Life's Lessons

1. There's Never Enough Time to Do the Things You Want to Do

For example, I've been on "staycay" for the last two weeks. You'd think I'd have time to get a few pictures uploaded, but shockingly, no I didn't. Between trying to hang out with my little guy and doing a little bit of work I was pretty busy all the time. So, no pictures of Cole Reynolds' first flight--he did great and loved it! No pictures of his adventures in Oklahoma--he also loved it and made himself right at home in Mimi and Grandpa's house. No pictures of Roman Family Fun Day. No pictures of Cole Reynolds dancing along to the Greek music and Greekfest. However, I am sure by the time he is 3 I will put together a photo album that will include all these things.

2. No Matter What Time Church Is, the Romans Will Be 5 to 10 Minutes Late

I don't know why this phenomenon cannot be corrected, but for some reason it doesn't matter what time we get up or what our intentions are, the Romans CANNOT make it to church by the start. Don't worry, Cole Reynolds decided today that he would announce our late entrance. Maybe it's his way of trying to teach Joel and me a lesson.

3. Temptation Is Called Temptation for a Reason and You Should Still Resist Regardless of the Good Intentions

Part of Roman Family Fun Day included a trolley ride and lunch on the patio at Jakes. Well, we intended to have lunch on the patio at Jakes, but given the perfect weather on Friday apparently so did a lot of other people, we settled for the first table just inside the door. Coincidentally, this table is near the congregating point of the waitresses. I don't know if you are familiar with Jake's, but think Hooters or Bone Daddy's when picturing what the waitresses wear. I'm not sure Jake's is trying to be as overtly gimmicky, but the dress is awfully similar regardless. In any event, there were a couple of young waitresses chatting a couple of feet away. One of them starts reenacting a part of a movie where one character shows another some dance (at least that is what I think was going on). To say that Cole Reynolds was enthralled would be a gross understatement. He was mesmerized by the dancing and laughing girls and had a huge smile on his face the whole time. I was feeding him at the time, and I'm pretty sure he would have eaten anything I would have fed him at that moment, which prompted me to wonder "Would it be inappropriate to offer the girls $5 to keep dancing?" I quickly decided, yes, it probably would be and may even get me kicked out of the restaurant so I decided against it. I did however secretly hope that this movie scene was long and intricate and involved lots of shaking.

4. You Get What You Pay For

Today, we had a nice lunch on the patio and then walked over to Whole Foods to pick up some food for Cole. Joel, who loves to decorate the front of the house with pumpkins every year, stopped to ask how much the pumpkins cost. Lo and behold there was a lady taking pictures in the "pumpkin patch" for a suggested donation of $5 to some charity that has to do with growing food, I think. Great, we thought. Cole is in his church clothes and miraculously he didn't spill anything on his white polo at lunch, so let's do it. The nice lady who looked legitimate enough took what seemed like 50 photos of Cole. He was being a total ham so we thought, man, this is lucky....great impromptu photos for $5. In the spirit of charity, we exceeded the suggested donation and gave the photographer a tip on top of that. She assured us that "they" were great photos. Joel and I drove home super excited thinking how fortuitous we were. In fact, I think I said something along the lines of "I wonder why more people aren't getting their kids photos taken." So, we put Cole Reynolds down for his nap and pop the CD in the computer. Only one picture. Bummer, I could have sworn she said "they", which, I hate to jump all over grammatical meanings, would seem to imply that there was more than one photo. Oh well, it was pretty cheap and she did say whatever was there was great. We open the one file (posted above) and simultaneously scratched our heads. Hmm....all that smiling and looking at the camera and this is what we have to show?? Well, I'm going to go ahead and give Missy the benefit of the doubt and say that she meant to include a couple of more photos, any of which would include Cole looking at the camera and/or smiling. Maybe we should take our own camera up to Whole Foods and do our own little photo shoot?