In a Cabin in the Woods

Perfect

Mother loves Daughter

I am sort of fascinated by my precious daughter right now. I feel like I could just sit back and watch her for hours on end.

It is an interesting thing, this mother-daughter relationship, isn't it? From the minute we found out that she was a girl, we have had a steady stream of warnings about "girls."

"Ah, they're different," they'd all say. "She'll give you a run for your money, that's for sure!" And guess what? They were right. But not in the ways that I might have anticipated.

You see, I come from a long line of wonderful mother-daughter relationships. My mom is my constant support, my ultimate cheerleader, my biggest fan. And I am hers and it has always been that way, without fail. And so it was with her mother, and my great-grandmother before her. We have a long line of exceptional relationships from which I draw my strength. And it is at once fascinating and daunting to know that I am in charge of nurturing this new relationship with my own daughter. The daughter that I wasn't sure I would ever have.

So, this evening I sat down for my nightly brain-drain. The boys were playing outside and Annie was with me. We fluffed our pillows, I turned on Noggin for her, and I turned on my laptop. Ahhhh, precious quiet. About 1 minute after settling down, I was about 1/3 of the way down the latest post on CJane (if you haven't read this blog - do it. Google CJane and read) and Annie started in with her monkey business. Pressing buttons on the keyboard. I gave her a stern look. Then she pulled the power cord out of the outlet. I looked at her and said, "If you don't stop it you're going to get a spankin'." 2 seconds later, she tried to push down the screen. I took her chunky little thigh in my hand and swatted it. "Knock it off!" She smirked at me and fake focused on Noggin for a moment. I just wanted a moment in peace. I could feel the wheels turning next to me and I braced myself for the next attack. Sure enough, her sneaky little finger reached over and pressed the power button on the computer. Immediately, it shut down. I looked at Annie and in my calmest voice said, "Annie, you were naughty." And what do you think happened? Her little mouth started to turn at the corners, her lip started to shake, and the tears started flowing.

"Waaaaaaaah! I'm so sorry Mommy!" What? Holy Moly! Where did this come from?!

It was all fun and games until I insulted her. Nothing hits quite so deep as being labeled. I remember. My mom could have grounded me, punished me, done anything.... but tell me that she was disappointed with me? Forget it. That was crushing.

So I left the computer off and spent my brain-drain holding my daughter and watching Noggin. No sweeter a moment.

Little stinker.

Just Because....

True Story

The following is a true story. I didn't believe it at first - but I have come to believe it to be true. I will try to change any information that might give away who this story is about, as to protect the "innocent" - and seeing as how it is an ongoing police investigation - I wouldn't want to disrupt justice. But the following is for your enjoyment:

My friend, let's call her Jamey, works for a bank in Chicago that specializes in high profile account relationships. She sees a lot of people who have very high needs: international clients, corporate relationships, sports figures... you get the picture. Jamey never really knows who is going to walk through the door when she goes to work each morning.

On this particular day, Jamey was working with a particularly complicated client. In the middle of processing all of his transactions, the client informs Jamey that he needs to excuse himself to go pray. She happily obliges and showed him to a conference room so that he could pray in quiet. She continued on with her paperwork and before long her client was back.

A bit more time went on and it became clear that a disturbance was erupting in the quiet lobby. They looked over to see an apparent bank robber running out of the office with a bag full of money and the teller crying behind the desk. Frightened, Jamey's client looked up at her and asked "What is going on?"

Jamey.... without skipping a beat looked at her client in the face and said...
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"We've just been robbed. I guess you didn't pray hard enough."


True story.

I'd forgotten how much I love to exercise.
Next time I am in a funk remind me about this fact.

I added 1/2 mile to our route today. Only about 600 more to catch up with skinny Grant.

More Companion Pictures