A walk in the Park

I have to make this quick because I'm blogging on borrowed time here. My internet service at the house was supposed to end yesterday, but apparently, someone didn't get the memo.

Couple of things. I guess it's common knowledge that Elliott and I may be moving our family to Nashville if a certain someone decides to release a certain song as a single for radio airplay. I have thought about the possibility so much that the adventurous part of me that has shrunk to almost nothing since I moved to the country 8 years ago is starting to come back to life. I think I might be disappointed if we don't go. I'm excited about what this will mean for Elliott. He has come to the point in his life where he is not afraid to dream. Out loud. He wants to use the gifts that God has given him to minister to others and for the first time in his life, he feels like God has given him the freedom to choose whatever doors open for him.

And he's entering a contest. More on that later. Pray for him if you think about it.

This one makes me feel a little warm and fuzzy and also scared to death at the same time. I took John to the doctor today and afterward needed to get groceries. John reminded me that he had 2 gift cards for Wal Mart worth $20 and he needed to spend it. He said he wanted to buy a deer caller or something like that. He heard that Payton shot his first deer last week and his competitive spirit reared it's competitive head. I told him he could look around at the toys and stuff while I got groceries. About 20 minutes later, he came up to me in the produce section and handed me this...


He said that he wanted to buy it for his girlfriend with his gift cards. He only had $20 and the necklace was $22 so I covered the extra and told him he that he was very sweet and I thought she'd love it. Have I taken crazy pills? The kid is 10! Shouldn't I be discouraging this sort of behavior? On the other hand, it's so sweet. I remember when I was in the 5th grade, a boy that I was "going with" gave me a stuffed teddy bear in a plastic Estee Lauder box. I found out about it when I went into the girls bathroom and saw all of my girlfriends tearing into a gift. When I asked them what they were doing, they said without evening turning around, "We're opening up the Valentines gift that Chad just gave you." I wasn't surprised. This is the same group of girls that had the week before came up to me and said, "Chad wants to go with you. Do you want to?" I said sure and for a whole week, which included Valentines day, we spoke not even once. At the end of that week, those same girls informed me that Chad was breaking up with me. As a mother, that's exactly the kind of relationships I'd like my kids to have with the opposite sex. I have a feeling, though, that John is not going to be that way. He has a little bit of shy in him from his dad, but he also has a healthy dose of my social butterfly gene. We'll see what happens.

I could tell you more about what's going on around here, but my husband is pacing the floor waiting for me to come to bed. He doesn't like to go to sleep if I'm not next to him. I'm slowly turning into one of those early-to-bed types that I always used to make fun of.