I had to pick up a gift card for my cousin Brian’s wedding anyway. I left to run errands around 1pm. I stopped at Target where I picked up the movie and the gift and wedding card. I was back at the office even before an hour had passed. The afternoon moved along briskly and before I knew it the day was drawing to an end. Mindy made plans to pick-up Lil’ Rocky, and Kaileigh was being delivered by Shelly. As much as I looked forward to their visit, I had to mentally prepare myself for my arrival home. It would almost certainly be more chaotic than usual. I called my dad as I drove towards home in part to confirm plans for taking him to the airport Sunday morning. I knew that I’d see him tomorrow at Brian’s wedding but wanted to begin my weekend knowing what my schedule would be like. As anticipated, the house was bubbling with youthful energy when I arrived. The kids were having a jolly good time. Mindy mentioned more than once not feeling that great. I walked Ykraps and then relaxed as best I could in the family room. Mindy soon ordered two Minelli’s pizzas – enough to feed everyone. She left to fetch ‘em soon after. We invited Ashley & Olivia over for a visit too. Ashley was heading out to pick-up a photo shoot package and promised to stop by before or after. She stopped after. After visiting for a while, Ashley left to go do some alone-time shopping. We gladly kept Olivia. Olivia amazed us with her advanced speaking prowess, at least for a 16 month old child. She plainly says momma, papaw, meme, roof-roof, and hi. And she’s still into dog food, too! Ashley was gone for only an hour. She returned to get Olivia around 8:30pm. Mindy and I got the kids ready for bed soon after Olivia left. I retrieved and filled one of our queen-sized air mattresses placing it in Bella’s room. All the kids said they wanted to sleep on it. And why wouldn’t they? It’s a bit of a novelty. It always starts OK but ends with one or two moving on to sleep elsewhere. Mindy was tired and ready for bed even before 10pm. I stayed up just a little while longer. Just before heading up to bed I had to pay a visit to the kids who were making way too much noise. They each complained of strange ailments prompting them to stay awake. Kaileigh said she sprained her leg and Bella’s tummy ached. Later, Kaileigh changed hers to a tummy ache, too. I laid with the three of them (Jacob had already gave-up and went to his own bedroom). We told stories until they were sleepy. The plan worked well. Soon they were all falling asleep and I upped and headed for bed. It wasn’t even 10:30pm.