Mel's Fantastical Insights

My sister and her family came all the way from Idaho to visit us. Naturally we had to take them to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a typical July day, foggy, freezing, windy and crowded. We battled people on bikes and with strollers and the wind to walk onto the bridge. We had just made it to the first tower when we noticed a whale watching tour boat and joked about how cool it would be if there was suddenly a whale that came out of the water. About ten seconds later, A WHALE CAME OUT OF THE WATER! It didn't ever do the complete National Geographic flip over or show it's tail, but there was a Humpback Whale feeding, and it kept coming up to eat. It was amazing. AMAZING. We spent almost 40 minutes watching the whale, possibly whales at the time. There was one in particular that came over, right below us the kids could all see it, and it was so close we could see the barnacles on the mouth, and it rolled and was putting on quite the show for us. It was an amazing sigh

I used to love Sundays. I was raised Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and we Mormons go to church for three hours every Sunday. It has never been a chore to me, I have always enjoyed it. My children on the other hand, don't love it, and every Sunday there is an epic battle in my home to get dressed for church. Half of them don't want to go and try to finagle their way out of attending, the other half don't mind going but hate wearing anything but active wear. Needless to say I have to now gear up for Sundays. Today was different, and all because of one child. This child. Alice got dressed today 25 minutes before our normal getting dressed time, without me asking, without me pleading, without me begging and bargaining, and because she got dressed Esther got dressed, and then Daniel and Charlie was the only one who tried to finagle staying home (which is his normal and always has been) yet he chose to wear a vest with his shirt and