I outran the PO-leece

I can not believe I did it but it's true.
Yesterday I left the messy house behind, loaded up the kids and ventured out to find Stephen an anniversary gift. Saturday we will be celebrating 5 years together. For my local readers, I will use street names...just so you'll know where NOT to speed. I was headed North on Wellborn Road when I passed a DPS officer. This was only the 2nd time I had passed any authority since we moved to the house 7 months ago. I looked at my speed and noticed I was going 65. The speed limit is 55. I checked my rearview mirror and realized it wasn't red Christmas lights on the officers tail end..no ma'am. They were brake lights. He was ready to spin around and come after me. I had a little time on my side because of all the traffic, he couldn't turn around. So what did I do? Did I keep going and wait for him to come after me? No way! I turned right on Barron Road and hurried to the next street where I took another right, realized it was a cul-de-sac, went to the end, parked, and turned off my lights. Yup, that's what all 36 year-old moms with 3 little ones would have done, right?

Lauren asked, "Mommy, why are we here?"
Hmm. "Well, because Mommy was going too fast. Oh, look at those pretty Christmas lights."
Thank goodness that ended that conversation.

And we made it out without a ticket. Whew!

We found an anniversary gift. A table saw. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind but I knew he wanted it so I bought it. Besides, traditional for 5 years is 'wood' and it cuts wood so it works for me! I convinced Lauren to keep it a secret. Then I realized I had another problem on my hands. I couldn't lift it. Which meant it was going to sit in the back of the van until Stephen had to go somewhere today. So after he got home from work, I told him he could have his gift early. Besides, we are going out of town tomorrow and there's no sense in it taking up all that space in the van. He brought it in the house and followed my strict orders not to open it until after the housekeeper had come.

This morning when Lauren got up (I was already at work), she started saying, "Oh no, Daddy! Oh no! You're not supposed to see that" (as she pointed to the table saw box in the living room).
She did a good job with her secret I'd say.
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The Things Kids Say:
Sunday School was cancelled last week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. When we told Lauren that she didn't have class, she started crying and said, "Oh no! Who will teach me about Jesus?" It was really sweet. We're proud of our girl and her thirst for knowledge about our Lord.
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The other night I was reading our new Christmas story about The First Christmas. We got to the part where they placed Jesus in the manger. The book explained that a manger is a place where they put animals' food and Lauren asked, "Will they eat baby Jesus in the manger?" And if you think about it, that really is a good question.