Well the Dukes have been spread out for the past few days. I went to the beach with some sweet girls from work (in the words of my friend Summer - who knew how relaxing poolside living can be when you are not on constant watch out for children in the pool!) Relaxing to say the least. Jamey and Stephen were bachelors for a while as Ansley went to stay with my friend Jill.
I worked for three years at an elementary school in Wilmer, Alabama. It was a great little school. Great faculty. Great kids. But the drive was just too long. I still have many friends there, one of which is Jill. I don't know how many people who read this (does anyone really read it?) watch Grey's anatomy - but there is a scene in an early episode between two people and one tells the other "You're my person." Jilly is my person. Thank you, thank you Jill to you and your precious girls for being so sweet and kind to Ansley while I was gone. she had a blast.
The morning I left I packed the car with the few things I was taking for the two night beach trip. I then loaded Stephen in the car and we set off to his little summer school program. I had mentioned I was going on a work trip - but honestly had left out the "b-e-a-c-h" word to try and avoid an issue with my leaving him. (on a side note - Ansley was thrilled to be heading to Wilmer and was not the least bit upset I was leaving her - this is a good thing, right?). Anyway - I had not specifically mentioned that I was going to the beach with friends from work. Phrasing is everything for 4 year olds. Here is our conversation in the car:
Stephen: "Are you sure you are going to work, mommy?"
Me: "Um, well I am going to see some people from work."
Stephen: "And you are taking a hat, a big towel and 'sunspray' on your trip to work?"
Me: Busted.
He was a happy man though to go play and I headed out of town and toward the beach.
Fast forward to tonight - we are all four back together again. For about the first 30 minutes, despite the fact that we have a 2000sqft house, all four Dukes seemed to be consistently attached to each other as we moved about the house. If I sat, a kid was on me. Jamey laid on the couch? Kid on top of him.
And really, that is ok with me.
We have started to spread out a bit now. Stephen is playing his "Batman Wii" (addicted?) and Ansley is doing math worksheets (math worksheets in the summer???) while she waits for cupcakes to be done. Per her request we are making cupcakes for her sunday school class tomorrow morning. The twist? The only cupcake liners I can seem to locate tonight are Halloween themed. So we will proudly take to church our funfetti cupcakes tomorrow displayed in orange and black liners decorated with ghosts and witches. Perhaps there are some churches where Halloween cupcake liners would not fly. But I am not concerned. We go to a church who loves first. Isn't that what we are asked to do, really? My friend Marty says, "When faced with a complicated situation, just love Jesus first and then love others." I love this.
This has been a most ramble-icious (yes, I just made up that word) post.
We are about to taste the June Halloween cupcakes if Ansley will take a break from attemtping to teach Stephen the skill of predicting pattenrs - he is not so much into this late night critical thinking skill building activity.
Happy Saturday night, yall!
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