Eleven Years
About the time my boys flew out the front door for school and work, I reminded Oxbear that it was our 11th anniversary. I had almost forgotten myself.
“It’s the 28th?!” Oxbear immediately checked his watch.
It’s been one of those always-trying-to-catch-up summers. Little surprise.
At 10:15 I walked into the school cafeteria for my first volunteer shift of the school year. Now that Puck had been bumped to third grade, he rolled through half an hour later than usual with the second rotation of kids filling up on all-beef hot dogs. Two hours later, I grabbed one for the road.
Irish had been on babysitting duty that morning while I was gone. With Mom in Kansas City for a women’s soccer match – Mom’s usually up for any kind of event – and Carrie-Bri and Francis at class, Irish was the final reserve. And it went well. Go figure, Yali even napped well for her, after leaving an explosion of stuffed animals around the house.
“He did throw his raisins,” Irish admitted, when I inquired into his away-from-mom behavior.
“You scolded him for it, didn’t you?”
“Well…” Irish grinned, “he’s just so cute…”
About ten minutes later, she was on the road herself, driving Thumper and another old pal to Columbia for the afternoon.
After we snagged Puck from school, I had just enough time to get the boys home before our social worker of six years arrived for our first of four post-adoption updates. There was also a vase of anniversary flowers on the table from Oxbear, including red roses. We would celebrate later.
We gathered together for movie night while I edited Podcast Episode 66 and had a few chocolates from the coffee table spread during another ridiculous flick from the 80s. Irish and Rose had opted out though; Rose was off playing volleyball in a cave with some church people.
After the party had concluded, I finally switched off the game close to 11:30 as the Cards headed for an unusual loss to the San Francisco Giants and their nasty, nasty fans out west.
CARDINALS:
3.5 games up on Pittsburgh: 82 and 46; 34 games remaining.