SUNDAY SMILE

Ellen's minions did all the work for me this week.  Enjoy!

ROAD TRIPPIN'

 Back in the day before portable DVD players and Ipads all we had to entertain ourselves on long trips was playing games and singing songs.  We've given up singing songs together because that would just be awkward but we do still play games.  As Nathan, Emily, and I made our way to Florida last week we decided to play a game to help pass the time.  We call it the Alphabet game and we choose a  topic and taking turns starting at A try to guess answers in alphabetical order.  If you can't guess on your letter then you get a strike, three strikes and you're out.  We chose the topic "Countries" and let Emily go first.

"Africa" she guessed.
"That's a continent" Nathan informed her. We laughed.
Strike one for Emily.
Botswana was Nathan's answer and I followed with Canada.
Now it was Emily's turn to answer for D.
"Delaware"  she quickly answered "oh wait, that's a state right? " I almost drove off the road.
Strike two for Emily
Nathan then guessed a country for D, me for E and so forth until we got to I.  It was Emily's turn.
"Islam!" she called out quite proud of herself.  Nathan and I fell into fits of laughter at this point.
Strike three, she was done.
Trying to cheer her up I said "It's okay Emily, Nathan finds stupid sexy."
"Stupidsexy?" she asked. "What does that mean?"
I could hardly stay on the road.


I was only allowed to tell  this story on the condition that I point out that it was very late at night, and we were all tired when this transpired. In her defense, Emily is normally an extremely intelligent young woman and even late at night she is a very good sport.

A MONTH IN REVIEW

1. Sandyhook. The reason I haven't written a post in so long.  I just felt so wounded by that event that I couldn't bring myself to write something lighthearted or funny when so many people were suffering so deeply.
2. Christmas.  It was an absolutely great one marred only by the absence of Adam. I haven't written him out of the will...yet.  As I expected, the blow guns Santa put in the guys stockings were the biggest hit of all.
3. Road trips. Nothing beats spending hours in the car with members of your family.  Good laughs and new nicknames. More on that later.
4. Service.  I spent two days in Long Island New York helping clean up from Hurricane Sandy. It was hard physical work but it was just what my soul needed.  The people we helped were just so appreciative that it was worth sleeping in the back of the car (filled with luggage) and on a floor.
5. New friends.  My overnight stay on the hard floor of a church was made more bearable by making some new friends. Thanks to Brynne the floor was cushioned by a mat stolen borrowed from her brother and she set us all straight when Morgan tried to blame her toot on a fly.  I think we laughed about that for an hour.
6. Old friends.  Nathan's best friend in high school is now a tennis pro in South Carolina and we got a chance to visit him on our road trip.  It was so good to see him again even it was for just a half an hour.
7. Florida.  After all that hard work in New York I needed to recuperate in Orlando.  It was great to take a break from winter and enjoy a little warmth and sunshine made more enjoyable by some visitors who decided to make a last minute trip to join us.
8. Hogwarts.  Harry Potter world is all it's cracked up to be. I so enjoyed my very first day at Hogwarts, and got to try some butterbeer in Hogsmeade. 

The whole clan minus Adam.

Target shooting with the blow guns.

The road trip begins.

Nathan & Ramon.

 Sleeping in the back seat.

My bedroom the second night with Brynne & Natalie.

 My stint as part of a demolition crew.

 About to board the train to Hogwarts.