Ethan is SOOOO cute when he prays.  We usually say, "Okay, let’s talk to God."  Immediately the hands go over the eyes and head goes down to the table.  If he’s sitting in church he folds completely in half with his head on his knees (and hands still covering the eyes, of course.)  He will generally sit VERY still through the whole prayer (provided it’s not reeeeeeaaally long); and as soon as he hears, "In Jesus’ name…"  he sits up and says, "ANEN!"  (No, I didn’t spell it wrong.  That’s how he says it.) 

So it’s allergy season.  Very runny nose.  During the first prayer of the worship service he did his thing, folding in half, etc.  I closed my eyes and was listening to the prayer when I hear a HUGE "sniiiiffff!!!!"  I looked over at Ethan who had sat up, but still had his hands clamped over his eyes.  The reason for the sniff was quite obvious — a very impressive string of snot was running down into the child’s mouth; and he was about to wipe it off on my sleeve!  I scrambled pretty quickly for a cloth to clean it up.  But the funniest thing to me about the whole incident was that he never removed his hands from his eyes.  After services one of my friends commented, "He didn’t want to break the prayer!"

I can’t believe my baby boy is all of TWO YEARS OLD!!!!  Wow.   It boggles the mind to think how quickly it’s gone and how much has happened in two years.  (Of course in my lower moments I look around and say, "It’s been TWO years!  Why haven’t I gotten more done around here!?"  Tim usually answers, "Well… you seem to be doing a good job with Ethan.  I think that’s certainly worth quite a bit."  Ain’t he sweet?)

Anyway, we just had a very small party with Tim’s parents and sister’s family.  My folks couldn’t come and my brother’s family obviously couldn’t come from Germany.  It was nice though.  Ethan certainly seemed to have a good time with his boy cousins.

We had the party Sat.  For one, it just makes sense to do that kind of thing on a weekend.  Also, Tim had to go to Wisconsin to work on their radar most of the week.  So Daddy’s not here on the actual day, but Ethan doesn’t know it’s a significant day, so……  no worries!   

   Okay, after taking taking that "pot shot" (ha, ha) at my mom in the previous entry, I feel that I should at least try to redeem myself a little by wishing her AND her mother a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!!!     Hmmm… I really need to get a better selection of emoticons.  Anyway, happy birthday to both!  Love you very much.

My mother TOTALLY made us laugh last night when she called to tell us about the concert at Red Rocks they attended this weekend.

First, a brief time-out for those of you who don’t know what "Red Rocks" is.  I blatantly stole the following quote from their web site.  They said it better than I could anyway. 

                " Red Rocks Amphitheatre is known world-wide for its star studded roster, natural amplification and incomparable ambience, as well as its awe-inspiring hiking and biking trails. This acoustically perfect natural outdoor Amphitheatre is one of the most spectacular meeting and concert sites in the world. When attending an event at Red Rocks, audience members are flanked by striking 300 foot-high red sandstone formations. In the evening, the seats in the Amphitheatre overlook the lights of the city (Denver) creating a tremendous panoramic view. Red Rocks Park encompasses the 868 acres surrounding the Amphitheatre and is open to hikers and sightseers year-round. Over 350,000 people attend concerts every year at Red Rocks."

Since I don’t know how to put up a picture, please visit the Red Rocks web site for more information and pictures, RedRocksOnLine.com

It’s really an incredible place.  I’ve only been there in the daytime but do hope to attend a concert there someday. I’ve heard over and over that artists absolutely LOVE performing there.

  So back to the story. In the last couple years Mom’s brother and his wife (Uncle Tim & Aunt J’Lea) have moved to Denver from the small Western Slope town of Craig.   So they call my parents every once in a while to say, "Hey!  Wanna go to this concert (or play/ exhibit/ show/ etc) in a couple weeks?  I’ll get tickets!"    The most recent event was Willie Nelson at Red Rocks, Labor Day weekend. 

It turns out that two of their children (Harmony and Josh) also wanted to go.  But before they went Josh said to Aunt J’Lea something like this, "Mom, are you guys sure you want to go to this one?  I don’t think you’re really going to like it."              "Why not Josh?"            "Well, because there’s probably going to be a lot of marijuana at the concert, and I just don’t think you’ll enjoy the concert with all of that going on."         "Oh Josh, I’m sure there won’t be."       Again, I believe this is the gist of it, from what Mom said.  At any rate, J’Lea didn’t really believe Josh.  Neither did my parents. 

 This is the part of the story where I started laughing because Mom also seemed so shocked that YES, IN FACT there was a TON of pot at the concert!  A vendor was even selling "Hemp Ice Cream."  My first comment was, "Mom!  Red Rocks is well-known for the amount of pot at those concerts!  I’ve only smelled the stuff a couple times in my life and think I could i.d. it; but if I smelled something funky at Red Rocks, I’d naturally ASSUME it was marijuana."    And making me laugh even harder she said with astonishment, "But it’s ILLEGAL!  If it’s that well- known, why don’t the cops DO something about it!?"

And I said, "It’s just like the pro- illegal immigration rallies.  The INS KNOWS they could clean up at those things.  But they don’t go in.  Why?"  (Well, that’s a topic for another blog.)    After she thought for a second she said, "Well, come to think of it, Steven said when he and Kristi went to see John Mayer at Red Rocks there was a lot of it there too.  When they went somebody was selling ‘Pot Brownies’ for $5 each!"

 All I could do was laugh.

Yikes…. who knew it would be so difficult to keep up a simple blog that no one but me will ever read again?  Okay, so a FEW people may read it at some point.  But still, who knew?  The real task for me, to be honest, is to come into the office (at the back of the house) when I actually have the chance and write whatever cute or clever or mundane thought I had earlier in the day.  This usually means that Ethan is asleep, I’m caught up on e-mail, and I have enough housework done that I feel I can spend a few minutes doing this.  Oh yeah!  I also need to recall WHAT I was going to talk about.

In this case, 2 outta 4 will have to do.  (Ethan’s awake and into everything, and the house is a wreck.)  There comes a time when you say to yourself, "Self!  Your brother gave you a GREAT gift, and you’re doing NOTHING with it!  The house will NEVER be clean enough, and Ethan’s naps are getting shorter and shorter!  DO IT!!!"      So maybe now I’ll be able to actually get going with this.