Thursday night my husband told me over dinner that he had an idea for a patent. This has happened before. Last time he got all excited and then discovered that someone else already had a similar–although not the same–patent. Enthusiasm waned, but to keep his spirits up (and to avoid having to constantly renew it at the library), I bought him a book about patents for Christmas.

He was thrilled with this new idea, which, so sorry, I can’t breathe a word of. And spent the better part of the weekend focused on creating a prototype. What makes this really interesting is that it involved sewing. My husband does not–and has never–sewn anything. But this weekend, he sat there, plugging away, calling me in every fifteen minutes or so to thread the needle or fix the bobbin. It was so cute. And he did a very nice job too! He plans to put the prototype to use today and tomorrow, so we’ll see. The book is tagging along…

He also found the time to design a logo, research web sites, and all manner of things. I’m so impressed!

I only managed to whip up some of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever tasted! Inspired by all those cooking bloggers, I’m posting
Before
and After shots.

Mini update: The zoo was good, but I got pooped on by a bird, to the delight of all the boys I was chaperoning. First Communion went well too, although the only pictures that came out were the ones of my son with cake on his face and in his teeth at the reception. The writing is good–believe it or not, I still have two pages to go. What can I say…it’s an important scene. Oh, and my husband has started reading it and said the beginning moves too slowly. He plans to give me some tips… It remains to be seen whether or not I’ll take them.

Thursday is our spring program at Mother’s Day Out, and the theme is ‘Safari’. The kids will be wearing green t-shirts, khaki shorts, white plastic pith helmets with plastic bugs glued on, and toilet tissue roll binoculars. Should be pretty cute. Our two/three year olds will do the ABC’s, the numbers up to ten, the numbers in Spanish, a song about a worm and a butterfly and God, and the one that goes, ‘Three little monkeys sitting in a tree…’. They will sit on the edge of the stage, and we will sit right below them, coaching them on the songs. I’m hoping no one has a meltdown when they see their parents.

When we were brainstorming the program and talking about all the animals and decorations, I suggested the director dress as a baboon and volunteered to make the mask. (Last year we did a Texas theme, and she hosted the whole show with a ridiculous Texas accent, a wad of spit trapped in the corner of her mouth.) She whole-heartedly agreed to wear the mask.

So I started searching Google for some ideas and stumbled across these images.
I liked the drama of the brown mask but wanted the coloring of the other. So I asked my mom and mother-in-law for ideas on materials. My mother-in-law said she had some ideas and would get back to me. A couple days later, I get this in my email.

I immediately made it clear that I hadn’t actually expected her to make it, but she said she was having fun with it and would like to continue unless I wanted to do it myself. I told her to have at it. And she did.

This is the final mask, made of plaster and fur, and knitted yarn, and paint. Everyone who sees it is amazed. I think it might scare the kids a bit, but otherwise, it’s gonna look awesome!

A few little snippets from my day…

1. A kolache sausage gave me a lip blister. I was only trying to bite the bun, but the ‘tail o’ the pup’ peeked out below, and I got burned. And it’s one of those devious blisters than you get that leaves no visible trace, so everyone thinks you’re a crybaby. But trust me, it’s there.

2. I had poop wiped on my forearm today. I was approached by a toddler (in my class) with his arm stretched out, and we collided. At first I thought it was the spoils from some nose-mining, but the immediate and undeniable stench quickly clued me in. (He’d dipped his finger down the back of his diaper. I’m guessing just because he could.)

3. My older son and I have been going to First Communion classes on Thursday nights for about a month and a half. Tonight was the last class, where they practiced processing and technique and tasted the unconsecrated bread and wine. I was sitting, watching the practice with my younger son, and right at the beginning there was some sort of hub-bub with one of the little girls.

One of the ladies helping with the program went over to talk to her and seemed to be making no in-roads. I watched the little girl’s mom get up across the church and make her way over. Turns out she refused to swallow the wine. Her mom marched her to the back of the church and to the bathroom (where I could no longer follow the progress of this fascinating turn of events), but when she came back, her mouth was empty.

Then (egads!) they decided to practice it all again (70 kids!!), and this time, the same little girl held up everything. I don’t know if she refused to go up again or what, but the director walked up with her to get the bread and another talk ensued. And then they just hustled her back to her seat, promising that things would be dealt with afterwards. I was so entranced by this little drama that I almost missed my own son going up to practice. Never fear though…I’ll see him for the real deal this Saturday. And don’t doubt even for a second that I’ll sitting, all agog, to see what happens with this other little girl too…

I think that about sums things up.
Tomorrow I go to the zoo with my older son’s class. I predict some good blogging comin’ up!