Living in the now.

The other day I was talked into taking all three of my children to the BMX track in the pouring heat (mid 90's) without Jody. When we arrived Nick examined the track with nothing short of delight. He ran to the top of the nearest hill and shouted some gibberish including the words "bike" and "down" while gesturing at me and his strider (which is still too large for him) I smiled and scaled the hill in my Chaco sandals with the strider in hand. When I got to the top and looked down I said "well, buddy, I really don't think we should do this, it looks way too big for you..." He smiled at me again with that winsome grin and said "but zoom zoom Mommy, zoom zoom!" In a moment of foolish parenting I turned to mush and acquiesced. We began hurdling down the hill and I tried to put my sandals into a skid which seemed to work more like a slide and then one of us lost control. We went something over teakettle and well, it was a very dusty and humiliating experience. I still have a wound on my hand that got infected at one point and Nick makes a point of kissing practically every day. What really put me over the top was when Jody's friend Tony casually mentioned to me that maybe we'd be better off on the little kid course on the other side of the BMX track. Yes, that's right. He watched us hurdle to what could have been my child's ultimate demise knowing full well that there was a much wiser alternative a stones throw away. I have not quite forgiven him yet.
We dropped the price on the Kasson house and aren't very hopeful. It's disappointing to see something you loved and invested so much time, money and energy into losing value every time you inhale or exhale but we've reached the point of not caring. No matter how low we have to go, we'll do it now. It took alot of time to get to this point, but we've reached it, so hopefully it'll be a blessing to someone else.
At last checkup a couple of months ago, Jody's cancer appears to be well in check. I suppose that Dr. Grant, who I can't help but have a little crush on, did a fantastic job even if the insurance company disagreed. We've been back and forth with them about four times now. They've haltingly paid a little more each time. Here's hoping that now, a year after Jody's successful surgery we'll at least get that resolved.
Gin will be here in a few days and I truly hope to make the time to blog while she's here and document some more wonderful childhood memories her trips afford our kids. A camping trip to Yellowstone is in the works this time. I can only imagine the great memories for the cousins to share.
Eden and I just watched Cary Grant's last movie "Walk, Don't Run." It was a very good film.
So, after spending three straight days painting at least 14 hours each day, I finished painting my entry and living room. It was grueling and with out sheer determination and little people constantly bragging on my work, I'm sure I would have thrown my paintbrush at a light fixture and gone to the pool but I am SO glad it's done. It's inspired me to do some decorating which I used to love and basically just put on hold after leaving Kasson. When I look at the pictures I took when we were trying to sell that home, I see the care I took with the placement of each item there. When I look around here, I'm starting to see it again.