The State of My Weekend

I would love to tell you I am busy paying fervent attention to the State of the Union address. No, I wouldn't. I don't even want you to think I want to watch the SOTU. Because I don't. But guess what? I was blessed to not only marry a man who loves political debates and political speeches.  Even better--I married a man who loves those things but also doesn't believe in TV in the bedroom. So here I am. Watching him watch what I believe to be the best pat-on-the-back anyone can give themselves that actually makes zero impact on our country. OK, I may be a little cynical. So let's find something else to talk about instead, shall we? Why yes.

So let's talk about the weekend, shall we? Well, great!

First, I went to my first gymnastics meet on Friday in, oh, more than a decade. As a little girl, my mom used to take me once a year to watch the "big girls" compete at the Cat Classic. It was a big meet where  universities with cat mascots came and competed. One year Shannon Miller came and I got her autograph. The Cat Classic is long gone but the gymnastics team is still doing fun, gimmicky things to get people to go watch.

And oh do they go!

On Friday, it was "Pink Out" where $1 of each ticket price went to breast cancer charities. Plus, the first 500 people got free pink shirts. So my friend Ashley and I made the trek and left Eric at home to attend a missions meeting. More on that later because it's actually a story in and of itself.

We were two of more than 3000 people who went to cheer on Mizzou. Seriously!! The shirts were just empty shells of boxes by the time we got there.  It was delightful to see so many people cheer on our young women. And we won! And it was fun. There were tons of families there. Let me tell you, the MIZ-ZOU chant sounds a lot different when the average person in your audience is a 10 year old girl than it does at your average football game.  Adorable, I tell you. And only once did I have to ask the sweet child behind me to stop kicking my chair.

Because when you are scary, once is enough.

Here, the only semi-decent picture I got of the meet.

OK well I said I wasn't paying attention to the SOTU but the president just promised that if we, as colleges, couldn't cut costs our funding would be cut. Which makes me turn into one of those cartoon characters whose head turns bright red and smoke comes out of their ears. Yeah, that's me right now. This is why I can't watch these things. Because there is no opportunity for citizen rebuttal. UGH.

Back to my weekend.

We'll continue on the sports theme for just a moment. Mizzou had a big game on Saturday, WHICH WE WON, and to show my support, I dressed up my dog in a crushed velvet cape.

Yes, it is tied with a duck tape collar. You are welcome, tigers. I am sure Super Gabby was the good luck charm that took you to the top. After all, why else would you be #2 in the nation right now? What's that? You're a legitimately good basketball team?

Well there's that.

Seriously, I couldn't be prouder to be a tiger. It's been a fun run this winter and we're hoping it stays fun for a while. 

 Saturday evening we got to do a little more trial parenting. God bless our friends who let us hang with their kids and donate to our adoption for doing it. It's totally a win.

Yes, that is my man being trampled by a herd of wild children. We listened to Slugs and Bugs and jumped on E. I can't think of a better Saturday night. Especially when we got to the part when the kids went to bed and E and I played Battleship.

Guess whose strategery managed to sink all her husband's battleships? Yes, ma'am! I won!!

And I'm not gloating at all.

And I am using strategery because of the SOTU. See? Something good has come out of this.

One final funny story about Saturday. The four year old, Little B, wanted me to double French braid her hair. I told her I would give it a try but there were no promises.

This is where you must know how very strong my left handedness is to understand the end of this story. Because after two attempts on the right side of sweet Little B's head, this is what we had:

Yes, my left handedness is strong. Sweet B has a little spunk in her and after gently feeling both sides of her hair, she looked right at me and said,

"Um, the left one is good but the right one is bad. Just take them out and give me pigtails."

And with wounded pride, that's exactly what I did.

And then I sent her to bed.

Good thing we're adopting a boy!

Happy Tuesday. May the State of the Union end soon.