Soggy

It's been a flurry of busy-ness the last several days around here.

Yesterday I spent much of the day trying to get back on top of my laundry and get my house cleaned - well, trying to get my kids to help me clean it. I think I spend more time working with them to clean than if I just did it myself. I always feel so driven to have them pitch in and help especially when they are home from school for the summer.

Then I spent several hours in the afternoon shopping for food for when Laren's oldest sister comes later today. It will be her and her 7 kids. Add my five kids to hers and that will be a dozen kiddos around here for a few days! My kids are really looking forward to playing with more cousins!

At Costco, the first store I stopped at, a middle-aged man got out of his white truck about the same time we were getting out of our van and going in. He asked if you needed a membership to get in the store. I said yes. He was obviously disappointed. He seemed affluent enough to buy his own membership so I was a little surprised at his reaction.

Then he explained that he lives in Loveland, which is an hour away and has no Costco, and there was some great stadium seats with blankets that he was hoping to get. I asked him if he'd like me to purchase it for him and bring it out. Then he asked if he could accompany me into the store. He seemed safe and he had a teenage girl, that looked to be his daughter with him.

So I agreed and we went in, we found what he wanted and he was surprised at the selection of color options. He said he needed 10. I asked if they were big CSU fans or something and he said no that they had some big 3 day conference down in Pueblo. He knew of somebody else that got these great stadium seats at Costco and decided that is where he needs to get his too.

He must have thanked me 2 dozen times for letting him make the purchase with me. I told him I was just happy it was a way that I could help somebody out. I think with having kids my time and money are more limited in helping others out more. I would like to help more often but it is not always feasible.

He offered to pay me for helping him out, I declined. Then he was insistent that he buy us something at the Food Court. Again I declined. But then he asked Rilyn and Alyssa, who were both with me, if they would like something to eat. A-hah, he found a way to pay us back. He told them to order whatever they wanted. Rilyn got a Churro and Alyssa got a Vanilla Frozen Yogurt and then he got a smoothie for him and his teenage granddaughter.

I was worried about my kids seeing me just letting this strange man and girl come in the store with us and what they might think about that or do about that in the future. So I explained to them that the man seemed nice and it was a public place with many other people around and he was not alone and neither was I.

Anyway, it felt good to help someone even if it was such a small, easy thing to do. After they left, we rushed around and filled our cart with things like Eggo Waffles, Raspberry Lemonade and Rolls - enough to feed a small army. Then we hurried to Walmart for a few more things and stopped off at McDonald's for a couple of movies.
Our final stop was Safeway where I picked up some roast for Sunday dinner.

We got home and I had just enough time to put everything away and throw a frozen pizza in the oven for my kids for dinner. I had a date planned with Laren to go to the Rockies Baseball game and I was supposed to be meeting him at his work so we could go there together.


It started pouring rain on my way into Denver. Laren had called me in advance so I was prepared with rain gear. He talked me into parking at his work and walking to the 16th Street Mall to take their free shuttle and then walk a few more blocks. I was opposed to the idea all along but finally gave in.

It was a bad idea. The shuttle never came and we kept walking. We walked 2 miles to the ball field in the pouring down rain. We got there and of course,there was a rain delay. The field was soaked. We peeked at our great seats and lamented the game being cancelled.

We had to wait it out until the game was "officially" cancelled before we could exchange our tickets for a different night. We didn't get quite as great seats, but they should be decent. And back we walked the 2 miles in the rain, watching for the shuttle as we walked. The shuttle finally got close just as we veered towards the direction of where we were parked.

If there was any consolation in the matter, we did stop off at The Cheesecake Factory and got a piece of Mixed Berry Almond Cheesecake that we shared on the way home. It was almost worth the long walk and the 30 minute wait in line for it.

On the way home, we listened to a book on cd that I checked out at the library this week. It is Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston. It is a riveting story about a young man in his 20's who lives here in Colorado who took a trip to the slot Canyons near Moab, Utah.

After biking and hiking for 7 hours he ends up getting his hand stuck with a boulder on top. After a number of days there and being near death, he amputates his hand in order to save his life. It really is an intriguing story. I recommend it. I only wish I had it uploaded to my mp3 player instead of having to drag the cd player and cd's with me from room to room as I clean.