Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day. (my card) On Wednesday Alex and I had our date. We let the kids decide what they want to do and this month Alex decided that she wanted to go get a "special key." She has this key ring with a Disney Princess key on it, and as she goes around the house locking all the doors, recently she has decided that she doesn't have enough keys. Both mommy and daddy have more than one key on their key ring, and so of course she needs more than one as well. So never one to balk at a cheap date opportunity we went to Walmart and got her an American flag key, and a leopard key from the miscut key box. Then we went out to dinner at Pizza Hut. It was very pleasant. On Valentines Day Chris surprised me with money for my upcoming BYU girl's retreat in March. Very nice of him. Then we went to Cathy and Harley's house for dinner and large bags filled with treats and toys for each kid. Last night Chris and I just watched a great episode of Lost and talked on the couch. We're not one to go out when we know there will be crowds. We're also really good about getting out on regular dates, so Valentines isn't a monumental deal. Chris has his date with Michael tonight. They are playing soccer and then going to dinner.

I'm so proud of Michael. On Thursday's I have the kids clean up their rooms. I only make them do it once a week, since it is a pain to do and I'm not terribly concerned if their room gets messy during the day, since that is where we keep their toys. We don't have a playroom. Anyway, yesterday Michael decided he didn't want to clean his room, which is fine, but if he doesn't clean, then he loses privileges, namely being able to play outside with friends, or watch movies. I explained to him that if he didn't clean his room he wouldn't be able to go on his date with Daddy since he would have to stay home and clean him room. He agreed to that and I had him call Chris and tell him that he didn't want to go on his date, he was going to clean his room on Friday. Needless to say there were many tears shed and lots of wailing about how hard it is to clean up. We talked about choices and then I let him be. We have had this fight many many times since he has started school. Well, yesterday was the first day that I saw him take full responsibility for his actions. He came to me not five minutes after he talked to Chris and said that he wanted to choose to be happy, and that he was going to go clean his room so he could go on his date. He asked me to set the timer and then he proceeded to clean his room without any prompting. I'm sure the "cleaning your room" battle is far from over, but it was nice to see him internalize some of what we are trying to teach him and choose by himself to take responsibility. Hopefully that will become a more regular feature in his behavior. I can dream right?

Chris also learned a lesson yesterday. He is still driving the car that I learned to drive on. A '92 Buick Century, that my parents gave me when I moved to Utah. Needless to say, being 16 years old, it isn't exactly a spring chicken. We generally try and only drive it the two miles to Chris' work and back. Freeway travel is definitely beyond its capabilities. Anyway Chris had a school meeting to attend at a distant school, so he took the van and then planned on trading cars during his lunch break. On his way back he stopped at the library to pick up a local newspaper that was running an article on his recent book signings at the local bookshop, and in the parking lot of the library spotted the car of a, how shall I put this nicely, well intentioned, but time consuming member of our church and decided he didn't want to talk at that particular moment and drove to a different library to get the newspaper. So he came home to trade cars and two seconds after starting the car it died, and was unresponsive to any further attempts to start it. He took the van back to work and called on the way laughing that he was being punished for not stopping and talking to that particular member and that he was thankful for such a swift and quick rebuke. Hopefully its nothing more than a loose wire since we just had the car serviced earlier this week, but I'm not holding my breath. That car has been on life support for some time now, and certainly can't hold out too much longer. At the very least, Chris is willing to stop and talk now. :-)