Pinball & Pizza

Emerson has done absolutely great in her new classroom this week. When I dropped her off this morning, she was happy & smiling, and ready to play! At the time, there was only one other little girl, and two teachers, so I’m sure they got some great loves & one-on-one time before the day got too busy.

At lunch, my boss-friend Tammy and I decided we needed to run to Old Navy to check out the back-to-school sales. I found a top and a new casual black dress. And she got two tops. And we both got $10 Old Navy super cash, so I put a reminder in my phone calendar so I don’t forget to go back and actually use it. Don’t wanna lose that $10!

Before we left the office though, we called in a take-out order around 11am (two wing meals with fries), and specifically requested to pick up the food at 12:15 pm. We arrived at 12:13 pm, paid for our food, and sat down on the bench to wait. And wait. And wait… We didn’t receive our food until 12:39 pm. They appeared to be filling huge take-out order ahead of us, & appeared short-staffed, so were trying to “cut them some slack,” but the wait time was just not a “reasonable” wait time. To top it all off – the food was not that good, and I didn’t even finish my meal. I will probably not go back anytime soon, and most likely won’t place a to-go order on my lunch break ever again. Womp womp womp.

Aunt Meggie toted Emerson around the school for a while this afternoon, just because she wanted to. I swear, one day, Emerson is going to run that place! And by “one day,” I mean, in like, 2 years. 

Then tonight after work, we went and had a special Friday night family outing! Last month, when Jeff and the boys went to First Friday Art Walk down in Railroad Square, they found this cool pinball arcade, but didn’t get to play. So they’ve been dying to go back. And tonight we finally got the chance! We payed about $21 (with tax I think?) for all 4 of us to play for one hour, and I thought that was a pretty good deal. 

They have all different kinds of pinball machines. Some are brand new Star Wars ones from just last year, a Mario Brothers one from 1992, and some from the 70’s, like the Dracula one below, from 1979!

At first, I didn’t really think I cared if I played games or not, but then I found the Mrs. Pac-Man machine! I sat down to give it a whirl, and it was so much fun! I remembered how much I loved it growing up (I loved playing it at summer camp at East Hill), and it was just as much fun tonight! I used to be really good at it, and was surprisingly still pretty good tonight. Jeff and the boys were even impressed with how good I was! Jeff came over and thought it was just a simulation, but it was me playing! 

And then Emerson had to sit on the stool, and even reached up to grab the joystick, and it was funny and cute.

Jeff and I took turns playing games, or playing with Emerson. We strolled her all over the place, and let her get out and walk around a bit, and she generally did good during that hour, even though there wasn’t much for her to do.  Glad we got this new, smaller stroller though last weekend!

After our hour was up at Flippin’ Great Pinballs, we went over to Gaines Street Pies for Friday night pizza! We ordered a small cheese, a medium pepperoni, and some cheese bread. And the boys actually volunteered to smile for a photo with the pizzas once they came, and I took it and it was super cute… But when I went to upload photos to the blog, that one picture had vanished! Sad day.

The pizza was delicious, but Emerson was cranky and tired by this point, so I took her and Ryan on home. Daddy and Gabe stayed and finished eating, and boxed up our leftovers. Ryan and I stopped for gas on the way home, and he was just chatting up a storm about all sorts of stuff. I was trying to take mental notes, but now that I’m actually sitting here writing, I can’t remember anything!? This ole’ 30-year-old memory aint what it used to be, folks. 

Anyways, the boys are folding up & packing all of their clothes, because they go back to South Carolina tomorrow. Overall, we’ve had them for 6 weeks total during the summer, and we’ve had a great time with them! Our lives are always flipped upside down while they’re here, and there’s pretty much no such thing as “normal.” But this year, they were just really great. Of course we had a few of the usual pre-teen boy kinds of issues, but for the most part, they were absolutely great. They were also really good with Emerson, and I can tell they love her so much. It was adorable to hear them call her “baby sister.” And of course she loves them too. In a few years, it’s going to be very hard to try to explain to her that I’m not their “real Mommy” and that they won’t be back again for months at at time. But I guess, as my Mama always says, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

For now though, we’re gonna cuddle up on the couch under our blankets one last time this summer, and watch some Netflix. Then tomorrow we’ll say “See ya later,” until Thanksgiving. We will also praise the Lord for good times, and say thanks for all the good times & memories! Happy Friday, friends!