Our Weekend

Let me just catch up here a little bit.

Friday night Marcos took Dylan on our stake's father/son campout. He also invited Tony, my nephew, to go with them. We all went to McDonald's for dinner Friday night and then they headed up to Mountain Green (Dylan later asked Marcos where they went and Marcos told him Mountain Green. He replied, "I thought it was Mountain Blue.") Anyway, you should've seen the "Mom" in me the night before. I packed up a tote with treats. Next thing you know, I'm getting chlorox wipes, hand sanitizer gel, paper towels, wipies... It was like part of me wondered how they could survive without a mother's touch or something. I'm sure all the guys thought he was such a geek with all his mommy gear, but I rested better that night knowing I'd sent them off prepared.

They had a great time. Tony said something the next day about thinking he would have fun, but that he didn't think he'd have that much fun. It was his cute little 7-year-old way of saying "Thanks, I had a good time." Dylan kept talking about camping and apparently did really well. I'm so glad Marcos went and that they could experience some true male bonding.

While they were gone, Angie came down and we worked on a video for her school. Kind of like a slideshow of the year. We worked on it until 1 a.m. and then she finally went to my mom's house to sleep. Of course I couldn't make myself stop so I was up until 3. The next morning she came back and we worked on the movie until about noon. By then, my entire house was a disaster. Marcos and Justin were in the backyard with the kids. They all ended up in the sprinkler fully clothed. Our stupid phone broke and the guy came to figure out what was going on with the line. We don't have a ladder still and our neighbors weren't home so Marcos ended up borrowing the Qwest guy's ladder. He's so funny! It doesn't bother him to ask people for stuff like that. It would kill me to ask the Qwest guy to borrow his ladder, but whatever. That's his domain. So Marcos, Justin and the Qwest guy set up the swamp cooler while Angie and I finished up the movie. Thank goodness we have air now and just in time. It's getting pretty toasty around here. After they all left, I went to work. I cleaned like a mad woman. It took awhile because I had gotten pretty behind with my busy month, but man does it feel good to be closer to caught up. I was so exhausted last night. After being up working on a movie and then cleaning most of the next day, I was so ready for bed.

Today was a great day. It was Marcos' cousin's mission farewell. He's been called to serve in Argentina, where his mom is from, ironically enough. Anyway, it was a very nice meeting and the little gathering afterwards was fun. The kids played and we were able to catch up with family and friends.

We came home and everyone had a nap, including Dylan. The bad part...he fell asleep as the rest of us were waking up around 5. It took awhile to get him out of grumpy post-nap mode, but we did it. We had some grilled cheese sandwiches and then went to the park to feed the ducks! It was fun and relaxing and just a good time. On our way home, we noticed a lady driving by with a flat tire. She didn't stop so we followed her to try to let her know her tire was flat. Nothing caught her attention so we ended up following her all the way home. Okay, here's the part I've been debating. I want to share this awesome experience with all you blog readers, but some things you wonder if you should just keep to yourselves. I've gone back and forth with this, but I've decided I'm going to share it. I have a pretty tender heart and tend to want to help people and make them feel good, but Marcos has a heart of gold. That's just how he came to this world - I've been told by many people that he's always been that way. So back to the story. Marcos thought she might be nervous that we had followed her after flashing our lights, honking, etc. to try to get her attention. He told me to hop out and see if she needed help so she wouldn't be frightened with some guy getting out of the car. I asked her if she wanted my husband to help her put on the spare so she could go get a new tire tomorrow. She didn't know what to do and said she would appreciate any help. You could tell she was so happy to have some stranger willing to help her. A couple of times she asked him how much she owed him. Of course he told her nothing, but I know how she feels. It's hard to accept help. The kids and I played with some dogs next door. Preston was so cute. The dog LOVED him and was licking his face and bald little head. Preston would just giggle and push him away. It was so sweet! The dogs kept us occupied while my sweet husband helped this little old lady. Honestly, I LOVE moments like these. That is why I fell in love with Marcos. He has nothing but the best of intentions and would do anything he could for ANYONE. The lady hugged us, took our name and number and talked for awhile. It was getting close to bedtime so I loaded the kids in the car while Marcos finished talking to her. Dylan asked me why the lady didn't change her own tire and I told him that she couldn't do it and that we wanted to help her. I explained that we always want to help others and be like Jesus. He smiled and said, "Helping hands." I don't know where he got that from, but I have to admit that it got me all choked up (not that that's hard to do). It just hit me how good it was for our kids to experience service firsthand so they can learn from example. So at the risk of sounding boastful, I thought I should share our special weekend, which ended with such a memorable experience.