What do you say to a man who has suddenly lost his only child?

I don’t know.

As a parent, how do you recover from having your life, your blood, your heart, torn from you? When the rest of your life changes in an instant and your hopes and dreams that all centered around your child are inexplicably shattered…how much strength must it take to force yourself to keep breathing? How do you get up and live the next day, knowing that you’ll never ruffle that head of hair or hear those giggles again, that every notion you had about tomorrow was just an ill-formed illusion?

I don’t know.

Had it happened to me, I’m not sure I could.

I don’t know this man. He’s more like a friend of friends. But I cry for him.

There is an internet effort going on to send a gift of support to his family. If you wish to transcend distance and participate, you can find more information here.

I love Beth’s tradition of posting pictures of her princess on Mondays. If I were better at commitments I would totally steal her idea every week. But I’m not, so you get the Munchkin Monday, Sporadic Edition.

These were J’s and my Dad’s Fathers Day gifts.

My keyboard is covered in cement dust.  So is my desk, the furniture, the banisters, and the rest of the house.  The guys showed up this morning to install the laminate flooring and then had to go bring in several bags of cement mix to “level out” the floor.

Which means that the floors won’t be finished until tomorrow because it has to dry.  So everything from that half of the house is still crammed into the other half of the house.  There is junk all over the carpet and everything in the house is gritty to the touch.

Ew.  I can’t wait to get this project over with.

You’ve probably seen this before, but since I haven’t, I’m posting it.

So deal.

If you want to find out what you really need in life, let Google tell you. Type in your first name, followed by “needs” to a Google search. It works best if you put the phrase in quotations.

According to Lord Google:

• Amy needs to either wake up or start getting some extra will-power.
• Amy needs to find a home where she can spend her golden years and be a cherished member of the family.
• Amy needs some helping drinking apparently.
• Amy needs to get out the monkeysicle and do some tests on him and what not.
• Amy needs your help!
• Amy Needs a Crash Pad.
• Amy Needs a Break.
• Amy needs to go to Houston

How is it that I can go to the store and spend over $200 in groceries…and have nothing to eat?

How is it that sometime between last year and this year I got old, and can no longer play a game of rec league softball without injuring myself?

How is it that even when I have my Fathers Day gifts planned out weeks in advance, I still find myself skipping church to make an emergency run to the store on Father’s Day?

How is it that 6 years could have passed so fast?

Today, was our 6th anniversary. J’s dad was still here so we spent much of the day hanging out with family, then took him to the airport and had a nice dinner out at Fogo de Chao. Apparently FdC has grown more casual than I remember it being. Not only were lots of people wearing jeans*, but there were a suprising number of families there with youngish children.

In general, when a restaurant costs more than $50 per person, I tend to assume that jeans are not a appropriate attire and that children are … discouraged. Evidently I’m wrong about this. Of the three families (with children) sitting next to us, one showed up with McDonald’s Happy Meals for their kids. What’s the point of that? Find a babysitter. Your kids would probably appreciate it.

The last time I ate at FdC, which I think was 2 years ago, I gained 3 pounds from that single meal. And they stayed on. Hopefully that won’t be the case this time. Though I can say it would be worth it. That place rocks.

Afterward, we rented a movie and spent the remainder of our Anniversary on the floor in front of the big TV. Which is really the only way to spend an evening after you’ve just eaten 5 pounds of meat.

Happy Anniversary to my mostest favoritest person in the whole world who I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with!

*Which was doubly annoying because I had griped at J for wanting to wear jeans and made him change into slacks before we left, AND I would have been so much more comfortable in jeans myself because I could have worn shoes that allowed me to wear an Ace Bandage on my ankle. Instead, I went booted and braceless and my ankle hurt. Stupid softball.