Eli stands alone! Sad few days for mommy

Noelie's official recitial picture... just arrived in mail and I forgot that I had even purchased them. It was a pleasant surprise of my cute little bug.

Eli stood all by himself today... of course I have yet to have the experience and the camera at the same time but promise that I'm workin' on it! He's really gotten into the gabbing this week, too. I, for a while now, thought he was saying "love you" but he always had a mouth full of my cheek when doing it so I was a little unsure. Well now he's saying "gonna get you". He also is loving playing peekaboo. Just a sweet little guy.

Noelie is now enrolled in her new dance school... thank Goodness classes start next week as she is bored with a capital B... so I guess I should say Bored. Very ready for school to start (that makes two of us).

This was a tough few days for mommy as I found out very late Saturday that one of my childhood friends had suddenly passed. Brent Duprie grew up on our block and was a year older than me. Our Dana Circle gang played together a lot... I always remember the boys playing in the ditches in front of the houses for some reason... guess that's pretty typical of boys.

Two very funny stories come to mind when I think of him: The first was one time he came by to borrow my go-cart frame. I say frame because dad one day 'acquired' (I think that to him meant stumbled upon when someone put it out for trash) a go-cart frame. Most go-carts have vinyl seats, metal frame, wheels and a motor. My go-cart had a little metal, a LOT of rust, on wheels... the motor was always something that was to be 'acquired' at a later date. Many of the neighborhood kids had ATV's and go-carts and I always begged and begged for one and maybe this was my dad's way of getting me to shush and my mom's way of saying "Way too dangerous so they can have a go-cart sans the motor." (I think their actual advice was for me to sit in it and 'pretend' I was moving. I was in 6th grade and a little beyond the pretend play phase. Not cool since I had immediately called the neighborhood kids over to show off the go-cart and told them how my dad was just waiting to 'fix her up') Anyway, the frame sat there and obviously spurred an idea from the neighborhood boys so Brent and the gang got my go-cart frame tied it to the rope and pulled it with another neighbors John Deere tractor/mower. Finally the rust-cart had wings! It had been a good rain and the ditches were very full of water so they put the frame into the ditch (knowing from looking at it that it couldn't be hurt any worse than it was) and surfed on it while being pulled by the tractor. Now usually us girls would sit on the sidelines, but we couldn't resist climbing in the ditch with them on this one. It was just too good! Nothing like having a neighborhood in the middle of no where.

The second thing I remember most is when I was in middle school and had to do therapy on my 'trick knee'. I was sitting out in the garage doing my exercises which included me hooking up to this little machine that would send electronic pulses to help rehab the muscle (or create muscle where there was none)... I'm sure there's a technical name for this but I have no idea. Anyway, Brent came up on his bike with the typical "whatcha doing". So, he's observing me doing these exercises with the machine and proceeds to laugh at me because I was being such a wimp and it couldn't hurt THAT bad. Brent had the rep of being a pretty tough cookie even though he wasn't that big. So I listened to it for a while and decided I'd let him see for himself. So I took the gel and hooked his leg up to the machine and put it from 0 to 10 and watched him fly off the ground! He started screaming and what came next was something we have never spoke of. I'm not going to say that it was the 'c' word with three letters but I will say that Mister Tough Guy had some serious moisture condensation in the corner of los ojos. He didn't even have the feeling back in his leg as he hobbled back to his bike and sped away. He didn't speak to me for weeks knowing what I knew and probably fearing I'd blab and blow his cover.

Brent, I actually kept that secret all this time. I know you will be watching over and protecting your children and your family from heaven as that's the kind of guy that you always were! God bless them all as I know they are hurting but I know that their faith and good memories will help them through.