Ahh August! Augusto! How Do We Do?
Look, I just don't do well in August. August to me is like the month where you lie waiting for bad news. I am sorry to say this if your birth occurred in August (smooches Chuppie Pie!) or if you were married, or learned how to ride a bike or the like, but honestly August is a speed bump in my path around the calendar year.
Last night I couldn't even sleep. I mean, I could sleep . . . for 45 minutes. Not because of stirring creatures or snoring husbands (not you Chupa Chupa) but because I was simply plotting a plan called: How Do I Get Out of Doing August This Year?
Luckily my schedule called for a lunch with the fabulous (and I mean that word) Natalie Lovin Hollbrook who showed up to P712 with some sass and the tiniest seven month baby bump I've ever seen. Talk about speed bumps . . .
As we were eating talking eating talking (mostly talking about my slumpy attitude) Nat mentions to me that her mother's answer to the doldrums was: Put Your Shoes On.
"What did that signify?" I queried.
"That you were ready for action," she explained.
Aha!
Then, honestly, I fell in love with Nat the Rat even more. (At that point.) And I used to be really careful about how much I used the word "love" because I wanted it to be "significant" and really "mean something" but I watched Mia Michaels spill it out of her artistic mouth about twenty bagillion times tonight on So You Think You Can Dance and I stopped worried about the frequency of which I use that word. Besides, it's "love" how can you over-use it?
Then Nat blessed Ever with some of her state-side onesies and such. Which we LOVED.
On returning home from this lunch--wherein I ate an enlightening sandwich consisting of Nat's mother's motto between two delicious slices of Nat herself--I decided to not (NOT) kick off my shoes. In fact, I invited everyone in my home to: Put Your Shoes On.
"Yeah?" says Chup, lazy from lawn mowing (ours, not like he's taken away jobs from the twelve year old boys in the neighborhood) "And where are we going?"
"Up the canyon to the waterfall!" I said like it was DISNEYLAND or MESQUITE!
And immediately The Chief starts running in circles because he picked up on the word "water" and he thought it meant we were Putting On Our Shoes to go in the backyard to turn on the hose. Hooray! August is Glorious!
But no.
Better.
We actually drove up the canyon where the air is cooler and filled with campfire smells (I love you s'mores) and walked up the Bridal Veil Trail (I love that name for a waterfall) and threw walks into the base of the falls and dipped our feet.
(you're thinking: c jane in animal print? grrrr! like button!)
When Ever started arching her back and refused to think her brother's rock-throwing antics were entertaining we left to get an ice cream cone.
"That was nice," said Chup later as we were licking ice cream off our fingers in our front yard.
And I said a little love prayer to Heavenly Father to thank Nat and Nat's mother for saving at least ONE day in August.
p.s. What am I going to do tomorrow?
p.p.s We put Frogs in our backyard pool to see how he would like it! He LOVED it! And then we couldn't find him the next day. We were sad. So scratch Frogs off the characters on this blog and please don't hate me because I didn't take my pet keeping seriously.
p.p.p.s This is for my safety-loving friends who previously didn't think I took my safety-loving seriously:
Triple latched baby! Ever should be the Safety Commenters Mascot! I LOVE it.
ppppppps. Ever has the longest tongue of any baby on this planet. Don't tell The Suitors.
I am c jane and I wrote this post barefooted.
contact me:
cjanemail@gmail.com