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My Night

A Girl and Her Gun: My Night

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

My Night

My kids came home from school and I did their homework with them as I cooked dinner.  I made roasted chicken thighs, my husband's favorite, and mock succotash. I was out of corn, but I added bacon and cream, so no one noticed.  We had a lovely dinner and then we put the kids to bed.  Well, all except E.  She needed to read a story for school and since my kids are required, by me, to read every night, she chose to do her school reading then.

She climbed into my bed and began reading.  She was reading very monotone.  She is, after all, deaf.  I said, wait, listen.  I read the way she was reading and then I read with pauses and inflection.  We have done this many times before, but it is an area she has struggled with. I asked her which sounded better.  Which sounded more interesting.  She thought my way did, so I said you try.  She said OK and began to read and by golly if she didn't get it!  She sounded awesome!  I could hear the difference in her voice and so could she. The Marine and  I sat there listening to her and marveled at the progress this child has made.

Later on in the evening our 14 year old, M, came to us to talk about being a foreign exchange student somewhere.  We have talked about this pretty much every night for a month.  We told her she could enroll in the program her sophomore year. She wants to go this year.  She also wants to go to England.  We said no to England.  If we are paying that kind of money she is going to have to learn a different language and experience something far more unique than England.  She is determined to go to England so she brings it up daily, each time with a new perspective for us to think about.  We listen and then say Not. Gonna. Happen. But, last night she says, "What if I work for the money and pay for it myself?" Now, she has our attention.

My husband and I look at each other and I say to her, "If this is something that is that important to you, that you are willing to work for and pay for the trip, then yes, absolutely you may go to England." She said, "Really?"  My husband replied, "Really."  We just might be teaching her a thing or two.

Our 6 year old came off the bus all excited because he had lost his second tooth. He is the youngest and has been waiting and waiting to lose his first tooth and have the tooth fairy visit him.  He has now lost 2 in less than a weeks time.  Exciting! In our house the tooth fairy brings books and just in case, it is the fairy's busy season, my husband ran out to the bookstore to get a few things.  While he was gone M said to me "I don't want to go to school tomorrow."  This is from a straight A student who adores school, so I asked why.  She told me she just didn't feel like it, so, of course, I said, "You're going."  She said "You wanna fight?" "If I win, I can stay home?"

You all know I said, "Yes, lets go."  I started tossing little hits her way.  When I say hits, I mean I am more than an arms length a way, not really near her and I am not even extending my arm.  Never touched her, plus we are laughing and chit chatting at the same time.  So, I am tossing my hits, all of which she deflects.  Eventually, I say, "At some point you have to stop being on the defense." "You have to stop deflecting and start being on the offense."  "You have to throw some punches yourself."  She drops her hands to her side, looks at me sweetly and says, "I can't." "I just can't." I drop my hands too, wrap my arms around her and with tears streaming down my face say, "You know, I just want you to be safe?"  She says she knows.  I hold her for a little while longer when she says, "You know, I could knee you in the crotch right now?" I pulled her in a little a tighter, smile and say, "Yes and if you did, I would be so proud." She giggles her cute teenage giggle, I kiss her on the check and she skips, literally, off to bed.

My husband came home from his errand and did the fairy thing then we went to bed.  We chitchatted about different things for an hour or so. After my husband turned off the light, I smiled again and thought, man I love these people.  I feel an overwhelming sense of joy.  I am so very, very blessed. Being with them is one of my most favorite places to be.

30 Comments:

At May 8, 2012 at 5:12 AM , Blogger ProudHillbilly said...

What an AWESOME evening!

 
At May 8, 2012 at 5:16 AM , Blogger eiaftinfo said...

Sounds like a great evening!

Your comment about your daughter wanting to be an exchange student perked up my ears. My wife and I hosted 13 of them over the years and placed 70 or so in other families. The company we worked with at the time (been out of it for about 4 years) is a truly solid company that I would recommend to anyone. They do both inbound and outbound kids.

If you are interested in contact info, drop a note and I will get you some names/numbers.

Enjoy the day!!

Bill

 
At May 8, 2012 at 5:18 AM , Blogger Tango Juliet said...

What?!?! No shooting? :)

Sounds like a great evening anyway. :)

 
At May 8, 2012 at 5:27 AM , Blogger Old NFO said...

It doesn't get much better... Communication, love and family...

 
At May 8, 2012 at 5:30 AM , Blogger Broken Andy said...

