What a weekend (it includes a fight)!

We had a fairly eventful weekend and a good time as a family.

Friday night our neighbors came over for our weekly installment of the Jeeves & Wooster series.

 

Can I say this is one of the greatest tv series ever put on tv? Cause it is. It’s clean, it’s funny, it’s British humor (which I am just beginning to understand and appreciate) and it’s got Hugh Laurie in it. And when he’s paired with Stephen Fry it’s even better (they also were together in Black Adder Goes Forth and some other shows). We got the complete series for Christmas and we’re trying to get them all watched before we move. Because our neighbors like J&W too (and they’re British so they can explain things to us that we would completely miss otherwise). I made French Onion Soup from Julia Child’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and it was fabulous.

Saturday Du took Reagan to Lowes for their bi-weekly build it series for kids. This time they made a little Jimmie Johnson race car. Can anyone tell NASCAR will be back soon? Later we all went to the CMU Jennie’s basketball game. I think that’s the first women’s basketball game I’ve been to. Ashlyn was interested for most of the game. We were surprised at how well she did. Vienna sausages and a cheese stick might have helped do the trick as well.

Today, after church, we headed up to the closest shopping around…45 minutes away. When going to Target is a major day out you know you live in a small town. Our new place of residence will have major shopping within minutes of our house…one of the reasons we chose to live there 🙂 This would have been a nondescript shopping experience were it not for

a kid slapping Ashlyn in the face while I was holding her.

I kid you not. We were standing around the water fountain explaining to Reagan the dangers and just plain grossness of licking the fountain (don’t ask). I was holding Ashlyn in my arms when a woman walked out of the bathroom with her two young sons. As they were walking past one just ups and slaps Ashlyn on the side of the face–hard. She begins to scream immediately. The mother is trying to scold her son and I’m standing there in shock. I’m giving one of the dirtiest looks I have ever given. I wasn’t able to move. My mind/body wanted to grab the kid and shake him, slap him back, yell at him…with curse words. Controlling myself by giving a nasty look was the only thing I could do. She blurted out that she was sorry, her son is autistic and adhd, but it didn’t sound very apologetic. That’s when the fear for my daughter shifted to compassion for this mother. Ashlyn was already starting to calm down and now all I could feel was remorse for wanting to take her kid to the ground. And of course her apology didn’t sound very apologetic–she probably has to apologize all the time. After walking away and catching my breath I went back over to her (she was still there because right after the boy slapped Ashlyn he beat his own brother and pushed him down) and let her know that Ashlyn was ok. I cried as I walked away knowing that this would affect us for maybe five minutes of our lives, this woman must deal with autism for the rest of hers.

 After Ashlyn’s first fight we then went to see THE PIRATES THAT DON’T DO ANYTHING!!!

 

That was a good movie, as are most things Veggie Tale (our personal favorite: “Do the Moo Shoo” song on the Ultimate Silly Song Countdown). Reagan is able to sit through a full-length feature now that she is almost six. Ashlyn, who is almost one, was able to go about five minutes before she started commenting on everything like she was on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Fortunately the theater wasn’t crowded and everyone else was in our same situation. We still kept her quiet to the best of our ability.

So, there you have it. Our crazy, fun, somewhat violent weekend.