A Big Wish

Garth Lee and I (by the way, I am spelling his name Garth Lee now instead of Garth Le because everyone figures I just left off an E and we say it Garth Lee, so that is what he writes on all of his papers in school, so even though his middle name is not Lee, but LeBaron, which is pronounced nothing like Lee, that is now what I am going to "call" him...to avoid confusion of course) went to the mall last week when I was off and we did productive things like go play with puppies at the pet store, play at the mall "safari" playground and stock up on 'cheap' Bath and Body works $3 hand soap. As we were leaving, Garth Lee told me he wanted to do "one more thing", and this is how it went down...literally:

Garth Lee: "I really want to do something else at the mall before we leave."

Me: "There really isn't anything else here that you would like to do."

Garth Lee: "Oh, look, there's the fountains, I really want to throw a penny in it, do you have a penny."

Me: "Sure, that sounds fun" (and cheap).

So since I know you are picturing this episode just like an Oscar winning movie...pan out and cue the "du-du-duuuuuuh", you know, like when something REALLY bad is about to happen and the music warns you...man I wish movie music played in real life, like whenever I walked by Bath and Body Works, if the Jaws theme song would have played I never would have gone in...

I walk right up to the fountain, open my wallet, and my credit card leaps from my wallet into the stagnant, fishy smelling (there have never been fish in the water), bluish-brown, dead bug-infested mall fountain water.

Garth Lee: with a building tear "Mommy, why did you DO that, now we will never be able to buy ANYTHING."

Me: "I didn't do it on purpose, take off your shirt."

Garth Lee: frightened "Why?"

Me: "I'm going to hold you by your legs and lower you into the "water" and you are going to grab it."

Garth Lee: "You stay here and I will go tell someone to call the police to help us."

So he goes to the little nut (as in pecans and almonds) stand and tells the two 16-year-old girl workers that his mommy dropped her credit card in the fountain. In unison they look over at me at the fountain with puzzled looks on their faces and I nod to confirm that this 4 year old is not making this up. They, of course, thought this was HILARIOUS and had to laugh for at least 5 minutes before calling anyone to help. Garth Lee comes back to me, looks at me all ashamed, shakes his head and tells me I really shouldn't have dropped my credit card in the fountain.

At this point, I am noticing that the water is a little too deep to have Garth Lee by the legs and have him reach for it, so I have him take off his pants and I place him in the yummy mixture that is apparently 33 degrees and surprisingly deep, coming up to his waist, so he quickly decides that was not a good idea, so we wait 20 minutes for the "police" (mall security) to show up to help us.

The "police" show up and are maybe 17 years old and they think this is very hilarious as well, and I did too...30 minutes ago. They proceeded to use a wooden spoon from the nut shop to retrieve my credit card from the fishy water.

Then we ride off into the sunset with Garth Lee chastising me for "letting" my credit card fall in the water while he walks straight-legged across the mall to the car so he doesn't chafe from his wet (and fishy) undies.

P.S. I did buy some nuts from the girls that "helped" on the way out of the mall as a kind gesture, but they will be my last. I have made a mental note that they don't have the cleanest spoons...just for future reference.

Sixth Sense?

A conversation on our way home from church today:

Garth Le: "Mommy, I really have to go potty."

Me: "Honey, we are really close to home, why don't you just play your game to get your mind off of it and we will be there before you know it."

Garth Le: (hesitantly) "ohhhhhkaaaaaay."

about 30 seconds later...

Garth Le: "Mommy, I tried to keep my mind on the game but my pee sense won't let me."

Is that sort of like a Spidey sense?

Garth Le: "When we get home, can I pee in the yard?"

Me: "Whatever, as long as you don't pee in the car."





--I see wet people

The Countdown Is On!

Graduation is 3 months from Monday...but who's counting?

So Garth (and subsequently all of us) had a big week last week with Garth finishing his last week of rotation and his LAST grand rounds EVER (as long as he passes). He did very well, getting an A in his primary care rotation at the VA, and his next one is research at the school, which shouldn't be too terrible. Then he has the MOTHER of all rotations at the very end: Adult Med. It is a blessing and a curse that he ends with this, it will help him in studying for his board exams, but it is a booger to end on.

