Why Yesterday Was The Most OZsome Day Of The Year

So, we've had 3 feet of snow in our yard since before Christmas.  Don't be fooled by the above picture.  It was not as pretty as all that.  Well, it was pretty.  PRETTY DANG COLD THAT IS!  It was a very very very long very very very cold winter.  That is why I was so amazed last week when in two days ALL of that eternal snow was melted.  We have had the most lovely weather the last few days.

Pair that with the fact that my dear husband, which I still claim to be the hardest working man alive, has been working 20 hour days for the last 2 weeks.  Every day.  There was one day last week when he went 48 hours with 2 hours of sleep.  And they weren't even 2 consecutive hours.  One was from 5-6AM  and the other was from 5-6PM.  The rest of that time was spent doing back breaking labor.  The kids and I have hardly seen him at all in the last two weeks.  

So when Steve announced that he would not have to work yesterday, AND the snow was all melted AND the weather was fabulous, well, you couldn't ask for a better combination.

We all went to see the new Oz movie and we took Aubrey's friend Grace with us.  I must say, I wasn't a big fan of the movie - what I saw of it, that is.  I saw the whole beginning and the whole end which was plenty enough for me.  I kept trying to keep myself awake and after a while I was like, this dang movie is so boring, why am I torturing myself.  That's when I gave in a succumbed to peaceful movie theater slumber.  Once I gave up the fight to stay awake it really annoyed me that Addy woke me up every 5 minutes.  But I found it very easy to slip right back into my rest.  I found out that Emily also fell asleep.  And outta her seat.    This is what I have to say about that movie.  Don't waste your money.  And could they possibly have had any more boobage in a PG Disney movie?  Probably, but then I don't think they would have been able to call it PG.

After the movie we returned home and built a fire in the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  This is one of our most favorite ways to entertain, because we are just so classy that way.  If you have been a guest in our home in the summer months, you probably dined upon such delicacies by the fire side.  It wasn't summer yesterday, but after a winter like ours, it sure felt like it!

Then my children brought out their arsenal and we were joined by a whole gaggle of neighborhood children.  Zac got really mad at me for taking a picture of him with Addy's pink BB gun.  (Don't worry, Steve took this as a great chance to teach all the kids about safety, and proper permission was obtained by all their parents)

I LOVE our neighborhood.  I LOVE all those kids pictured above.  And I LOVED our day yesterday.  I spent the majority of it reclining in my chair watching Steve and the kids and enjoying the sunshine upon my shoulders.  It made me happy.  

That evening Steve and I were able to go see our friend Spencer bless his new baby.  I didn't take a picture but here is a picture taken just last week at Zac's Eagle Court of Honor with Steve and some of his former scouts turned grown ups.  We were lucky enough to get a double dose of Burgoyne this week with the Court of Honor and the blessing.

Then after we left the baby blessing, I made the old man take me to my new favorite joint.  Dickey's.  HELLO!  I had no idea such a place existed in the state of Utah.  Steve took me there for the first time last month and I have been craving it ever since.  So as we were getting ready to leave for the baby blessing last night I told him, "I fully intend on making you take me to eat at Dickey's after the blessing."  To which he replied by looking down at his suit and tie and giving me the look that after 17 1/2 years of marriage I know meant, "No way in heck am I goin' to eat BBQ dressed like some schmuck in a suit."  To which I verbally replied, "You ARE taking me there, so suck it up and deal with it."  

It's the fried okra.  It's like kryptonite to my native Texan blood.  I still vividly remember the first time I was needing a fix.  I had been living in Utah for about a month.  I was lonely and homesick.  I needed some comfort.  So I drove through a "chicken" joint and when the girl came over the speaker asking if she could take my order, I ordered the only thing that could speak comfort to my soul at that moment (Because I already knew I couldn't get Bluebell ice cream in Utah).  Fried okra.  "What?"  "Fried okra."  She had never heard of such a thing.  I was so confused I was reeling.  You call this place a chicken joint?  How in the world do you eat chicken without a side of fried okra?  Seriously?  Well, 21 years later...

I just read over this and I don't think the kryptonite metaphor and my needing a fix of Texas goodness really go together.  I mean, kryptonite isn't something Superman craved fortnightly.  It doesn't work, but I'm leaving it.  Because I'm tired.  And it's easier to type this explanation than to come up with a better way to say it and then have to go back and change it.  

Just know that yesterday really was the most perfect day of 2013 thus far.  And just know that after all the lovely weather last week, it was freezing cold today.  I am not happy about this.

OK, so I just did a spell check and read over the whole thing.  I've changed my mind.  I do think kryptonite works.  It's my weakness.  It was Superman's weakness.  I knew there was a reason why I left it before.  It's really not my weakness, weakness.  I mean, before last month I can't even tell you how many years it has been since I've had it.  I mean, a weakness is something you deal with much more frequently.  Although now that I know it is easily accessible...it could be moved up the weakness ladder.  Oh, good golly miss molly, shut up and go to bed already.  Enough of your excessive rambling  on about nothing!