Weekend Update

What a weekend. On Friday my husband's friend from up the road was in a car accident. He's an older man that moved here several years ago with his wife. They came from California. They had a child going to Paul Smith's College and were visiting all the time and decided they really liked the area. He just retired a few months ago from the transmission repair shop he started when he moved here. I don't know them that well but the few times I've met him he's been quite pleasant. Bran has a great deal of respect for him. He's always been so wonderful to Bran. Helping him out when he has trouble on a transmission, answering questions with just as much patience as detail and even letting Bran use his garage when it was open to work on our relative's vehicles which he isn't even allowed to do at the dealership he works for. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for them both. They have 5 children. All of whom were adopted. They have put all of them through college and each one of them is successful. Amazingly wonderful people they are. Anyways, from what we've heard he had a diabetic seizure and drove their minivan through the concrete basement of a house downtown. Bran stopped at the hospital Friday and he was still in ICU and not seeing visitors. Saturday he stopped by their house to let them know we were thinking of them and offer help with anything they might need. He talked to one of his sons who told him that he had flat-lined twice on Friday, they had given him his last rites and then the next thing they knew he snapped out of it. How's that for a miracle? He was suppose to come home today. Not sure yet if he did yet or not. There were no cars there tonight when we came by from McDonald's so I'm assuming he must still be there. I'm still praying for him to come home soon. The rest of the weekend was a blur. I tried really hard to catch up on laundry and the rest of the housework. Didn't work out as I had planned because I'm still behind.

Last night we went to our friends for dinner. What a wonderful treat that was! Bran went to work there yesterday afternoon and I took the girls to the playground down the road from their house. I called Bran to let him know I was there so he could stop by if he wanted when he got done. He pulled in and not 5 minutes after he pulled in Denise came down the road. She stopped and invited us all to dinner. I have to tell you, we haven't been invited to anyone's house for dinner. Ever. We always have everyone here. I think it probably has to do with the fact that we have 3 kids. They are always really well behaved in front of company but I think the fact that there are so many of them throws people off. Now like I said, they are really well behaved in front of company. And I remind them to be really well behaved in front of company. So, on the way over last night I had my usual conversation with the kids, "Remember your manners. NO fighting. NO belching. NO pharting. NO talking about pharting." Yes, it is absolutely necessary to remind them not to talk about pharting. Trust me. Our friends are incredible. They are empty-nesters with one daughter recently graduating college with a masters in education, living in California and acting in movies and soaps and the other in college in Florida. We adore them. They are incredibly good hearted people. They are also a little more civilized than we are. They use wine glasses. I'm sitting here drinking Spumante from a water glass as I type. They have tablecloths. White tablecloths. We have none. We use paper towels for napkins. I could go on until I'm blue. I can't even begin to tell you how nervous I was that one of the kids would do something not cool. I held my breath all through dinner. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The were nice to each other. They cleared the dishes without being asked. There was no belching. There was no pharting. There was no talk about pharting. Hey Martha Stewart...THIS is a good thing. Of course as soon as we got in the van and pulled out of the driveway there was pharting. And lots of it.