If You Just Smile

I'm not going to lie. Last week was hard. It was Shane's first full week back to work, and my parents were on vacation. I went from loads of help to flying solo with two boys, and I spent most (okay, all) of the week doubting myself as a mother. There were tears and apologies and time outs and more tears, but we survived.

This week, I'm going to start with a smile. As luck would have it, a lot has made me smile lately.

First, I want you all to meet my friend Lovelyn, if you haven't already. Love is in the midst of an amazing journey, that will hopefully soon culminate in her having two new babies in her home and her arms. She's selling shirts and beautiful necklaces to help fund the adoption process, and I encourage you to please check both out. If you can afford one or both, I would consider you to be very special. Even if you can't afford them, please read her story and leave her a comment. That would still make me think you are very special.
The other night, I was fortunate enough to escape from the house (trust me, I needed it), and I met Love for coffee. I asked about her babies right away, and oh, it gave me chills to hear her talk about all she's going through to get these babies and to see how big her heart is. She makes me smile.

You probably already know that Beth makes me smile, but because she is hilarious and also a bully, she asked me some pretty funny questions on my Q&A post, which made me smile. And even though she asked them AFTER I was done answering everything, I'm still going to give her these answers, probably because she just thought I'd tell her to shut up and ignore them. Beth had three questions:
Has anyone ever made you an awesome waffle cone? What was it like and who made it, by the way?
Once at Dairy Queen, I had a really good waffle cone. THE END. Okay, not really. When I was 38ish weeks pregnant with Tommy, I was at Beth's house with my girls. Beth made brownies, and I brought ice cream. The brownies and ice cream were great, but I was all, I WANT MORE, because that's how I roll with dessert. So Beth used the waffle cone ice cream to make me a waffle cone. EXCEPT that she also mixed a brownie in with it, and it was pretty much the best thing ever when I started eating it. Then I got to the bottom of the cone and realized that she had shoved an entire chunk of brownie in there, and I almost wept at the beauty of that waffle cone.

How quickly can you eat a bacon cheeseburger from Redamak's?
True story, when we went out for my birthday dinner, I ate a bacon cheeseburger so quickly that everyone blinked and my burger was gone. And also, not only can I pretty much inhale a bacon cheeseburger from Redamak's, but I can inhale it after having a root canal and only having the use of one side of my mouth. I'M THAT GOOD.

And last but not least, have you any fears of animals?
Now, Beth initially called me a freak or something for this fear, but I promise you will all understand when I explain. I am afraid of turkeys. In fact, I hate them so much that I don't even eat turkey. That said, I support everyone else eating turkey because turkeys are evil. Growing up, we had turkeys and chickens. When I was about four years old, this one super jerk of a turkey bullied me. Every time I would go outside to play, it would corner me against a tree or a wall and PECK AT ME. Now, this might be funny, until you stop and think about the height of a turkey compared to the height of a four year old. Yeah, they're about the same height! Every time I'd go outside, I'd peer out first to make sure the turkey was nowhere around, but inevitably, that stupid turkey would find me and harass me, until my mom would come chase it off. Thus, turkeys are evil.


And finally, nothing makes me smile more than someone smiling at me...