Saturday, July 20, 2013

Mad Zombie Girl


On Wednesday, Gabby went to play at her friend Gracie's house. She played for a couple of hours (while I went shopping for food for our Visiting Teaching Seminar), and then I went to pick her up. She wanted to stay longer, and my friend Sara said she could.

When she came home, she was covered in chalk. I mean she looked like a zombie. Or she'd gone prematurely gray.
Sara sent me this message on Facebook later that day:
Jenny! I am so sorry about the girls today. I kept checking on them, and every time I did, they were so contently playing with the chalk on the driveway. What I wasn't seeing though, was the part where they were grinding it up and then mixing it with water to make a paste for painting their faces It's no wonder that it entertained them for so long. I'm sure you were as shocked as I was when you saw them. They scared me half to death. And they were so very proud. So sorry. I will pay more attention next time. (I wish I would've taken a picture).

I did take pictures. Which made Gabby pretty mad. She didn't want to come home. She also didn't want her picture taken.


The rest of the Facebook conversation between Sara and I.

Me:Ah, Sara, I am (mostly) a don't sweat the small stuff kind of mom. I laughed...and I did take several pictures of Gabby...and then asked her how you reacted. She said, I don't think she was upset or mad. She just said she was disappointed. So I asked her if she knew what that meant. She said no and I explained and she said, oh, I guess we shouldn't have, then. Now she is sound asleep. I am not worried about it. It will wash off/out. So it is totally okay. She had a great time and wants to play with Gracie again soon. So don't worry. It's fine. Think of it as an exercise in creativity and a science experiment.

Sara: Ha ha. I never even talked to them. I was running late (sorry about that, by the way) and on my way out the door, so I just told Liv and Tia to walk her home. The truth is...at first, they scared me to death, then I laughed hysterically. So, please tell her I was not disappointed at all. I was only feeling bad because I knew you guys were going somewhere, and you had to take her looking like....well, I'm not even sure how to describe them. I'm SO glad you got pictures.

Me: No problem. I was just taking the older two to Jami's for piano and then dropping off food to people to cook for tomorrow. She fell right asleep in the car, so no one even saw her. So no worries whatsoever.

Sara said they had quite the process going on... grinding the chalk, adding just a tiny bit of water to make a paste, then using it to paint their faces, hair and bodies. See, that's some good scientific learning happening right there! :)

And on a completely unrelated note, my friend Sara seems to be under the faulty misconception that my house is always clean. How I wish that were true! I do try pretty hard to keep it clean, especially the living room and kitchen. But it isn't always. I told her that some time she should come and see my office downstairs and it would make her feel better. (Come on over, Sara. It's getting pretty bad again. Or really it's getting back to its normal state.) I'm not sure why she worries so much about what I think...for heavens sake, she has 8 kids. And her house is often very clean...and sometimes not. But she has 8 kids! So anyway, one day last week, my house was pretty messy and I took some photos just for Sara's benefit...and also, because I don't want to portray only the made up me like President Kimball spoke about. See my post about journaling here. This is real life...and sometimes it's pretty and sometimes it's just plain messy.
So here is my living room when it's been lived in and my kitchen when it isn't clean. And really, I'm not sure if these photos really show how many dirty dishes were in the sink or how filthy the floor was. But it's okay. It got clean. And I had been to violin lessons with Michelle that day, taken my kids to the downtown city library, and spent time reading with them and practicing piano and then we tackled cleaning up.

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