I imagine ....

..... that this is what Heaven looks like now.

Jim is up there, taking in all of the sights and he has taken the hand of one of the children we know who are there with him.

And he's waiting .......

Can you tell it's been a rough day?

Ah yes .... a rough day in a rough week in a rough month in a horrible year.  

So one rough day doesn't seem all that bad.  

Guess it depends on your definition of "rough".

     The testosterone in the house is overwhelming again.  Daughter #1 went back to the freezing east coast yesterday (read:  she left me here all alone).

Today after church I took the boys to shop for groceries.  Big mistake.  Big, huge mistake.  Please learn from my mistakes --- never take 3 teenage boys grocery shopping.  I don't think it's humanly possible to consume that amount of food in the next two weeks.

     And then we drove through Taco Bell for their lunch.  The two younger ones ordered 10 tacos between them.  For some odd reason, Taco Bell added 4 more (and charged me for it, thank you very much) so Son #2 was like a little boy on Christmas morning when he opened the bag and saw all of those tacos!  

  There was great debate on how many of the extras each boy would receive (Son #1 did not factor into the equation as he was not in a taco-mood).  I think the final tally was Son #2: 8 ..... Son #3:6. 

  Once they were done with the arguing dividing, the unwrapping of the tacos commenced.

I think Son #2 downed three tacos before taking a breath.  

And then he stopped.  I asked him what the problem was and he said that he didn't know, but that he needed a break.  And to go to the bathroom.

  Since the memories of my recent yak-fest are not that old I immediately thought that maybe he was going to yak --- in my lovely, new-smelling car.  Before I could scream in terror he immediately carried the conversation forward ..... which, as you will see, was really backwards.

Son #2:  "You see, Mom, it's basic mathematics:  when one load goes in, one load needs to go out.

Me:  slight, disgusted and stunned pause ...."Really?  ......... Math?" (trying to stay away from the whole "load" topic)

Son #2:  "Yes, actually .... it's basic biology."

Me:  "Really?!  Math and biology?  As in, your two strongest subjects?"

Son #2:  "Yes.  Exactly."

Here's where Son #3 piped in about there needing to be a space in-between the two loads or a person could blow up.  And then much discussion (only between the two of them!) started about loads, the entering and exiting of such loads and if blowing up was, indeed, realistic.

And that's the point where I really, really started missing Daughter #1.