Wednesday, August 18, 2010

What Were You Thinking????

(This was actually written in April of 2009, but thought I would post it now because I love my son, I’m craving popcorn, and having brain cramps.)

I used to think that when my kids were older, I would no longer have dings and marks on my walls, that I wouldn’t clean up spilled milk and that I would stop saying, “What were you thinking?” The dings and marks are still on the walls, they’re just higher. There are more spills and crumbs to clean up because they eat more now, and more than ever before I find myself saying, “What were you thinking?”

After the movie Holes came out, my husband and I came home to a 5x5x5 hole in the backyard. We said, “Son, what were you thinking?”

He shrugged and said, “nothing,” and filled the hole back in. I thought about suing Disney. They should have put a warning label on the movie.

This same son has amazing leadership ability. He served as 9th grade class president after winning a tough election with a video of him standing in a field. The dialogue went something like this, “Quin Campbell, outstanding in every field. Well, he’s standing in somebody’s field.” He served as 10th grade class president doing a comic routine involving a mop. And to think all these years I’ve been using a mop to clean my floors. He served as student body president with the catchy slogan, “It’s not my RHS, it’s not your RHS, it’s (R) HS.” Did you get it?

His leadership skills continued in college. After seeing the movie Patch Adams, (there should be a warning label on this movie also), he bought a large wading pool, spent $120.00 of his own money and got everybody in his apartment complex to cook spaghetti. I’m sure you can picture the rest.

When asked, “Why??” His response was somewhat to the effect of “Why not?” Maybe this explains the quote that was written in pen on his wall until he moved out, “If not now, when?”

After serving a 2 year mission for our church where he proved to be very obedient and successful, we expected a changed man. We left him home so he could work and save money for college while the rest of the family went on a service vacation to La Mision, Mexico. There we worked in a few different orphanages loving the children and repairing old buildings and building new ones.

Exhausted and on our way home, we get a call from our son. After exchanging small talk, he says, “you’re on your way home, now? You’ll be home at midnight? I thought you’d be home at 2 or 3 a.m. I guess you should know that I’m having a party.”

I’ve met his friends. They are all great kids so I am not too concerned.

“I can call off the party if you want, or cut it short. . . There’s something else you should know. I’m filling the hot tub with popcorn.”

“What?” I question, not sure I have heard him right.

“Popcorn,” he responds. “I was going to have it cleaned up before you got home.”
“Why,” I ask.

He answers, “I thought of that before I saw Patch Adams,” as if this is a logical, rational explanation.

We arrive home at midnight to a house full of nice kids who help us carry in luggage, sleeping bags and dirty laundry and politely ask about our trip. The house is clean except for a few cans of pop on the table and a small smattering of popcorn around the door that leads to the hot tub.

I haven’t told my husband or children about the hot tub. The 14 hour car ride from Mexico was all the excitement I could take. However, the kids immediately see the popcorn in the hot tub. I tell them under no circumstance are they to tell their father about it. Of course it’s all they can do not say anything, the secret jumping around in their heads just like, well popcorn.

My husband discovers the popcorn the next day when he’s not so tired. He rolls his eyes, sighs and wonders where this changeling child came from. I discover that my son used an entire gallon of Olive Oil ($20.00) to pop most of it, and that he popped every night after work and all day Saturday to get enough popcorn. My other kids enjoy playing in it for a couple of days and showing their friends. About a week later my son loads it all into the back of the pick-up truck and takes it somewhere. . .

With such amazing creativity and leadership skills, I know he’ll grow up to be something. . . I just hope it’s not an inmate at the point. After all, this is the same child who mows my lawn and the neighbor’s lawn without being asked, spends time with his cousins weekly who are being raised by a single mom, and cleans the kitchen as well as he messes it up. In the meantime I find myself asking, “What were you thinking?”

Friday, August 6, 2010

Lost and Found

After staying in a hotel for 3 1/2 days, who can't find their room from the parking garage?  Me.  Okay, I did find it after ending up back at the parking garage and 3 more failed attempts.

I have made an appointment to go to the vet and have a locator chip placed in my ear, because one day I am going to end up somewhere that I know not, where I will not have cell phone coverage. 

Who goes to girl's camp and forgets the bag she packed?  Me!  How do you go camping and forget all your stuff?  How do you go to a camp you've been to 3 times before and make 2 bad turns?  And I'm just saying, if you don't have a bag of stuff to look after, how is that you lose your watch and your cell phone while you're there?  Yes, thank you very much for trusting me with your girls at camp.

You see this is why I married my husband.  He saves me from embarrassing moments like when he said to me a few Sundays ago, "They both look great; just choose one."  I wasn't sure what he meant until I looked down and noticed I had on two different shoes. He is my right arm and my left brain and happens to be a very good kisser although he is VERY practical and not very spontaneous.  When I first met him, I thought he was a stuffed shirt.  (I still think this sometimes.)  This almost kept me from marrying him.  After all, how could I go through life with somebody SO organized and SO perfect and SO right all the time?  And then one day (when we were engaged) as we were walking across campus and the thought was running through my head, 'Can I really marry this "Ric" in the mud?"  Out of the blue, he picked me up and set me down in a mud puddle and I have been deeply, madly in love ever since.