Good Times and Cows...

Something in the air at Disneyland must inspire my children to say strange and hillarious things! We drove thru Burger King on the way home (which, to my credit, we haven't eaten at one in probably 4 years!) and Brayden and I got Whoppers and Savannah had a cheeseburger. Brayden called out to me from the backseat, "Mom, did you know right now you're eating a cow?" My mouth was completely full of cow, and yet I answered him, "I sure do, and I love it!" He was silent for a bit, eating the burger that he had already deemed delicious, and then said, "Mom, I don't want to be a cow." "That's good buddy, 'cause you're not going to be one." Maybe thirty seconds went by and he said, "but mom, if I was a cow, I'd still want to celebrate holidays and stuff, and play with toys, and eat cheeseburgers and not get hunted." I couldn't really think of a great response to that, so I just said, "hmmm," I mean, really, what is there to say. He has a great imagination...or a serious problem.
So, now for the reason we were at Disneyland on a school night... When Kelly and I were first married we met another young couple in our ward that we clicked with immediately. Bryce and Jessica Mecham. We spent many Sunday evenings eating dinner and playing cards, laughing and talking. They were (and are) some of our very favorite people on the planet. The last time we saw them was right before we moved to Califonia, almost 16 years ago. Over time we've both moved and lost touch, and then comes the beauty of Facebook. We finally found eachother and have been talking. They brought their family to California to go to Disneyland and we were privileged to have them come to church with us on Sunday and then come back to our house for dinner and good old fashioned hang out time. Their entire family was such a breath of fresh air and we were reminded how truly blessed we have been to have some remarkable friends in our lives. We were able to pick up right where we left off and it was amazing to spend time with them. If it's not too cliche, I would call them 'kindred spirits.'
We joined them at Disneyland after school for "Family Home Evening" and had a great time. Our Brayden and their Ellie get along fabulously, they may be twins separated at birth! So we're grateful for good friends and looking forward to the time when the four of us can travel together ... 'cause you can't do that with just anyone, y'know!

A note to creepy, stalker salesmen in parking lots...

Whenever a (now usually younger), man approaches me in a pair of khakis and a collared button-up shirt with his hands out and says, much too loudly, "hey, excuse me, don't worry, I'm not crazy!" I automatically think to myself, "what's he selling now?" This happened to me today at Sam's Club, as my rear end is literally hanging out of the back passenger door of the Denali (more on that to follow). I squinted into the sun to see not one, but two, twenty-ish dudes, dressed alike, trying to hand me a brochure to look at. Mind you, I did say I was at Sam's club, but I should clarify that I was LEAVING Sam's, which means I had about $350 worth of meat, milk, refrigerated foods and two boxes of the awesome-est Swiss Miss fudgesicle bars all playing beat the clock before I melt or rot in the ridioculously-still-hot weather that is California. I was in my workout clothes from the gym (the fudgesicles only have 100 calories each!) and my hair was a little frizzy from the sweat. Rico Suavee and his Jr. Companion are trying to sell me 5 visits to the local spa and wanting to know if I've ever had a facial...seriously?! His big cheesy grin fell of his face and dripped down his freshly ironed shirt when I refused to take the card and said, "sorry, I'm not interested right now." He looked at me like he couldn't believe it and skulked off like a child. I finished loading ALL of the groceries into the backseat since the back of the Denali is FULL of cans waiting to go to the recycling center. I'm assuming that they were once bagged up securely, but when I unsuspectingly opened the back door to load my groceries today, a mountain of them fell noisily out of the back of my car! I was totally embarassed as I picked them back up and threw them into the car. Cans were EVERYWHERE! I looked like I had just come from the park where I'd been going through trash cans to collect bottles. Thanks Quincy, my super industrious 11 year old, always trying to make a buck. I finally got into the car and turned the air on high...As I sat lamenting the situation, I saw my fine khaki'd friends approaching another woman trying to unload her Sam's cart...only she had a child with her. They were sent packing yet again. Yikes! Think about it boys, you'd probably do better not holding up the mom with a cart of groceries...I'm just sayin'!