Celebrating Tuesday - Part One

First of all, it's not too late to jump in on this virtual parade of "wagie rides" that we got going on over here in memory of Tuesday Whitt.  Yesterday, Tuesday's family had their own celebration in Parker, Colorado and all of us who could not be there physically were with them in spirit.  Yes, in spirit.

The pictures that are rolling in are awesome and are bringing all kinds of tears to my eyes.  I'm planning on compiling them all and posting one awesome video montage later in the week.  You will not want to miss the end result of this virtual parade.  I promise it to be good for the soul. 

Here's that mind-bending Mr. Linky who will be partying here until Monday night so come on back and link up anytime for any kind of celebration you had in memory of Tuesday whenever it all happened.  Or even if it has not happened yet.

You see, our wagie ride is a work in progress.  Like most things in my home.  And it's a philosophy of living that I'm getting more and more accustomed to and I'm actually embracing.... my life is a work in progress.  With no perfection in sight. With no perfectly clean house, perfectly cooked meal, perfectly finished to-do list, perfectly behaved children.  But it's mine.  All mine. And I'm learning to love every single second of it.  In all of its wondrous imperfection.

Early Saturday morning, around 3:30 am to be exact, El Destructo woke with a cry that sounded a little, well, unhappy.  As I tried to rock him back to sleep, I soon realized what the problem was.  That is, I realized it once he barfed all over me and his smelly vomit dripped down my tank top into my cleavage.  Oh joy.  Right? 

He actually had thrown up the afternoon prior but I thought it was just drinking too much juice and a car ride that did the trick.  But this 3:30 am episode that landed him in the bath and me in the shower told me otherwise.

Saturday morning he was quite cranky so my "wagie ride" plan was put on hold. But when he eventually went to sleep around noon the girls and I launched into other fun to celebrate Tuesday.  We do what we do when we celebrate around here.  We turn the tunes on and we bake cookies.  Chocolate chip cookies to be exact. 

As we mixed the dough in the one appliance I have real feelings of love for, my Kitchen Aid mixer, this was the sky out of our kitchen window.  

As the cookies baked, the girls made drawings for Tuesday in preparation for the "parade."  They are so into this parade idea.

We did our share of licking the bowl and eating large chunks of cookie dough and then also devoured half a plate of freshly baked delights.  Oh, what a perfect Saturday afternoon lunch.

When El Destructo woke THREE AND A HALF HOURS later, he was a changed lil' dude.  He was better.  Or enough to carry on with the next part of the wagie ride preparations.

You see, our wagon was stolen a few months ago while sitting in front of our home.  In my neighborhood we ALWAYS leave stuff out and this is the second thing that has been stolen in the last six months.  Weird.  So we needed to get another wagon and this wagie ride was the perfect excuse to do it.

So in the late afternoon I loaded up the kids (my dude was hanging with some friends in Newport Beach for the day) and off to Toys R Us we ventured in search of a new wagon.

It's been raining on and off for a few days here in LA so in between the puffy white clouds and blue skies, big gray rain clouds have floated in off the ocean dropping plenty of water to clean our city streets.  As we drove, blue skies hovered to the west while the gray clouds that recently passed hung out in the east.  

And then I saw something I rarely see in LA and something my girls pointed out they had never seen before in their young lives....

....a real live rainbow.

Yes, there are rainbows...even in LA.  

They insisted I stop and take photos even though I only had my iPhone with me. The squeals of delight as they described the colors and shouted "It's following us mama!" made my heart do a few backflips.  

And coupled with knowing that on this day people all over the country and as far as New Zealand were remembering Tuesday and the Whitt family made the significance of this rainbow, well...nothing short of miraculous. 

Our wagie ride.

To be continued...