Hairline Fracture

Hello all! I have missed being around the past couple of days--in fact, I meant to post Thursday night about where I would be all day Friday, but I ran out of time. Several friends and I were in a courtroom for a hearing in case we were needed to testify for our friend M. Obviously, I can't go into the details, but basically her estranged husband (the divorce is not final) decided to keep her son away from her for the past few weeks, which is WRONG WRONG WRONG but anyway.... Her family, friends, coworkers, and day care providers filled up one side of the courtroom to show their support because she is truly a wonderful mother and she should never have had to go through this. The judge appointed a child advocate to help determine the best interests of the child, and in the end both sides were able to come to a temporary agreement of joint custody. It meant a lot to M to have us there, so I am glad I went.

Then last night my brother Bo and his lovely girlfriend Heather came over to watch our kiddos so we could go out. We went out to dinner and went shopping so Justin could spend his Christmas money. (It's my turn next.) It was so nice to look around and let him try things on without keeping the kids from pulling stuff off of shelves or hiding under the racks. So if they are reading this, thanks again, Heather and Bo!

Some funny things happened last night. Over dinner, Justin and I were discussing ways to trim down our eating-out budget. Ironic, no? I mentioned a birthday dinner for one of my friends next week, which is being held at a casual-chic restaurant here in town. When I said there the dinner was being held, Justin said, "That's a little expensive!" And he seemed upset about it, especially when I said, "Well, I have to go--she's one of my best friends!" I thought that was unusual since he normally doesn't get his feathers ruffled over things like that.

Finally he said something that made us realize that I had mispronounced the name of the place, making it sound like the dinner was at one of the fanciest steakhouses in our city, where dinner for one would be about $70 (as opposed to $15 or so at the actual restaurant). Here I was talking about cutting down on Sunday morning doughnuts, and he thought I wanted to spend that much at dinner--and that our friend would expect me to! Thank goodness we figured it out so no bad feelings remained!

The other funny thing that happened while we were out: Mr. Blue had his toy laptop out, tapping away at the keyboard, and he announced to everyone, "I just checking my email!" I claim full responsibility for that since whenever he wants to play on the computer and I'm on it, I always say, "Just let me check my email!" (Or your blogs, but he doesn't have to know that!)