Summer, so far

Today is Laney's birthday-I can't believe she's already 5! Makes me feel sooo old!!!
I've been home for one month now, and no, it hasn't been restful. Not to say I haven't enjoyed it, but I've ben working since the day after I got home. Except for this week. I've been babysitting 3 girls, ages 7, 3, and 3 months, and this week the older two were with grandparents, and the mom and dad wanted to spend some time with the baby, so I've been able to sleep in some. Earlier this week I took the kids to the pool, another day we went to the library, and yesterday I took my brothers to play soccer and I got to play a little myself. I figured since I've coached the sport for 2 seasons I'd better start learning how to play it myself!
A couple of weeks ago, I dropped my mom off at a cleaning job, and went in search of a Cuban restaurant I'd been told about. I was really looking forward to some Caribbean food, so when I finally found the place ( I only knew the exit it was near, not the address or anything like that) I was pretty excited. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich (cuban/caribbean style, not the straight from the frig variety americans are used to) and tostones-sliced and fried plantains. While I was sitting there eating my half of the meal (I saved half the sandwich and most of the tostones to share with my family because the portions are huge), a Hispanic man in scrubs came out one of the doors and said, "Haven't I already given you one of these (referring to the valued customer cards-get it punched 7 times, you get something free)?" I'd never seen the man before in my life, but he was convinced he knew me, either from the other restaurant or even from his office, and he also seemed to know about me being in Puerto Rico. Really weird! Anyway, I found out later that he's my mom's dermatologist and either he'd seen pictures of me, or I looked enough like my mom that he recognized me.
My next interesting experience for the day came when I walked into Walmart. I was a little frustrated, because I'd looked in several stores, including another Walmart, for the game "Operation." My dad had mentioned a few days previously that he had always wanted that game and never got it, so we decided to get it for him for Father's day. Only problem was that it was pretty difficult to find a version that wasn't Shrek, or Spiderman, or something else weird, we just wanted the plain old Operation! Thankfully I found it at this Walmart, and began walking towards the checkout. On the way, I saw some people setting something up, and discovered it was Truett Cathy (founder of Chick-Fil-A) doing a book signing. I've always been impressed with the man and his testimony, but I've also always been a chicken, so I didn't want to walk up and talk to him. After all, what could I possibly have to say that would be worth his time, especially since I didn't have the money to buy his book. I had a collection I got from the kids to pay for the game, but that's about it. I called my mom to tell her Mr. Cathy was there, because I thought maybe she'd like to see him later. She told me I should go talk to him, so I said, "Fine, I'll do it!" When I went up to the table there were 2 or 3 other people there, and I said "Mr. Cathy, I'm sorry I can't buy one of your books, but I wanted to tell you that I love Chick-Fil-A. I'm living in Puerto Rico now, and I really miss it. Every time I come home, it's the first meal I eat, usually even before baggage claim in the airport." He said he was real happy to hear that, then he said, "You know what? I'm going to give you one of my books." he picked up a book off the stack, opened it up to sign it with his name and Proverbs 22:1, then he looked at the front of the book and stopped. Apparently they weren't taking money for the books at the table, which I didn't realize at first, because they were Walmart's books. So, he said, "I forgot these were company books, so I'm gonna give you the money to pay for it." He reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, flipped through several bills, and handed me a $20. "Keep the change," he said. To which I replied, "Thank you sir, and God bless you!" I payed for the game and the book in the Walmart checkout, all the while amazed at this man's kindness towards me, a random person walking through Walmart. Just a really neat experience!
the other fun part about it was that we signed the card that came with the game with all our names, and at the bottom, "and Truett Cathy" because the money left over from what he gave me helped pay for the rest of the game. That was a lot of fun explaining to Dad!!