Precious Memories

I stumbled upon one of my journal entries from August, 2012.  I think we all might need a smile or giggle. 

When we lived in Illinois, our summer Saturdays most generally followed the same routine week after week.  Greg would head out to golf with his buddies early in the morning.  I enjoyed a cup or two of coffee, worked in my garden and attempted to mark several items off my to-do list.  While the projects I would attack differed from week to week, I seemed to have fallen into a habit of driving through McDonald’s to get Ross’ lunch every Saturday.

On this particular Saturday, nothing seems to be flowing quite right and everything seemed to be a challenge for me.  Ross, on the other hand was enjoying his morning watching cartoons and listening to his music. 

I knew that the lunch topic would be coming up soon.  Quite honestly, I didn’t want to go anywhere and was fine staying home.  I needed to come up with an alternative to McDonald’s before anything was mentioned.

I checked the bread.  4 slices.  Perfect!  Ross will have grilled cheese and felt confident he would be fine with this selection.

“Ross, we have bread for toasted cheese sandwiches today.  How does that sound?”

He didn’t say anything, but that wasn’t unusual.  I went back to the office and continued my project.  After a few minutes, I stepped out and as I entered the hallway, I had a clear vision of Ross stuffing all 4 slices of bread in his mouth all at once.  We quickly caught each other’s eyes.  His huge blue eyes couldn’t have been opened any further staring at me, waiting for my reaction.  I tried to pretend I didn’t see him, but looking at his huge chipmunk cheeks with all the bread, I could hardly hold back the laughter.  I quickly stepped back in the office to let out a laugh, as quietly as I could muster.

Several minutes later, after Ross had chewed and swallowed the 4 slices of bread, he walked through the office door.  “McDonald’s, three cheeseburgers, mustard only, order of French Fries.” 

How could I say no to his extreme plot to have his Saturday McDonalds cheeseburgers?

“Ok, get your shoes on and we’ll go.”

Ross was pretty quiet as we gathered our things from the house and got in the car.  We pulled out of the driveway and down the street about a block, Ross erupted into hysterical laughter and squealing.  So much, that the car was moving as he was laughing and rocking back and forth.

I already knew that Ross had played me like a fiddle.  He had no intentions of eating the grilled cheese sandwiches I offered to make.  As I watched him laughing and thoroughly enjoying his victory, I found myself celebrating with him.  

All these years later, I can still see his big blue eyes staring me down, waiting for a reaction.  I can feel the car rocking. I can hear his infectious laughter.   Every time I think about this day it puts a smile on my face and warms my heart. 

I hope this memory puts a smile on your face as well.