My Maddie turns seventeen on Monday. She's bright and vivacious and funny and so, so anxious to please others. She's been a sparkling ray of light since the moment she became a part of our family. So how could I turn down Rebecca and Paige's suggestion to throw a surprise party? I couldn't.
Seriously folks, I have been sick, sick, sick ALL week long. Not just a tiny bit sick. Not just a day or two. But really sick...as in I had to take an hour nap after a 20 minute run to the grocery store. I'd get up and teach seminary, come home and lie down. Get up and do whatever things I HAD to do. And go home and lie down. I'll be honest...there was more doing than lieing down, which left me exhausted and grouchy and perhaps even mildly depressed.
Yesterday, thankfully, I started to perk up a bit. First off (before the perking), I woke up to a sink full of dishes. A very activity-heavy Thursday night meant the remnants of crockpot chili were fermenting in a sick full of water. Gross. Knowing I needed to throw things into high gear (for the part-ay) I started with the kitchen. I was moving slow. My head was throbbing. I had to stop every nine minutes to blow my nose. Then, in a make-it-or-break-it kind of moment I flipped the switch to turn on the garbage disposal. Nothing but a very quiet hum. I reset the GCFI. Still humming. I quickly thought through the ramifications of no garbage disposal and decided my best recourse was to throw myself onto the tile floor and begin sobbing. After all, I was sick. And bereft.
But just as I started to lurch towards the floor, the front door opened. Seriously, and I'm serious here, it was like some triumphant I've-Come-To-The-Rescue music started playing in the background. It was Sterling, one of the handiest men in the universe. Within three minutes he had that garbage disposal back to grinding. Geez, I love that guy.
I took that as I sign to carry on. I made a list. I went to the grocery store. I baked cupcakes and made dips and then hid everything before Maddie came home. I worried that folks would be late...that there wouldn't be a good showing. But really, there were too many kids. Teenagers everywhere. And Maddie was surprised. And they ate over 200 Chickfila nuggets and purple cupcakes and these fine little croissants filled with nutella. It was good. And then I crashed at 1 AM and didn't wake up til 9:30.
But fear not, the mucus was waiting for me when I woke up. It's attentive like that.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!!! Seems like yesterday that I observed two beautiful blue eyes and a head of soft curly hair peeking over the top of the bumper pads of her crib. She had graciously allowed me to sleep on the twin bed in her nursery for the evening. What a lovely way to be awakened!
Posted by: rebecca ellis | February 27, 2012 at 07:21 PM