Courtney brought the girls from Brownsburg on Saturday. At 9:30 a.m. she texted me to ask if I would like a coffee or anything. I took her up on the Starbucks. Plain Americano please.
They arrived at Frank and Deeyas around 11:00 a.m. She had planned to be here a little sooner but due to Highway re-construction on U.S. 31, it took her quite abit longer than planned. It was very nice outside so I asked Courtney if she and the girls would like to go for a Pontoon ride on Morse. She said she had to leave right away to go to work. Courtney brought me a shoe box full of Azures drawing and home work from 1st and 2nd grade. I like to scan them into a digital format for saving.
She also brought me my wedding ring. I wear that on my right hand now.
I had been practicing my guitar before they arrived so I played a song for Azure and Zarah. While I was playing Courtney and Yudi came down stairs to watch and listen. Yudi sat on the stairs. I played “House is Rocking” ( And it was) It sounded pretty good. After I was done Azure asked me why I kept “wiggling” my hand when I played. I explained that that was to cause the notes to “vibrato”. I showed her examples of notes with and without vibrato.
I was still learning song at the time. And I had to read the words.
Courtney left to go to work. At 12:15 she texted “Btw, good job on the singing. You’ve still got it.”
That was nice of her to say.
I asked the girls what they wanted to do. Azure said that she brought her scooter and wanted to ride it. A, Z and I went out side. While we were standing by the side door we found a Caterpillar. Azure wanted to make a home for it and keep it. I found a glass gallon jug in the garage and we put leaves and sticks an dirt in it for a home.
While it was crawling around I thought I would have a little father daughter moment with a Zarah and tell her about how a Caterpillar builds a cocoon and turns into a beautiful butterfly. I said “Zarah, what do you think this Caterpillar will turn into next spring?” Without hesitating she said; “A snake!” I cracked up laughing. I was still laughing about it at work several days later.
I tried to get Zarah to ride on Brooklynns little scooter, but she didn’t want to so I put her on the back of my bike. We rode around for a while but it didn’t long. Then we got tennis rackets and hit balls against the side of the barn. We did that for quite a while.
Around 2:00 P.M. Yudi asked me if I would like to take the girls to the park and have a picnic. The 3 of them got stuff out to make PB and jelly sandwiches. Zarah didn’t want jelly on hers. Yudi put them and some other things in a picnic basket and drove us to a park in Noblesville.
Azure made friends with a couple of girls instantly. We played and sat on the blanket and ate. It was a nice time. We walked to another part of the part and were surprised to find a Carousel. We rode it. Yudi took a few pictures of Zarah, Azure and I. Then we walked to still another playground and played at that one until about 5 p.m.
When we got home I decided on the spur of the moment to set up my tent in the backyard by the fire pit. Azure and I used to spend a lot of time “camping” in the backyard at our old house on 51st street. We used to have tons of fun doing that. So I thought, well its October, if I want to do that with Azure and Zarah this year, I’d better do it now. I sat it up without telling them what I was doing and then led them outside to show them. They were SUPER excited.
We were all hungry. I made Veggie hot dogs and we ate them out by the firepit. I didn’t tell Azure that they were vegetarian. Later when I did tell her she was amazed at how good they were.
I took two laptops out to the Tent. One for “Minecraft” for Azure. and one for Movies for Zarah and I. We watched “The Wizard of Oz” at least 4 times over the weekend.
While we were playing Courtney called to tell me about Azures latest report card. She did excellent.
I made Chocolate chip cookies and we played in the tent. About 9:00 Azure wanted to make a “T.V. Show”. So we got out of the tent. I filmed them carrying on and being silly for about an hour. You can see some of the excerpts above.
Azure read at story to Zarah and I and read one to them. Zarah zonked out at about 11:00. It started raining about midnight. Azure didn’t fall asleep until awhile after that. She wouldn’t tell me so, but I think she didn’t want to fall sleep because she was worried about wolves. She had made a couple of comments earlier in the evening.
Finally she fell asleep so then I went to sleep too. About 2 am I woke up and it was kind of cool in the tent so I went in the house and got a little electric heater and put it in the tent. We were warm and snug and slept until about 7 am.
I went in the house and grabbed some granola bars and some yogurt smoothies for breakfast. Zarah wanted more smoothie all day long. She kept calling them “Monkey drinks” because there was a monkeys face on the bottle. At 11:00 am we went up to the house and I made Pancakes for the girls. Azure wanted chocolate chips in hers. Zarah didn’t. I made a couple for Yudi too.
We played outside more. And I read to the girls
and finally Zarah fell asleep on the swing. About 3:00 P.M. I decided it was time to get cleaned up. I was sure we all smelled like campfire smoke. The girls took baths at 4. While they were bathing and playing in the tub together I baked a pizza for them.
We went downstairs and Azure said she wanted her guitar lesson for this week. We reviewed some chords. She was a little frustrated with her ability. So the lesson ended up being a talk about life. Without repeating everything here, I explained that working each day towards your goals, even if its just a few minutes a day, all adds up. And eventually you become good at anything you want to do in life. That goes for Guitar, Reading, School, Dancing, Sports. Whatever it is. I told her that even the greatest guitar players in the world started out not being able to make a C chord without having to try over and over. The conversation drifted from goals, to life, to family. We talked a little about Courtney and I. I told Azure that I still loved her mother but that she had decided to go another direction. Azure cried a little. Later Azure said; “I didn’t know my guitar lesson was going to turn into a life lesson”. While all of this was going on Zarah sat quietly beside us playing with some dolls.
Azure and Zarah sat on my lap in the lazy boy while we watched the Wizard of Oz AGAIN and waited for Courtney to come get them. Deeya, Brooklynn and Frank got back from Chicago around 7:00 P.M. Deeya immediately called me upstairs to talk with out the girls. I was like, hhhmmm whats up?… Deeya told me that she found out that Courtney is pregnant and getting married next weekend. Whoa…The first thing I thought was; “How is a new child going to affect Azure and Zarah?”
Missy and Courtney arrived at 7:30 and came downstairs. I showed them pictures and videos of the weekend with the girls. They stayed for about 45 minutes I waited but they didn’t mention Courtneys new state of affairs. As I put Azure and Zarah in the car. Missy and Courtney gave me a Veggie Donatos pizza. ( My favorite). We said our goodbyes and I went into the house to mull over this new wrinkle to my life.
