free to be

"fairies and butterflies; church and the beer tent"

Yesterday I had a makeover. I laid on my belly surrounded by barbies and let a 5 year old scrutinize my skin and nails. She decided a manicure was a must. On one hand she carefully selected the color of each nail. My pinky would be purple, my ring finger hot pink...then a swirl of blue-green-orange...etc. The next hand was a project unto it's own. When the last splash of color was brushed onto my final finger, I found the courage to look down. A rainbow manicure would have been something, but the entire top third of all of my fingers were a siren of colors. There's no staying in the lines when you're 5.

Next, was make up. Body glitter was the order of the day. She glammed up my arms and put sparkly lipstick on my lips. I was sure one look at me and Kyle wouldn't be able to restrain himself. Once our makeup was complete (we had to match) we went downstairs for our tea party. I'm pretty sure I've never had a tea party before so I had to rely on her for instructions. First, I was to go to the pantry and pull out 4 marshmallow peeps (2 for her, 2 for me). Then we microwaved them to get them all soft and huge. Sitting at our little pink table we had our party and she giggled the entire time. With full bellies we adjourned from the tea party and made our way to living room and a mountain of barbies.

I've never really been good at the barbie scene. I didn't have many barbies of my own as a child because the only thing I knew to do with them was their hair, and it didn't take long for that to get boring. But this particular afternoon, we were creating a story as we went along...I followed Joci's lead. At one point, she lifted up her barbie and said in a loud, booming voice, "Attention all fairies and butterflies..."

It was then, with that one simple statement that I realized how blessed I was to be there, on the floor with my 'come get me' make up and my glow in the dark hands. I was transported to a world of make believe--and it had been a long time since I'd peered at anything with the eyes of a child. This is a little girl who believes she's a princess when she puts on her princess dress and crown; who delights in tea parties and colors outside the lines. So beautiful!!!

When I came home looking a bit hooker-ish, it was hard for Kyle to believe anything that profound came out of our time together. Kyle and I went to a fancy place for dinner (by way of a gift card) and I sparkled, literally, over candlelight.

Switching to a completely unrelated topic, this morning I was on the phone with mom. We were talking about a relative with the nickname "sug"--like sugar. (His last name is Cane...seriously, my family is not right. His daughter goes by "candy"--no joke). Anyway, mom was telling me about a recent fall that he had. The story went something like:

"Well, it was Memorial day and they had an event outdoors at the church. It was really hot outside so Sug stayed in the beer tent."

I'm sorry. Did she just say 'beer tent'?
at church?

The story did not end there, in fact it was just getting started. She was already on to describing his fall, (which allegedly did NOT happen from one too many) but as she continued talking, I was still back in the beer tent, kicking it with Sug. There was a time in my life when that would have seemed normal to me, too, but let me just tell you, I fear those days are long gone. Church functions in this part of the world simply do not have beer tents on the front lawn.

hmmm...Jim, John, I think I just found my talent!! ;)