I have been swamped with work.  And church stuff.  But I couldn’t resist putting up this great picture of Gabe - he’s skinny as a toothpick but at this rate, that won’t last long.  He was dying to try the Mel Burger from Mega Mel’s Cafe in Tomball.  Great place!  If you finish a Mega Mel (which is even bigger than his) within 2 hours (and the Mega Mel costs $19.95 - 2 lbs of beef, 1 lb of bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, etc.) you get your name written on the wall.  Fun family night at a greasy spoon.

Gabe: Hey, Mom, I’m the 2nd newest kid in my class.

Mom: Oh? Who is the newest kid?

Gabe: Dakota.

Mom: Where is he from? Is he white, black, hispanic, oriental?

Gabe: He’s American.

Mom: {smirk} Gabe, I love you!

Gabe: You know, cocker spaniel. He’s our color.

Mom: You mean caucasian? White?

Gabe: Oh yeah, that’s it.

Wednesday this week, we thought we lost Gabe. Things were hectic, so I ordered pizza. Gabe and Ben didn’t come downstairs to eat with the rest of us. We were in a hurry and going fifteen different directions that night so I didn’t think too much of it as Cole and I scarfed down our pizza and headed out the door to tae kwon do. Halfway to the Woodlands, Don calls and asks if I’ve seen Gabe. He can’t find him anywhere. The last time I saw him was just before the pizza came and he was doing homework in my office. I had sent him upstairs to put away his orange belt and he never came back down. Don frantically searched the house, the perimeter and went to the neighbors’ home. None of my boys go outside or over to friends without asking me first. We were very worried. Cole started praying AND crying and we turned around and headed home as quickly as we could. A very long 20 minutes or so later, Gabe was found sound asleep wrapped completely in a blanket at the back of his top bunk bed. He didn’t even wake up when Don was yelling for him right next to him! The skinny kid got lost up there! We are so grateful nothing happened to him and while we read scriptures that night, I just couldn’t stop hugging him.

Fast forward to Thursday. I woke up grumpy. Nothing too extensive…run-of-the-mill grumpiness. I was glad Gabe was okay but couldn’t shake my bad mood all. day. long…even with a morning run! I had a church meeting Thursday night and the hostess mentioned she had been at a funeral. Her neighbor boy had wandered into their neighbor’s pool and drowned. My heart sank. It was my nightmare come true! I feel so badly for this child’s family. What a tragedy. I was instantly reminded that life is so fragile and precious and I should not waste one minute of it being grumpy over my small trials.

Friday: I am up way too early but am going to make the best of it by going to the gym and getting my workout in very early. I have good things ahead today! I hope Friday and the weekend bring you many good things to look forward to as well! Happy Friday!!!

I know, I know, it’s already all over Facebook but I had to share my thoughts about Cole’s tae testing this past Friday evening. He has worked so hard to finish this up before we move to Houston. The pic above is NOT Cole - it’s an adult in the class that also tested for his and got it. Cole made the same break before this man did - Cole got his on the first try - and it took this guy 3 times but he did it!!! It was just such a great shot, I had to share. If you click on it, you can see all of Cole’s and Gabe’s testing pictures at my Flickr account.

Here’s another pic - love these boys. They have worked so hard! I hope we can find a place they love as much in Houston. We will miss the many friends we’ve made at Gretna Tae Kwon Do - lifelong memories for sure. I called a few places in Houston and it sounds like his black belt will be honored everywhere but no matter where we go he’ll need to relearn all the colored belts to be a junior instructor to help lead the classes. We’re lucky to have such a willing kid. That’s almost like starting over but I understand why. The kids look to Cole already to help them with their lower belt ranks and he would need to help them with those wherever we go - even if they’re different from the ones he’s already learned. I am so excited for both Cole and Gabe and the skills they’ve learned. I told Cole they’ll pay off for the rest of his life if he doesn’t get lazy in his old age!!!

This past Sunday was about as perfect as any day could get. Gabe was sweet and brave and got baptized on his 8th birthday. His teacher, Miss Gibb, came and many friends and family. We are so lucky to have him in our family! Gabe is funny, smart, generous and kind (not to mention cute). We had a lovely time at the church during the baptism and yummy treats and cream filled cake afterwards. Thanks to all who came for making it such a special day. It was good to see cousins that we don’t see enough as well as old friends from Papillion. We love you all.

Gabe is a gifted kid in so many ways but it’s funny to hear him on what he personally thinks are his gifts. I caught this conversation last week:

Gabe: “Hey, Mom! I can make Jack laugh just by lookin’ at him….it’s a gift.”

I’m cleaning the house for possible walk throughs this weekend so today’s will be a short post. For Christmas, Santa brought Cole every season of Monk (we haven’t had cable for a couple of years and he loves Monk and Psych and doesn’t get to see them) and so over the holidays we’ve been having Monk Marathons and then passing the dvds on to my mother who loves the show, too. I love the show because it’s like Murder She Wrote with OCD. Anyway - Gabe was watching them with us and was getting tired. He got up to do some origami instead but stopped and waited for the first few minutes of the show to be over and mentioned, “I just love the murdering part.” Our innocent little Gabe. Maybe he’s not so innocent! Look at him, though (above)…he has to take his beanie babies everywhere…he just loves that puppy tucked under his arm. I don’t think he could really hurt a fly…well, maybe a fly.

Since this is also for family remembrances, I had to create a new category for kids’ funnies (sayings, actions, etc.) and hope to remember to actually write down all of those things that make being a parent worthwhile in the comedy department. I wanted to share with you a conversation I recently had with Gabe. I was sitting at the computer when Gabe sidled up to me and whispered: “Mom, since I know you’re really Santa, can I go with you this year and pick out what I really want?” I asked him how he knew that I was Santa and he said, “Sam told me.” Sam, the very cute older neighbor boy has been teaching Gabe quite a bit this year…I’m sure I don’t know — nor want to know — the half of it!

I meant to post this in March but just ran across it today. Gabe is so sweet. He was turning 7 when he wrote this note. I should be glad that HOME even made the list with competition such as Noah’s Ark, Mahoney Park and Chuck-E-Cheese. I do believe we took him up on the HOME option as well. The year before he was spoiled with an all-class-and-neighborhood blow up event so he should be good for a decade, right?