Drops of Awesome

Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson

Archives for March 2008

Passing the Cup

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Happy Easter world! It was a fabulous day. 3 of the 4 members of my family were down for the count with chest colds. 2 of the 3 members of my family who were down for the count with chest colds were still cheery. We saw at least 10 minutes of sun this afternoon, the promise of a summer to come and a reassurance that the sun has not yet imploded during this long dark Seattle winter. Maybe the sun did get snuffed out at some point this winter but it was reborn today. It is Easter after all.
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The bunny man found the grass we grew and hid treasures among its tender green shoots. I made my first lemon meringue pie from scratch, including separating the various parts of an egg and zesting citrus fruits. It was a joyful romp in the domestic arts. Let me tell you I’m SO glad I’m feeling well enough to romp a little at this point. Now that I’ve given away the apocalyptic chest cold of death to 3 immediate family members, I’m finally starting to get well. I’ve even enjoyed playing nurse to them. If only Dan were feeling well enough to take full advantage of my new role.easter-026

After breakfast this morning we had a little lesson about the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. When we got to Gethsemane, we held up a small cup that we use while taking the sacrament at church. I explained that while Jesus was suffering in the garden, He pleaded with Heavenly Father to let the cup pass from Him but said that either way, He’d do God’s will.
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When Laylee looked puzzled, I explained that “letting the cup pass from Him” meant that He didn’t want to have to suffer so much but that He was willing to do it because He loved us so much and knew we needed Him to atone for our sins.

“Hmph,” she said. “So he did the atonement and THEN he passed the cup to the Deacons and they pass it to us.”

In our church the deacons are the 12-year-old boys whose priesthood responsibility it is to pass the sacrament each week with the water in those little cups.

Wrong cup. Right level of cuteness.

Mamma Mia with the Snorffles

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mamma-mia4On Tuesday I was heading for serious sickness but I was conflicted because I had serious tickets to see Mamma Mia! with a few of my SeattleMomBlogs peeps and I felt I MUST GO. So I did. I packed my huge mom purse full of tissues and headed out with Eve driving my car because I was unfit for the road.

She is just getting over a nasty little something as well and we were worried about cross contamination so we drove with the windows down most of the way as I sniffled, snorffled, hacked and coughed my way to girls’ night out.

mamma-mia3Isabel, lovely as ever, did not seem even a bit bothered when we called to tell her we’d arrived at the theatre early and could she please bring us some cough lozenges when she came. And she brought them and all the people sitting around us rejoiced. I tried really really hard to time my coughing fits and nose-blowing fests for the height of the crescendos during the big show stoppers and I used hand sanitizer liberally. I feel fairly confident I did not infect any of my fellow ABBA lovers and honestly I think everyone was having too good a time to notice my… ahem… special sound effects.

To a lifelong ABBA fan, Mamma Mia! was complete and total fun. It was like a really well choreographed slumber party with several hundred excited friends. The acting and vocals were fabulous and I’ve never seen an audience that pumped mamma-miaup at a Broadway musical performance, laughing and clapping as each new ABBA song was woven into the story. I was amazed how well it flowed and today as I listened to my Gold album, I couldn’t get the images of the play out of my mind. I love the CD more than ever.

Just before bed tonight I took a wee break from being sick and had a full on dance party with the kids like my mom used to do with us when we were little, only back then the ABBA was on vinyl and it was a little less “old school.” If you have a chance, go see the show sometime. It’s only in Seattle through this weekend but I think it’s touring all over and there’s a film version coming out this year starring Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan. Can’t wait!

Suffering and Death

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I think I just ran a red light. I was driving along in the stupor of a death-inducing chest cold and when I looked in my rearview mirror I noticed a red light behind me. Maybe it was green my direction but I honestly don’t remember looking at it.

Then I pulled into the pharmacy drive-through and sat there for a few minutes staring at the window before I finally realized I had to press the call button to alert them that I was waiting. I was picking up cough syrup. Stinkin’ lousy cough syrup. That’s all they would give me at the clinic. I was hoping for morphine or a throat and lung amputation. But cough syrup!

I get so peeved when I go to the doctor and they say that I just have the same old virus that everyone else has, no big deal. If everyone else has what I have, then the pandemic must be here because I don’t care what they say, I can’t have more than 10 or 15 minutes to live.

I feel like I’ve caught everything this winter, 2 chest colds, sinus infections, stomach flu, a menacing hangnail and split ends. My dentist even suggested recently that I need to go to “tongue rehab.”

As I sat in the pharmacy parking lot waiting for my stinkin’ cough syrup to have the sticker stuck on it, I watched a pair of mummified senior old people inching their way to their parked car. They were walking directly towards a yellow Camaro and I was hoping against hope that it was theirs. Sadly they climbed into the burgundy Oldsmobile beside it. It would have cheered me greatly if theirs was the sports car and I really needed some cheering right about then.

At this point in my sickness I’m half-waiting for some bearded figure to pop up on Al Jazeera and claim responsibility for a biological warfare attack on the Seattle suburbs. Whatever they used, it’s working. I surrender.

GreenPan – Giveaway

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6 Piece GreenPan Cookware High-resI’m holding a giveaway of a set of awesome GreenPans over at Seattle Mom Blogs.

They are the first line of cookware using a non-stick coating that’s free of toxic chemicals that can be released into your food and into the air. They can cook at temperatures up to 800F without releasing anything harmful. I find this awesome because not only do they meet my criteria for healthier cooking, but they’re also dishwasher safe, something that drives me nuts about my current non-stick cookware.

Head on over there and enter to win a 6-piece set.

Click to Read My Product Review Policy

And He Shall Have Bubbles Wherever He Goes

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Magoo is obsessed with bubbles. He is driven to play with them. Whenever he has a hole in his schedule, he slips out on the front porch for a little quality time with his liquid soap, glycerin and a plastic wand. Dan is not nearly as traumatized by the thought of Magoo playing with that kind of wand as he is about him wearing the pink princess pull-ups I snagged on freecycle from a seller who forgot to mention the gender of her recently potty-trained child and whom I forgot to ask.

He brings the bubbles in the van whenever we go out and leaves them in his cup holder until it’s time to get out of the car. Through the Target parking lot, down the sidewalks of the outdoor mall, standing outside of Subway. Everywhere we go he blows the bubbles while I hold onto him by the scruff of his parka.

The bubbles match his personality perfectly, round, happy, bouncy and colorful until suddenly he pops and I throw him in bed.

I am forever entertained by him.

Mercenary Me

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It’s time again for the most fun ever. Please take a few minutes to fill out this reader survey. It helps my advertising network sell ad space on the site if they can tell Tillamook that all my readers eat cheese 3 times a day and other such nonsense. When results come in, I’ll type them up so you can see who else is reading along with you.

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