A beautiful day...a brisk walk, a turtle and burnt grilled cheese...

We all woke up yesterday morning to the most beautiful weather! We were all out the door at 7:30 for piano and while the girls were at piano, Lexie, Noah and I walked at the track. Now that Will has gone home and I just have one litte one to get ready in the mornings, I really want to get up and out early and walk. Those of you (Lynn, Rina, Emily...) Who get up and out to RUN before the sun comes up amaze me! Anyway, I headed to the track for a few laps-Noah began whining he was tired, thirsty, hot, on the verge of death, etc...after 1/2 a lap. It was not most pleasant. He became even more irritated when Lexie, from her stroller kept saying his name over and over and over again. After only 2 laps I was questioning my decision! Noah endured (barely) another lap-this last one was more enjoyable for me, since due to the aforementioned whining, he was not allowed to utter a sound for the last lap. Lexie took his silence as a cue to repeat his name even more often and more loudly. So my big lap count was 3. Better than none!
After Noah recovered from his apparent dehydration and near death experience, and offered an apology, he happily helped me load the stroller into the car and we went to pick up the girls.
We dropped Mackenzie off for a much anticipated babysitting job-side note-last night when a friend called (you know who you are) to ask her to babysit today, she remarked, "Could my birthday get any better than this?!?" We picked up Mae's sweet little friend and headed home to enjoy the beautiful weather. on the way Noah was lamenting that He did not have a friend coming over and urged me to call his friend's mom right that minute to see if we could go pick him up NOW. Since Austin has gone home, Noah has had this one particular friend on the brain, and wonders why he can't spend the night EVERY day. Anyway, It was not a good moment to call for another playdate, and he was disappointed with my "not today" response. Just when he was about to get very glum, we spotted a turtle in the road-I promise, it was a turtle straight from heaven! I pulled over and got the turtle and handed it to Noah, "Now I have something to play with today!" He exclaimed. Thank you Lord for little "happies' like this along the way...Noah has definately been feeling a little lonely lately. He named the turtle Franklin and filled its new home (a plastic shoebox) with rocks, grass, carrots, apple peels and a dish of water. Lexie now was repeating over and over "Turtle! Turtle! Turtle!" All was right in our little corner of the world. Mae and sweet little friend put on dress up clothes and built fairy kingdoms outside, Noah hunted bugs for his turtle and Lexie followed me around the house with a Barney video saying, "Barney? Barney! Barney?" Until I relented. She is Barney nutty. I threw on a roast with some potatoes and carrots-actually 2 roasts in 2 crockpots-one for us and one to bring to a friend with a sweet new baby girl. I was into peeling potatoes when Noah came in yelling, "Franklin's gone, he's gone!!!"
I thought, I know there is not a turtle running free in my house. I followed Noah to his room, and sure enough, the turtle box on his dresser was lacking a turtle. Mind you, his dresser is very tall, so unless this was a turtle with super flying powers, it had to have hit the floor pretty hard, in which case I would think it would be lying on the floor stunned and not running through my house. No turtle in sight, and Noah on the verge of tears, I looked behind the bedroom door-
There was Mr stunt diving turtle, in a bucket of tinker toys, next to Noah's dresser. Noah was so happy to find his new pet and I was thrilled that the little critter was not going to appear on my bed in the middle of the night, staring at me. Actually, before bed we did put a heavy book on top of his box, to avoid any more escapes.
So Noah was turtle happy, Mae (dressed as princess fairy) and sweet little friend(apparently dressed as colonial fairy-our dress up box is quite lacking...) appeared for just a split second to ask me to kiss their foreheads to break some fairy spell, And Lexie was engrossed in Barney...all was well.
A request from all the children was made for grilled cheese for lunch, with cheese puffs...would they like a side of cheese to go with that? Now, I consider myself a fairly good cook. My dad has taught me to make wonderful spaghetti sauce from scratch, I can whip up some great zucchini bread and an assortment of other items my family ooohs and aaaahs over-but grilled cheese is not one of those items. After 15 years of marriage and cooking, grilled cheese still eludes me.
It always come out burnt, half deformed from being stuck to the pan, or burnt and deformed.
Today was no exception. The grilled cheese was both burnt, and of an unrecognizable shape after I tried to scrape each sandwhich from the pan. One sandwhich out of the bunch that I made was definately closer in resembling an actual grilled cheese than the others. So, this one special grilled cheese I offered to our guest. When they came running in for lunch, and after Noah had scrubbed all his turtle germs off, I explained to sweet little friend that I am not a grilled cheese professional, and told her that although all the grilled cheeses were burnt and shaped like amoebas, as our guest she was getting the least burnt and most square sandwich. Noah and Mae eagerly agreed that our guest should have the special sandwhich. Then, sweet little friend, who had already impressed me with her manners and disposition, did something unthinkable--
After two bites of her grilled cheese, and as serious as anything, she exclaimed," Miss Michelle,
this is the best grilled cheese I have ever tasted!" I made a note to myself that she will get the guest of the year award, and Noah and Mae looked at her like she was crazy, as they scratched the charred places off of their bread. Our day finished up with delivering a meal to the house of the newborn. We all had a wonderful visit, and enjoyed holding a brand new baby and watching the sun set over the waterway. Their sweet family presented Lexie with a little gift for her upcoming adoption, part of which was a gigantic bubble wand. Lexie insisted on bubble blowing all the way home and even on the couch during bedtime stories. I'm sure she will wake up saying, "bubbles? bubbles! bubbles?" It was a great day-nothing extraordinary, just everyday stuff, but sometimes those are the best days!
Today we are gearing up to straighten the house before the realtor shows it, and taking schoolwork in the car as we head on another adventure-going to get the front end of my car aligned! I am sure my family will have no trouble turning this into something exciting. I just need to make sure that book is still on top of the turtle box before I leave the house....