Chelan

the “kutless” concert was a few hours away. the boys were gettin’ excited. my hubs, ricky & his best friend, jason were biding their time watchin’ tv in our apartment. ricky was clipping his toenails, neatly placing them aside after each clip so they wouldn’t land on the carpet. after a good 10 minutes, there was a nice-sized pile sittin’ on the table. as they were chattin’, he stares at the pile with a twinkle of innovation in his eye, pauses & asks jason, “if i ate this whole pile of toenails, would you buy me a tee shirt of my choice tonight?” jason craked up…but wasn’t surprised. he knew ricky well. the same ricky that made up a church small-group game & called it ‘fellowship factor’, complete w/dares to eat mayonnaise, anchovies, jalapeños & dog bones…& shave entire limbs. the same ricky that surprised 20 church folk at a 4th of july party by casually stepping out onto the back porch in my 2-piece swimsuit, askin’, ‘anyone for a swim?’

well, the dare was on. he couldn’t spit them out. he had to crunch them up in his mouth at one time.

and crunch…

he

did.

thank God for that orange juice chaser. thirty seconds later, those pointy things were all swimmin’ around in his belly on their way to digestion city. and three years later, the two of them still text & ricky’s still wearin’ that faded black tee he so proudly earned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

all these memories came a-floodin’ when i was biting off my little angel’s toenails & fingernails yesterday. see, i’ve discovered how to distract her & make it fun! my secret? gently biting one off, keeping it on the tip of my tongue & sticking it way out for her to quickly grab. she then ever-so-methodically places each nail on the top of her hand. instead of a battle of wills with a squirmy whiny wee one, it’s now a game we play ~ me & my smiley, engaged & yes, almost as goofy as her daddy, little girl.