her head was a balloon and her body naught but some tied string...

once again there is too much to write. it is quite impossible.

fast forward to today. this morning i woke up at 8:38 when i meant to wake up at 7 to get ready for church. the fact is, using my cell as an alarm clock is less effective because there's no snooze, only off. i need a snooze function and it's karey's fault. she's to blame allright. it was her and none else. (karey's on the island as we speak!! we're on the same island and we're going to see each other! wooop-woooo!). so it was that i got up off of my air mattress in adriel's room where i'm staying and tried to gather my church clothes together while having to pee exceedingly. it's very hard to gather clothes while having to pee exceedingly, but some how i managed. i really dug deep.

i stumbled out to the hall and heard the splish splash of adriel and sloan in the bath. i went in to drop off some of my bathroom toiletries. that's when sloan saw me and started to frown, which grew into a complaint which built into a roaring wail. it's not the first time i've had this effect on him either. a girl likes to know how she stands with a fella, i always say.

long story short, we were late for church and sarah didn't care for my black bolero but won't admit it. i wore my red christmas jacket instead. i pinned my hair up with some of sarah's biggins. she has biggins but they aren't thickins. i prefer a thickin but i had no choice and no toothbrush so i used my finger. kyle gave me a look when he waltzed into the bathroom in his tap shoes to wet down his hair. but he tried to use the fancy pantsie towel and got in trouble so he shouldn't give me looks for brushing my teeth with my finger.

we sat with ann in the back row.

adriel got me several times with his dry erase marker. he also slyly dabbed the felt on the blackboard portion seeing what the results of his action would be. i cared more about felt on me to tell you the truth.

at the very end of the christmas sunday, sarah and kyle sang o holy night with leah hobbs and the ballageers. bethany accompanied. as soon as they left adriel was upset. he wanted to go up with them. he tried to run around behind our pew and then down to the front but i managed to stop him with words. then he crawled under some pews for a while but ended up in the middle of the aisle. he tried to wave down sarah and kyle but they didn't notice them. then he started letting out louder and louder whines in their direction, all while standing in the middle of the aisle. people were starting to notice and look at him. when i deemed him too much of a distraction/threat of ruining the song, i whisked him up and left the room. he started to wail on the way out. i took him down to the end of the primary hall and we talked while looking out the door. "mommy had to go up so everyone could hear her beautiful voice." i said. his cries and whimpers stopped enough for him to say "i wanted them to hear my beautiful voice." so we talked about that for a while. "what song would you sing?" i asked. " i don't know." he answered. would you sing "twinkle, twinkle little star?" i wondered. "i don't know that one." "what about "the wheels on the bus?" i asked. "i don't know that one!" and so on until he looked at the classroom beside us and said "i want to go in there and turn on the lights." so we did and then some primary boy came in and told us it was his primary room. and so we left and that's the end of that.

there were some awkward moments when ann introduced me to her home teacher and then kept drawing me into their conversation when i didn't know what they were talking about. i was just sitting with sloan keeping him interested in felts so that he didn't realize he was with me and start wailing uproarously. when he left i asked ann what that was about. "well i didn't know how else to get you into the conversation." she said. "didn't you know that's the man you're going to marry?" oh boy. apparently katie and sarah have spread their little plan far and wide. i wouldn't have been surprised if brent had said something loudly about my 'hunk' but ann's plotting? "ann don't do anything." i earnestly earnested. "oh i won't." she said. "i've introduced you and he'll come to the thing tonight and that's it." "but you'll have your hands full....yadda yadda yadda" oh boy.

katie refused to sit in 'stratton row' so i went and sat with her and we had some chats during sunday school. sunday school was taught by good ol' ian p. and there was some in depth discussion on how the shepherds found baby jesus. some people thought the star would be enough. others said there was more than one barn so things would be difficult.

when rs started sarah came over and asked meekly if there was room for a stratton in our pew. katie said that it was a clarke pew so she was welcome. sloan and elizabeth are in love. sloan ate all of katies cracker bits. devoured them and then drew on my jacket and sarah's skirt with his mum-mum. he was happy so that's all that matters as sarah says.

after church sarah and kyle had their temple recommend interviews. i sat with michealah and natalie for a while and we talked about a lot of things, about how natalie hurt her chin, how i ate poo once, stiches and lots of things like that.

when we were finally going out to the car i excitedly told adriel that i was going to sit in his booster seat. "no you can't. you're too big for it." "when you get little you can do it." "i'm going to get little?" i asked. "yes, like baby jesus at christmas." he explained.

we ate carrot cake and i discovered the yumminess of peanutbutter swiped on the side of a piece of carrot cake. kyle was appalled by this but sarah just shrugged and pointed out that i liked peanut butter and pickles. we also ate cream cheese and english muffins. we had naps.

adriel woke up from his nap and came out to tell me that it was time for me to get up. we lay and were cozy on the couch for a while and then i got up and we talked about the christmas tree. "are you excited for christmas?" i asked. "yep." he affirmed. "who's going to come?" i whispered. "jesus is going to come for his birthday!" he told me. we read stories.

bethany and ben came over when sarah and i were singing christmas carols from her japanese hymnal. it's funny how things come back to you. i'm super rusty on my hiragan and katakana but sometimes i surprised myself with what came out of my mouth. bethany and ben made us dinner. a delish dinner. in the mean time i played pirates with adriel and other sundry games in which his name was dish and mine was auntie pink-o.

we went to a missionary farewell at ann's house. ann kept telling me to mingle because mr. right was there. but i didn't. just when we were about to leave i found myself in the middle of some christmas singing with people i didn't know. sarah turned around and was shocked to see me there.

ann has a dog now. his name is gizmo.

ben dropped bethany off at sarahs and we were going to play games but instead kyle played his mysterious 'camping game' and we three did the picture stories that we so love. there were some doozies as there always is.

i drove bethany to the dikes' and on the way she threatened my ketchup packets. she had no right to do that. no right a'tall. and now i'm done today. you see why catch up becomes impossible. i have to do other things you know, like sleep!

g'night.

Comments

mudsy said…
I hope somebody is keeping an Adriel commentary---I wanted them them to hear my beautiful voice and you are going to get little like baby Jesus at Christmas---that one really makes sense. See you guys Tuesday. Thanks for the newsy update.
Andrea said…
Yes, good, thorough accounting. And I don't make Sloan cry except when I yell at Jodi to be quiet.
Laura said…
congratulations andrea. :)