Saturday Eight (Who says an alliteration is required for a catchy title?)

1. Henry had a big week full of therapy, assessments, tests, observation, yada, yada, yada. Sometimes, when I watch others work with him, he looks like a little science experiment. I didn't have the guts to take a picture, but at one point, three adults were sitting on the floor surrounding Henry while he silently played with a puzzle. With pads of paper and pencils in their hands, they watched him while asking me, "Can he do this?" Yes/No. "What about this?" Yes/No. It doesn't help that as soon as someone asks him to speak, point, draw, eat, jump, dance... he won't do it. He has been granted super stubborn powers and seems to instinctively know when someone expects him to perform. Full of dramatic flair - he shows his stuff only on his terms. As a result, he always appears even more delayed than I think he really is and I feel like I have to defend his progress. He has made a lot of progress in the last two months but definitely qualified for the pre-school program (which was the reason for all of the visits this week. His transition from Early Intervention (2 and under) to Pre-School/Head Start stuff following his third birthday in January).

2. Jay had the day off on Tuesday and we decided to avoid Wal-Mart and head to a Target located about a hour away. I know we didn't save any money doing this, especially when you consider the cost of gas used, but it was so worth it. In spite of the heavy cart and almost ghastly bottom line (Jay helped me shop but waited by the door while I payed because he really didn't want to know how much it all cost. Isn't that funny?) I left humming a happy little tune. It was a nice day with Jay that included lunch at Chili's where they serve a gluten-free baked potato soup (double score!).

3. About a month ago, someone in my ward who is a professional musician (conducts a local barbershop choir, gives piano lessons, used to teach choir for the middle school before she burned out) asked me if I would be willing to accompany a few of the barbershopper's songs for their Christmas concert. I said, "yes" but it has turned out to be a lot bigger deal than she originally lead me to believe. I said "yes" to two songs which turned out to be five, four of them requiring quite a bit of practice. The first performance was on Tuesday night at a nursing home. The playing went fine, but they wheeled a woman right next to the piano who must have had Alzheimer's or dementia because she was so scared all night. Kept looking at me like she was going to cry and saying, "I don't know where my ticket is. I don't know how I'm going to get out of here. I don't know where I am." I tried to reassure her that she was o.k., but I think I only upset her more because she didn't know who I was and kept saying she couldn't hear me. Eventually, I had to ignore her and I left that night feeling sad and unhelpful.

4. We put up our Christmas tree today. I've had the boxes of ornaments out for about two weeks now, cluttering the living room, so it's nice to have them out of the boxes and on the tree. My shopping is also done, so I'm hoping that I'll actually start feeling Christmas-y soon. Maybe I need to make a batch of fudge for my brain to believe that there is a reason for the massive noble fir in my front room.

5. Seth and Sam had an assembly at school this week. They both came home with yellow slips of paper advertising how they just watched "the most popular assembly in America" followed by all sorts of information and pricing for all the stuff they could buy because of it. RACKET!!! I told them that motivating a group of kids shouldn't equal motivating them to buy their Yo-Yos but they were unconvinced. $17 dollars of Seth's hard-earned money later (Seth sweetly bought his brother a yo-yo), they each own a NED yo-yo (NED standing for Never give up, Encourage others and Do your best. I guess if you have a cool acronym then you get to sell your stuff in school). I begrudgingly admit that they have both spent their weeks practicing and getting better at yo-yo-ing....particularly Seth. He's been taking it to school via his handy dandy matching holster (sold separately) and practicing at recess. He's way better at it than I am already (but not better than Jay. A similar traveling assembly made its way through this part of the country way back when Jay was a sophomore in high school. He's still got skills from the yo-yo HE bought afterward), but then again, I never had the motivational assembly.

6. Now that I'm in Relief Society, I find myself signed up for a lot more things than those two blissful months of primary service where clipboards bearing sheets with lines to sign your name never see the light of day. This week, I volunteered to go to the temple to do initiatory work. Most people who sign up decide to carpool, as the temple we attend is 100 miles away and takes about two hours to reach (two lane highways...towns to drive through) but I went over by myself. Those were four, lovely, peacefully reflective hours. I love the temple, love the spirit there and am happy that I went. It gave me much-needed rejuvenation and I'm so glad I "sacrificed" my time by signing up to go.

7. Last night was the ward Christmas party. Jay had to work late, so I took the boys to the church myself at 5:30, which I thought was kind of early to start on a Friday. Sadly, I arrived in an all-too-present-lately grumpy mood. Seth and Sam were decked out in full-program costume (hand made by a serious super-star in our ward) and Henry only wanted to run laps in the gym, ruining the dimly lit, hushed tone atmosphere attempted by the Ward Activities Committee (a calling I do not miss). Thankfully, Jay showed up soon after and since he can't eat, he dealt with Henry the rest of the night. A nice program followed that the boys enjoyed being a part of and I can attest that I left, once again, in a better mood than I arrived with.

8. I intended to add pictures all day but still haven't managed it so I'm going to publish without giving free advertisement to NED yo-yos, proof of Henry's awesome speech therapist and the red and gold glow of our decor. Maybe later.