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What a week! We had a bad virus on Tuesday that put me out of commission for two days. We’re still discovering things that aren’t working. Christian spent 3 1/2 hours on the phone this afternoon with Netflix, Microsoft and MS virus specialists. Anyway. I have at least two blog posts touching on the topic of that trauma. 🙂 For today, you get my planned Wednesday blog post compressed, because…(other than the virus), Tuesday was an amazing day for the two eldest boys in our house.
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Alex’s class did their first Mass. And Alex was the reader. I’d like to show you a picture, but refer to the above. (Eye roll.) Just to make things more interesting, Alex lost his other front-upper tooth (i.e. the “lisping tooth.” I can’t thtop winthing and laughing at the thound of my firtht grader trying to read Thaint Paul’th Letter To the Romanth.
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Christian had this week off, so he made arrangements to play piano for Mass that morning, too–and didn’t tell Alex he was doing it. Alex didn’t seem to react too much, but apparently he spent all day telling his classmates, “That was my dad playing piano!”
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Oh, but the fun wasn’t done. Christian also arranged to be the class’s “mystery reader” that afternoon. Not content to bring a boring old ordinary book to read, he…are you ready for this?…WROTE A STORY. Including THE NAME OF EVERY CHILD IN THE CLASS. It was about how the first graders saved the town’s ice cream festival. And to top it off, he brought them…ICE CREAM TREATS. When I walked in to pick him up from piano lesson, Alex turned around and whispered, “Mommy! Daddy was our mystery reader today!” And spent the whole trip home laughing and reliving the story. According to the parents Christian ran into at parent-teacher conferences on Thursday, all the other kids did the same. 🙂 My husband’s been basking in a little glow all week, and I’m glowing on his behalf.
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Christian also ran his half-marathon on Sunday. One of his packs of “goo” slipped out of his waistband close to the beginning of the race, and he didn’t realize until it was too late, so he was without the sugar/caffeine/caloric intake he needed to complete it properly. He said the whole thing was an exercise of mind, and he almost quit several times. When he crossed the finish line, he went off to the side and flopped over a fence to rest. And then he couldn’t get back up. Two volunteers had to help him across the street to the medical tent. Apparently there’s a video, but although we have our computer back, we haven’t had time to find it. See above.
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Nicholas is saying his name at last. But it comes out “Nitwit.” Which I can’t help cracking up every time I hear it. Last night in the van he yelled, “My name…Nitwit!” over and over until Christian and I were both laughing.
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I spent my computer-free days on music. And I actually practiced my flute a bit yesterday! Now, if only Finale will work so I can put the fruits of my labor into the computer…

Sorry about the computer virus, hope everything is restored soon.
That is too cool of your husband to write the story he was reading to feature all of the listeners! Congrats to him for all of his races well run!
The mystery reader adventure sounds wonderful as does the thought of Alex reading… and lisping.
Sounds like Christian was a big hero this week! I can’t help laughing either about the “Nitwit.” too cute. You need to get him on film, er, digital recording for posterity!
Yes, we were just saying the same thing on the way home last night. 🙂
Oh man, that marathon picture with the Arch in the background makes me homesick for STL…
Your computer-free days sound like a great idea.
This blog made my day!
🙂 There are some days when I absolutely love this Friday format. This is one of them. It’s my “journaling’ day.
Awesome! Didn’t notice the his lisp while he was reading! He did great.
I also enjoyed Juliana’s singing at Mass.
She is hard to miss when she sings, isn’t she? 🙂
I loved being the Mystery Reader!