Catching Up

So, it's been a while.  Sorry about that.  Some minor stuff has been going on in the Wyatt house, and adjusting to Alice sleeping through the night, and somewhere in there I got so excited I decided it was time to stop breathing through my nose and instead developed this kind of rainbow-hued congestion along with sneezing - well, you get the idea.  

Oh, and I turned 37 last month.  So I'm old and I forget things now.  Blog entries?  Someone out there needs to remind me, regularly.  Dear Readers, please form a committee, and get it done.

A couple stories to share, all related:

For my birthday this year, Brian got some scratch-off lottery tickets to put in my card.  Lottery tickets have been a thoughtful addition to most of our gifts - Christmas stockings, wedding anniversaries, Secretary's Day, etc - for years.  But the excitement over possibly winning never matches the payoff.  We dream of how to spend the money, and then minutes later we're tossing the losing tickets in the trash.  Ah, well.  So much for the Mexican vacation.

So Brian had stuffed about $20 worth of tickets into my birthday card this year, and in order to postpone that awful feeling of disappointment, to enjoy that feeling of "What if I had all that extra money?" for just a little bit longer, I waited until after dinner to scratch off the tickets.

And promptly won $1000.

No kidding.

Yeah, that's what I did, too.

You have to understand, there's a giant conspiracy theory gone haywire in this state that nobody wins from these tickets, and it's all a ruse to get suckers to pay in to the education fund, rather than actually pay winners.  So to win money?  I was jumping up & down in the living room, screaming for all I was worth.  Alice was crawling around, looking at me like her mother had just gone insane, and Helen was standing at the top of the stairs, asking me, "Mommy, what's so exciting?"

So, it was a great birthday.  Honestly!  Loved every minute of it.

The next weekend, Brian went on a road trip to see a friend.  The guys made a stop for snacks and lottery scratch-off tickets.  That afternoon I was driving in the car, talking to him on the cellphone, with Helen & Alice in the backseat.  I told him if he won big bucks, he better get his butt back home.

After I hung up, I had the following conversation with Helen:

Helen:  Mommy, who were you talking to on the phone?

Jennie:  That was Daddy.

Helen:  Why did you tell him to get his butt back home?

Jennie:  (wincing) Helen, you remember when Mommy won that money from the green cards last week?

Helen:  Yeah.

Jennie:  Daddy bought some more green cards, and I told him if he wins a lot of money, he needs to come home.  

Helen:  (quiet for a moment)  Mommy, what does Daddy do if he doesn't win a lot of money?

Jennie:  (thinking - dang, that kid is getting too smart)