I did an exchange program to England when I was in college. I saw a lady get run over by a van right outside the Tower of London, and one of my Indian friends got into a race fight in a pub. That and the terrible food turned me off to the place. A better experience would probably be the Netherlands (except Amsterdam) where enough English is spoken that an American can get by if need be. Germany as well, especially since German has enough cognates with English that it makes trying to understand the language almost fun.

Sounds like you had a nice night.

 
At May 8, 2012 at 5:53 AM , Blogger poniegirl004 said...

Great family night. Times like that you can never replace!

 
At May 8, 2012 at 6:48 AM , Blogger kymber said...

i love simple evenings where a nice routine of supper, reading, chit chatting are the norm. i love calm and peaceful and happy. i am glad that you have such a lovely life...not all of us do but for those of us that do, and do appreciate it - there's nothing like it.

your friend,
kymber

 
At May 8, 2012 at 7:01 AM , Blogger Stephen said...

Now that's a wonderful story of love and grace. You have been blessed...

Thank you for sharing with us.

 
At May 8, 2012 at 7:53 AM , Blogger The Lowry Place said...

What a blessing! It's awesome that you have a great family.

 
At May 8, 2012 at 10:58 AM , Blogger Weer'd Beard said...

May I be excused? My Cute Tank is full!

AWWWWW! What a night!

 
At May 8, 2012 at 11:52 AM , Blogger kpage16 said...

Your family is such a blessing! :-)

English Engliah is different than Americanese, so one could argue that she'd be learning a different language. Kinda. I lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland during grad school and had 7 Northern Irish, 1 Scot, and 3 Chinese Malaysian housemates. Our kitchen was going to be rennovated, so we took it upon ourselves to decorate the walls. On one we had a running list of words and what they meant in the Northern Irish English, Scottish English, and American English. Lots of laughter over that.

Belfast was also where I learned there are places you can get yourself or your friends hurt by talking freely about guns. A friend was training to become a soldier after graduation. At a restaurant one day I asked about his firearms training. What little color he and his girlfriend had in their faces rushed out; the girlfriend kicked me under the table and said shut up now. They later explained that only paramilitary and military have access to arms. If the wrong people hear you have access....Glad to be an American.

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:52 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

It was ! Thanks!

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:52 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Thank you! I will send an email.

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:53 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

It has been like 4 days without a single shot...it has been a struggle...lol

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:53 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

True, true!!!

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:54 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

My daughter doesn't like you very much right now...lol

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:55 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

You are right! I k ow how important your family is to you.

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:55 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Yes, not only is it important that one has love, but that one can recognize and appreciate it.

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:56 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Ahh, you are welcome. Thank you!

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:56 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Thanks! Family is awesome!

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:57 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Lol, yes you may. I have to balance my posts out:)

 
At May 8, 2012 at 2:57 PM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Great story! Thanks and yes, it is great to be an American...at least for now:)

 
At May 8, 2012 at 3:48 PM , Blogger Critter said...

you are just determined to make me mist up. :*)

 
At May 8, 2012 at 4:54 PM , Blogger 45er said...

Thanks for sharing this. You are truly blessed. I know, my wife and I are constantly talking about how blessed we are when we look at our little ones (and each other, of course).

 
At May 8, 2012 at 4:55 PM , Blogger RabidAlien said...

Sounds like an evening to remember! I got to give Mrs. Alien her Mother's Day present early...and extended mag for her XDcompact. Yeah...the look on her face as Alienette handed it to her ("Happy Mommy Day, Mommy!") was priceless.

 
At May 9, 2012 at 8:20 AM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

I am trying:)

 
At May 9, 2012 at 8:20 AM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Life is very good with a lovely family and friends!

 
At May 9, 2012 at 8:21 AM , Blogger agirlandhergun said...

Nice!!! Love it!

 
At May 9, 2012 at 5:37 PM , Anonymous Jennifer said...

So freaking awesome. You have a wonderful family. And my hubby was always better at the fairy thing. I got totally busted when I tried

 
At May 10, 2012 at 5:44 AM , Anonymous SD said...

Visiting/studying in "England" as in the Country of England part of the UK or as a general name for the United Kingdom of Great Britain? Because if the latter then that could mean Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales.

I'd suggest Wales - the learning a new language criteria could be met by learning Welsh which is one of the oldest surviving Celtic languages, all our road signs are bi-lingual and a number of people speak Welsh as a first language with English as a second, maybe 20-25% of our population speak it.

Hywl am nawr ("bye for now")

SD

 

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