The random events of Labor Day Weekend

I know that Labor Day weekend is only a third over, but it's already been kind of an unusual one. Once again, I am writing late at night and once again I am very tired. This seems to be a common theme in my life. My journal is full of entries that note that they would be much longer if I wasn't writing so late- and since my entries are usually a couple of typed pages long, I sometimes wonder what else I was planning on putting that was so much more extensive.

In any case, the best word for this weekend, chosen by Tricia, is random. Lots of things that weren't really planned and have made for a random and interesting time.

It started last night with a family dinner and a viewing of the movie Condorman. It's a great old show from the early 80's about a comic book writer who believes in acting out his comics so they're authentic, and in the process manages to get himself involved with the CIA in a major defection of a Russian agent. Matt describes it as James Bond for kids- less intense and very clean, and very funny. It was a favorite of his growing up, and it's loaded with nostalgia.

Today I spent several hours cajoling a teenage boy into cleaning his room, which was a serious job. We spent a good amount of time sorting, throwing away, vacuuming, washing, dusting, and tidying, but I am personally quite pleased with the results, although part of it was rather like pulling teeth. Meanwhile, Matt, Tricia, Grandma, Dad, and Mom were busy continuing the grand project of going through all the stuff in the house and eliminating unnecessary items. It's amazing what we've trimmed down this way- and also the nostalgia that we've unearthed. Last weekend, for example, I cleaned out a large filing cabinet with Mom and found lots of newspaper clippings, pictures, and notes that brought back lots of memories. I also found all kinds of great Homemaking papers that made me giggle quite a bit, including a list of 68 things for children to do besides fight. The first item on the list, interestingly enough, was to argue. Some of the ideas were cute, but most of them left me scratching my head or laughing out loud.

But I digress. Today's task was mainly sorting through books in the basement. We take our books seriously in our family, and there are plenty of them. Many of the ones we saw today are ones that belong to my dad, but that he hasn't seen for several years. There were many exclamations of "Oh! Look at that!" It was almost as good as getting the books for the first time.

Then I gave a rat a bath. This rat is a pet rat, though, so it's all good. Michael cleaned out Salt's cage while I placed her in the tub and listened to her squeak in protest while I poured warm water over her and soaped her up with baby shampoo. She was not happy. And the scratches on my arm can prove it. But she was quite content to sit in a towel on my lap when it was all over.

As any BYU fan knows, BYU played a game against Oklahoma tonight. 5:00 is such an inconvenient kick-off time. Matt and Dad ended up eating most of their dinner in front of the TV. For some reason, I had gone out to the garden earlier and picked a large number of tomatoes and decided to make salsa, so Grandma and I sat at the table after dinner and chopped vegetables while everyone else crowded around the TV. When we heard an exciting play, we would run in to see the replay. Not a bad way to go.

Just before halftime, we got a call from my sister Becca. For some serendipitous reason, Mom asked Dad to put the call on speakerphone, so we were all able to hear when Becca casually announced, "we had a baby today."

It's a good thing it was big news, because anything lesser might not have been able to pull the boys' attention away from the game. We were all rather startled as it was- we weren't expecting this for another week or so. But no one is complaining- we're big fans of nephews (nieces too, but I don't have any of those yet). Michael is now calling himself a thruncle, since he has three nephews.

Of course, once halftime was over, attention reverted to the game. McKay was in attendance at the Cowboys' stadium. Every BYU game that he's attended, BYU has won, so he thought this would be a really good test to see if his superpower will hold true. It looks like he worked his magic, since BYU beat Oklahoma by one point. Cutting it kind of close, McKay, but a win is a win, I suppose.

Huh. I just reread this post and discovered that it sounds much more like one of my typical journal entries than a blog post. Ah, wel. It must be on account of my tiredness and the lateness of the hour and the randomness of the day. I hope the rest of the weekend holds steady with the randomness, because I'm kind of looking forward to it.