Happy Birthday to Dana!!!!

Yep, today is my grandfather's birthday--Raymon Dawkin Fullerton, Jr. Would you believe that he's 86 years old, just married a hip young chick that he's madly in love with (after having lost his love of almost 60 years), and he substituted all day today!? That's my Dana and he's like the Energizer bunny, I tell ya! I'm just so proud of him. He loves his family immensely and, more importantly, he's dedicated his entire life to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ both as a missionary here in the states and overseas in Sidney, Australia. And oh the stories he can tell about all of his world travels and the amazing encounters he's had. I just love that my 3-year-old daughter is already crazy about the man, her great grandfather. Lately he's the FIRST one she prays for at night, which cracks us up!

Anyway, happy birthday, Dana. We love you longer and longer...

I already know all this stuff...

Well, I just had to pop on here today to announce that I finally found something that would work for Lee's Valentine's Day gift. I'm still sad about the pillowcase and will continue looking for it, but I found another thing to do for this year. There was another sweet childhood memory Lee has shared about being in first grade. His teacher was talking to the class and when she looked up she noticed that Lee had his fingers plugging his ears. She walked over to him and asked him what he was doing. He responded, "Oh, I already know all this stuff, so I'm just not listening."

We've laughed over the story many times. So when I found this mug carver that specialized coffee mugs to the customer's liking (http://stores.ebay.com/Crystal-Rose) I had to jump on board and get the quote carved in stone, so to speak. The picture above is the final product.

Lost Auction

I wanted to write about all sorts of fun parenting things that happened today like how my son flushed a nice turquoise necklace of mine down the toilet this morning and how I followed my children up a huge snowpile before sinking knee-deep in wet and cold. YIKES!

Instead, I'm very sad and gloomy about an auction I lost. I know, I know. How in the world could an Ebay auction ruin my whole day??? Well, it was a very special auction. See, when my darling husband was a young child he had this pillowcase. His only description to me was that it had the roadrunner on one side and Wile E. Coyote on the other. He said he would punch the roadrunner and flip it over and console the coyote with a hug before sleeping each night. It's one of the most endearing stories he's shared with me about a sometimes confusing childhood. I suppose it was just chance that I decided to search for one online a few weeks before Valentine's day in hopes that I could present it to him in a finely wrapped box and watch his eyes dance as he unwrapped it.

My Google search led me to Ebay where I sat, stunned, staring at the 2" photo starring back at me. Although I had never actually seen the infamous pillowcase, I knew without a doubt that this had to be the one based on his stories. There was no air to breathe. I carefully examined the auction description, wondering why no one would be bidding on such a priceless treasure. To me it would have represented far more than a silly cartoon from long ago--I hoped it would symbolize just how precious his childhood memories are to me and, furthermore, to let him know that I remember all of his stories whether they are sweet or silly, happy or sad. I love it when he remembers something so sweet and how his face looks when he tells the story to me. And, let's face it, when you're a parent of two babies, there's little sleep to be had. So in a crazy way I suppose I thought that maybe a return of his favorite childhood pillowcase might grant him more peaceful nights of sleep so that his long days of working hard for our family could be more effective and enjoyable. Silly, I know. But remember that I've had no sleep.

Now all I have of this dream gift is a picture that the seller was nice enough to email to me before shipping it off to the winner. She was so nice that she even contacted the buyer (who, incidentally, beat me by only bidding in the last 10 seconds) to see if he might reconsider and let me purchase the item. But he was a collector of roadrunner items and said he really wanted it and that he had a box full of collector's items like that.

So...if you happen to come across such a pillowcase, give me a holler. I still hope to have my husband hugging Wile E. Coyote (and me) again in no time.