SAJE!

Bud proclaimed “Hey, this guy here can jump over me!”

Us:  “What do you mean ‘jump over you’?”

Bud:  “I stand here.  He runs up from behind and propels himself by pushing off from my shoulders and leaps clean over me.” 

Us:  “Yeah, right.  You are 6′2″  and he is not.”

Bud:  “Hey Dude!  Show ‘em how it’s done”

We all clap, and scream and stand in awe of the feat this guy has just performed.  ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

But, then the other guy steps in and says “I can jump over Bud too.”

And, we say “Prove it.”

We all, of course, laugh and guffaw at the second guy’s attempt.

Now, here is the thing.  Not surprisingly, AUBS!’ athletic boyfriend, Frankie, was one of the participants.  And, the other?  None other than FavoriteChild.

But, here’s where the surprising part comes in.  Those pics you see above, are a little dark, blurry and don’t show faces very well.  The whole evening was a bit of a blur to me frankly.  So, I used my super duper bionic image enhancer to zoom in and sharpen the images so we could have absolute proof of the incredible feats.  Here you go:

Wow, that FavoriteChild is a stud.  He’s still got it!

And, dude, Frankie, work on it, OK?

First things first.  Happy Birthday today to Little Couz Far Off In TX!  You should be especially thankful that we have not called to sing you happy birthday.  It is not a pleasant thing.  We are SO excited to see you in less than two weeks!  Shall we do reindeer games?

Now, onto a different subject:  Magoo’s graduation party.  It was so cool (read:  our family is particularly odd) that one post will not cover it all.  So I shall cover this in three posts.

We were incredibly delighted that so many showed up for the event.  Family from near and far.  And friends old and new.  Thank you.  Seriously- THANK YOU.

After the official festivities ended, the oddness broke loose.  So, here you go.  Let’s just watch as the weirdness progresses.  Step 1 - Singing Sally totally trying to block out SweetGuy’s Mom.  She is an attention hog.

Step 2 – celebrate Aunt Ruth and DustMeister’s birthdays (both on the day of the party!). 

See the pretty blond in the middle above?  She’s a friend of Magoo’s and virtually a complete stranger to almost everyone else in the picture above.  But, she knows how to have fun and she knows a fun family when she sees one.

Let me tell you, Aunt Ruth there is one of the coolest people ever.  She is 84 years old and has a sense of humor like I could only hope for. 

Step 3:  Break out the quirky hats:

Step 4 – add some plastic ball guns (and some weird, weird, WEIRD children):

Please take note of three details from the picture above.  1)  Notice the incredible stop action of my camera capturing BULLETS IN MIDAIR.  2)  DustMeister has his eyes closed for fear of the plastic bullets traveling at 1.2 MPH.  3)  DustMeister is totally going to ambush Bud with the second gun he is about to pull from his pocket.  Bud never saw it coming.  RIP. 

Step 5 – Someone yells “Hey Everybody!  Let’s all jump off the wall!!”  And, they do.

Things to note from the above picture.  1)FavoriteChild jumped too.  I give him props for joining in, but feel the need to question his definition of  ”jump”.  2) Frankie DOES know how to jump.  3)I have no idea why DustMeister is making the face he is making.  4)Check out the faces of FavoriteChild and AUBS!  Enough said.  Perhaps this is why DustMeister is making the face he is making.

And as a fitting finale for Grad Party – Part I, let me offer you this:

 And there you have it.  Whatever IT is.

Tune in later for Grad Party – Part II.  It actually gets stranger.

Magoo is 18 years old today.   Such a milestone makes me think back to the day of her birth.  Here are the things that really stand out in my memory:

• She was 10 days late!  (And, you better believe I was not happy about it.)
• SweetGuy and I spent the entire day before her birth raking and seeding our new yard… partially because it needed to be done, and partially because I was trying to bring on labor.
• I had a scheduled OB appointment the morning of her birth and when I arrived at the doctor’s office and told them I thought I was in labor, they took me into the doctor instantly.  No waiting!  I felt so pampered.
• The doc said I was in labor and should go right to the hospital.
• SweetGuy and I were hungry and went through the Hardee’s drive thru on the way to the hospital.  Gotta have your priorities.
• I received an epidural around an hour before she was born.  I remember feeling SO good after that, but my mind was kind of fuzzy too and that concerned me.  I asked the nurse if what I was feeling was normal and he said it was fine.  I drunkenly replied “well, all right then, I AM!”
• I pushed for 7 minutes.  (Kind of mirrors present day – Magoo is routinely late, but she tends to make up time by SPEEDING to her destination.)
• My Mom brought Zack in to the hospital room and he was carrying lilies from our yard.  He was FAR more interested in the elevator buttons and chewing gum than his baby sister.  (Again, things have not changed that much in 18 years.)
• Most newborns cry, but their cries are not very loud.  NOT Danielle.  Hers was piercing.  (Not long after, her cousin Jake made the innocent remark “Now, I know why you call her DanYELL.”)
• Holding our new baby girl was the most beautiful feeling in all the universe.

And, now she’s jetting around the world.  This young woman has already fit a lot of life into her 18 years.  I can’t wait to see what the future brings for her.

Magoo, as you officially enter adulthood, let me say that I can’t imagine a daughter who I could love more or be more proud of.

Well, most of the time.

This was the scene three weeks ago today;  Magoo and DustMeister about to go through security on their way to Singapore via Shanghai.  Honestly, I was definitely having to work to hold it together at this point.  I wasn’t terribly enamored with the idea of them traveling for some 27 hours to the other side of the world.  I was too keenly aware of the fact that if something went wrong, or they needed me somehow, there was no way I could help whatsoever.  I had to hold it together too because I could tell Magoo was getting pretty anxious herself, and I certainly didn’t need to add to that by showing her I was scared.

DustMeister wasn’t scared at all.  He’s done this a few times.  But, he was going on 24 hours without sleep prior to this flight and though he had complete confidence in his skills to navigate international travel, I didn’t have complete confidence in his skill to function while totally sleep deprived.

Oh, and it didn’t help that China currently has a policy of quarantining anyone sitting within 3 rows of a person with a high fever.  For reals, look HERE, they quarantined the mayor of New Orleans.

I should have had more confidence in DustMeister!  He did navigate those international travels just fine.  They arrived safe and sound and by all accounts the trip has been fantastic. 

In about an hour they will begin their long journey home.  This time they fly through Hong Kong and don’t risk being quarantined. 

It’s been way too quiet around here and we all are looking forward to their return and hearing about their adventures.

And, Singapore really matured Magoo.  She left as a child, and returns as an adult.  Well, at least an adult in the legal sense.  Tomorrow is her birthday.  It is tomorrow already for her where she is and she will soon be traveling back in time, such that she manages to snag herself a 36 hour birthday, which would normally be awesome except for the fact she will be spending over 20 hours of it on a plane. 

Oh, and she has one birthday present waiting for her that she is not going to be at all happy about.  Remember PETE and the CAMPAIGN TO SAVE HIM?

Take a look at this:

Pete is NOT dead.  I repeat, Pete is NOT dead.  He has had a few limbs amputated and is as ugly as can be, but his life has been spared.

And, to think I was scared to have Magoo trapped in a country known for human rights violations.   That’s nothing.

What I really should be frightened about is her reaction when she sees WHAT WE’VE DONE TO PETE.

l