It is so crazy to me that this 'drugged up' journey that we started some 6 years ago (not counting undergrad) is about to come to an end. To be honest, it really went slow when we were in the midst of it, but looking back I cannot believe that we are less than 100 days from graduation. It has been anything but a smooth ride getting here, but the bumps helped us in the end.

When I graduated, it was such a great feeling, but it didn't feel over since we still had a long row to hoe with regards to Garth getting out of school. I seriously am going to be the crazy person in the stands with an air horn at graduaiton.

Everyone keep Garth in your prayers that he will get through the next couple of months without any hitches and we will be having a graduation party to end all graduation parties sometime soon.

Valentines

Last night Garth Le and I needed to give Daddy some space since he had a really big day today with his grand rounds presentation and his primary care final, so we got lots of fun stuff to make valentines. We got the normal paper valentines for his classmates (Scooby-Doo), and we made some really fancy ones for our family. He did really well and I will try and remember to take some pictures of them and post them to show how great a job he did. When we were working on them, he said "Mommy, this is the best night ever, don't you wish every night was like this night?" I sure do.

Fish Post

Garth Le goes to the best little preschool, St. Lukes. It is a religious school, as Garth Le says, it has a church "stuck right to it". I love the teachers and the lessons. The kids have learned a lot of, I will say, interesting songs as well, complete with motions and everything. Over the last couple of days, a particular one has gotten stuck in his head and he has been singing it non-stop. He has been walking everywhere humming the tune and repeating "Singing to the Lord, a new sardine..." over and over. I asked him the other night "Are you sure it is 'a new sardine'"? He looked at me like I was insane and told me "yeah mom, it's a fish". I was like "I know it's a fish, but are you sure those are the words"? He, again, looked at me like I should be in a padded cell and said "yes, I am SURE". The next day after school, after having, no doubt, sung the song, he was running around repeating "Singing to the Lord, the new born king". I stifled a giggle and asked him if those were the actual words to the song, if maybe he forgot, but he quickly let me know that was the second verse. Addendum: I'm still going to leave this story up because I think it is still funny, but I was just informed by a nurse I work with that those really are the words to a church song (the new sardine), so...that is what I get for second guessing a 4 year-old's "Lord as a fish" song. I promise to apologize to him tonight.

In a sort of related story, about 2 years ago, in a momentary lapse of judgement, I bought Garth Le a beta fish at Wal-mart. He named him Roger and we got a bowl and some food and some rocks. Roger lived about a week. At the time Garth Le seemed pretty ok with it, telling everyone that Roger "bit the dust". In a similar lapse of judgement, my mom got a beta fish for Garth Le at Wal-mart to replace Roger and we "let" her keep it at her house, his name is Nemo. Last night we were at my parents' house and as Garth Le fed Nemo, I commented on how great my parents are at keeping fish that have a normal life span of months rather than years alive for a long time. I had a beta in high school that I figured would be a short term commitment that my parents ended up taking care of as I went to college. It lived more than 4 years, which is about 167 in beta years I am pretty sure. Nemo has been going strong for close to 2 years now. I told my mom how great it was that Nemo is doing so well as opposed to Roger with Garth Le out of earshot...or so I thought. He came over and started bawling, put his head in his hands sobbing with only the occasional "Oh Roger" or "I miss you Roger" escaping from his quivering lips. He asked me where Roger went and I told him he went to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus and that they are taking good care of him. He asked me if they were "making him alive again", I told him no that he would want to stay there, then he put his head back in his hands and cried a lot more. While all of this is going on, we are trying really hard not to laugh because Garth Le is being VERY dramatic about this, my dad finally clues into what is going on and he asks me if Roger is the fish we "F-L-U-S-Hed", and I said, "actually, he went in the D-U-M-P-S-T-E-R", Garth Le looked up at me teary-eyed and cried, "Mommy, what did that spell", and as everyone snapped their heads at me in anticipation of how I was going to get out of this, I replied "Heaven".