Skunked! (and Short Person's 5th Birthday)

We were driving in the car on our way back from a day at the grocery store. It was a school field trip for Short Person's pre-k class so that they could learn about what happened behind the scenes at the places we shop.

The tour included a stop in the bakery, where the kids were shown how the baker's make large quantities of cakes, donuts, and frosting, and also where they got to watch the cake decorator put that same frosting to good use. Since it happened to be a birthday cake they were decorating, the class took the opportunity to sing "Happy Birthday" to Shortie, for the second time that day. Once the bakery was toured, it was off to the meat department where each of the kids got to make hamburger and watch the butcher wrap and tag their grinds, then to the milk cooler, where the kids got to watch as customers chose their gallons of milk-- a reverse image of the usual.

All-in-all, it had been a fun day, and now the four of us, Anjee, Eye, Short Person, and I were on our way back to the school to finish out the rest of the day.

Since all of the pre-k kids had asked their parents to attend the field trip, there was a caravan headed out of the parking lot. It was here, a few cars back, that we waited, talking.

"So, I wake up, at 3:00am, to a string of curse words being shouted by LJS as he threw the dogs in the garage. I couldn't figure out what was going on... and then I smelled it." I groaned, using sound to give a precursor to the conclusion, not that I needed too since I was sure Anjee could guess what the smell had been.

"It was a stunk, Anjee!" Short Person finished for me, imparting the best moment of the story.

"A skunk" I corrected, sighing. "This is like the third time they've been sprayed this month! I seriously thought LJS was going to lose it, and oh man... my house stinks SO BAD." I shook my head. What a way to wake up, I thought. "I just lay there praying that I wouldn't throw up. You know, I think they harness that stink to use in those fainting wake up pills."

Anjee is laughing, as is Eye from the back seat, not that I blamed them. Had the situation been reversed, I'd have been laughing too. Looking back, it was pretty funny. LJS had let loose an impressive amount of curse words in a very short time period.

Anjee and I continued to talk for the next ten minutes, going over different subjects as the girls giggled and chattered independently from the back seat. Then the conversation ebbed for a minute before Anjee turned to me and asked, "So, do you feel lucky today?"

I smiled. It was St. Patrick's Day, the day of leprechauns and rainbows and pots of gold, but mostly it was Short Person's birthday. Nothing could get me down. "Sure. Why? What's up?"

Anjee responded that she had purchased some raffle tickets at Oregon's 150th birthday celebration and the drawing was later that afternoon. "So, I just wanted to know if you feel lucky today." She said.

"Of course, I feel lucky. It's Short Person's birthday. It's a lucky day." I smiled.

And that's when the little voice from the back seat piped up and said, "Except for the skunk. Right, Melody?"

In between the hilarious fits of laughter, I forced out the words. "Right, Eye. Except for the skunk."

***********

It was a good day. Short Person turned five. It's hard for me to believe. I still remember her first birthday when LJS and I, in the midst of our friends and family singing "Happy Birthday" to her, looked at eachother both of us on the tears as we stood in suspended time disbelieving that we had a child.

Now she's five. Independent and funny and smart and... everything we could have ever hoped for, for us.

In the end, the thing that strikes me as prevalent is how much I praise God for her. Had LJS and I attempted to create a child, that little person would never have turned out as well as the joy we've been given in Short Person.

We ended the evening at Red Robin's for dinner, with a big costumed bird singing "Happy Birthday" to her-- for the fourth time that day.