The Nice Lady

You know I'm not talking about me.

A few weeks ago I made a last-ditch effort to inspire the kids to make their beds and keep their rooms clean--for a whole week.

Bribery.

The winner got a date with me to a destination of his or her choice.

Logan won hands-down and he chose the bookstore.

In our family the bookstore means Half-Priced-Books because we are too cheap to buy books at full-price (especially when you can check them out and return them (no storage!) for free to the library).

So we went and I gave him a $5 budget.

While he was agonizing over $25 worth of books a nice lady (if I tell you her race am I racist?) asked me discreetly if she could buy one of his books for him "because she is so happy to see a boy who loves to read and wants him to be able to get the books he wants." At first I felt a little embarrassed. . . I mean, $5 was the budget, I wasn't trying to discourage reading. But then I realized she was trying to be nice, so she gave Logan $3 to cover an extra book, and he told her thank-you. In the moment I said, "What do you say?" and she said, "He said thank-you," and Logan said, "Thank you," again. I felt kind of bad about that.

On the way home from our date I told Logan I would either take him to get a root beer float or we could get supplies for root beer floats and share with everyone at home. He chose to share with everyone at home, and I thought that was pretty cool.

That was two weeks ago.

Today they asked me who was winning for the week. I explained that the offer had expired, but in case you are wondering, it's a tie. . . for messiest room.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow

We pulled out the snow boots and built our first snowman of the year.  Actually, my first ever--I usually let Joe or my super-brothers do that with the kids.  Apparently I need more practice because it was so pathetic that it fell over a few hours later.  Not to mention it needed some facial features, arms, etc.  The kids thought it was cool. :)

Also, Joe and I went to our first professional basketball game--the Cleveland Cavs. vs. Utah Jazz.  When my brother, Dennis, found out someone had given us tickets, he claimed we were "the luckiest people he knew."  The Cavs won, LeBron James IS good, and Joe and I enjoyed some time together--we are the luckiest people, after all!  

These pictures are for our family in Texas: Grant wearing a Longhorn beanie that Lola gave to Logan when he was a little guy.  We get lots of comments here in Ohio about the kids' Texas wardrobe.  I think he's pretty cute.