needling

Sugar Daddy was off with the Search and Rescue folk this weekend to climb rocks and practice hero work. Thom and I stayed behind to find fun to be had.

We kicked off our weekend on Friday by having Thom's blood drawn for a routine anemia check which, I'm sorry to report, lead to another trip to Mc Donalds.

After Thom was tucked in and sleeping soundly, I gathered up all my embroidery thread and headed to the fluffy comfort of my bed to watch Little Dorrit on the lap top and get organized for a rather ambitious embroidery project I am starting. I search the house for all errant needles and put them in the little wooden cylinders, ready to be used at a moments notice.

I love organization. I wish I was better at it.

On Sunday evening Thom and I headed over to Jenny's house for a casual bar-be-que. I found that I was feeling a little peevish after a weekend of single parenting and so I took out my angst on the Hurst family. I went from one child to the next, needling them and teasing until I got some kind of response. Andre and Jenny know me well enough to just let these moods take their course and they happily offered up their children and each other as victims.

Sugar Daddy returned home later that night, swooping in like good heros do, to save the day and play with Thom until he was tuckered out and reaching for his bed.

One weekend down, four more to go until B-day!

finders keepers

Well, the call finally came. A child with down syndrome had wandered off from home and the Search and Rescue team were called in. There have been other calls. Lovely little calls, involving skull bones, decomposing bodies and suicidal people, but until Ben gets his first responder certification he can't participate in most rescues. Tonight was a different story. With a child missing, they needed him.

The phone rang just as we were sitting down to dinner. My husband has always been a fast eater, but tonight I was dumbfounded as I watched him finish off an entire cowboy dinner (sausage, beans and cornbread) in three gulps. Thom and I were only half way through our meal when we saw a blur of a uniform leave the house.

Thinking that this was an opportune teaching moment, I turned to Thom and said,

"Did you know that Daddy is going out to help find a little kid who wandered away from home?"

"What's the little boy's name?", he asked.

"We don't know. It might even be a girl. Whoever it is, they are lost outside in the cold and dark. Don't you think it is great that Daddy likes to help people?"

"Uh, yeah." He seemed a little underwhelmed. I don't think he grasps how cool his dad really is. I mean, lawyer by day, search and rescue guy by night? That is bascially the formula for a super hero.

We sat eating our dinner and I smiled at him to reiterate the point that helping people makes us happy.

And then he said, "You know Mom, if it is a little girl, maybe Daddy could just bring her home and we could keep her."

Finders keepers.

hero work

Don't forget to put your name in the drawing on the two previous posts. The winner will be picked tomorrow morning.

I got a call in the middle of the afternoon last week. It went like this:

"Hello."

"Hi, this is John from San Diego Search and Rescue calling."

Oh good grief, what now?

"Hi, has something happened?"

"Oh no, is Ben around?"

"Uh, no he's at work."

I think he's at work, could be anywhere really.

"Oh well, I'm calling to set up an interview and I was wondering if he could come tonight at 8:30."

"An interview?"

"Yeahhhh. He applied."

"Really."

What in the SAM HELL is he up to? He already has a job. A good one.

"I guess he didn't mention this."

"Well, no, but I'm fairly sure you've got the right number. This sounds like him."

Nature boy.

Chuckle. Chuckle."I have a cell number, should I call that?"

Hummm. Should I play gate keeper and mess with Ben a little?

"Yep, he should answer his cell."

"Okey Dokey."

I guess that is how the mountain people talk- "Okey dokey mam, everything is going to be just fine once we wrench your body from this rock crevice and life flight you outta here."

I actually really love when things like this happen. It gives me what I like to call "emergency conversation starters", ECS for short. I bide my time and when something comes up, say, an errant charge to Anthropolgie on the American Express, I can quickly divert the situation by dropping a ECS and I'm golden.

On Friday John called back to tell Sugar Daddy he was in. They had one slot to fill for the entire county and they choose him. He is now a volunteer Search and Rescue guy. He has to get ready for helicopter training on the weekends. Yeah, Ben thinks he's pretty cool now. And actually, other than the worries I have of him tumbling off a cliff, or out of a helicopter, I thinks he's pretty cool too. And sexy. I will have to share my hero with other people now, but I learned to share in kindergarten so I don't mind.

I'm thinking that design Sunday might go away since I will be featuring a shop every Friday. What do you think?