Abe has a great day and Lily fails (or thinks she failed) the ServSafe

I awoke to the sound of Lydia running into my room and chattering about her birthday presents. As I rolled over I heard, “Oh, Mama, I need to go potty…uh, oh, I’m having an accident…”

I wish I could say I was composed in the face of this wake-up call, but I wasn’t.  I gave Lydia a shower, and even though she hates showers, the good news is that her hair was wet and easy to braid. For the rest of the day, she didn’t have to deal with hair in her face (and I admired her tight braid).

IMG_7053I was, as usual it seems, low on energy this morning, so the girls spent the first two hours playing by themselves. I walked by their room to hear them jumping on Lydia’s bed and giggling. I grabbed my camera, but I was too late. I did take a couple other pictures, though. Grandma, Abe said you requested pictures after we got lazy and posted some picture-less posts last week. I want you to know that these pictures are for YOU!

IMG_7056 IMG_7054 IMG_7057 IMG_7051After a couple hours, Mary came into my room and cried until I suggested that we go into her room and play blocks. She stopped crying immediately and nodded hard. I spent the next hour playing with the girls and sneaking in some room-organization/cleaning while I was at it.

Then I fed the girls a lunch that ended in too many cupcakes. That got Mary ready for bed, and Lydia played on the iPad while I did homework and studied for my ServSafe exam and other final. I’m pretty sure I failed the ServSafe exam tonight. It was hard! It was hard to study for and hard to take. In order to progress in the program, I need to pass it, and I think I can take it as many times as I need…I just don’t want to have to go through the studying rigamarole again. I had to do sit through fourteen hours of online lessons, not including the practice test, in order to prepare. Mom, can you pray that I passed so I don’t have to do this again? Your prayers always seem to work, and my prayers feel tired and slightly faithless.

I came home before the girls got to bed, and it was so fun to hug and cuddle them. Being away always makes me appreciate time with them so much more. Also, David came over to play video games with Abe, and before they played, the three of us chatted in the kitchen for a loooong time about parenting. David was remarkably engaged as Abe and I bored him with descriptions of our daughters’ personalities and our own parenting dilemmas, and he gave us great advice.

Now I’m trying to work up the motivation to take a much-needed shower before going to bed. Abe and David are downstairs playing an enthusiastic video game before David returns to Boston.

Oh! And Abe had a fantastic day at work!! He came home raving about how great it was. He also had a perfect home-teaching experience on his way home. He caught the family just when they were having some computer problems he helped solve, and then out of the blue the dad (who grew up LDS but no longer practices) gave Abe some money for a fast offering. It was kind of a textbook happy-home-teaching experience, and that on top of his already-great day made this day a winner in Abe’s book. He did struggle to manage Lydia’s continual tantrums throughout the evening, but after a great day at work and a great home-teaching experience, even hours of straight melt-downs don’t seem like such a big deal–or at least Abe didn’t seem to be phased.

My eyelids just drooped. Time for a shower and bed.