It is finished

Yep, the bar is over…at least for now. Joe doesn’t get the results for several months, so we won’t know if he passed until later in the year. But for now, it’s over…he’s home…Ella’s happy…mommy’s happy…and our lawn actually got mowed!

Joe came home Thursday morning. He and I were both anticipating his arrival and how Ella would respond when she saw him. Unfortunately, Ella was fast asleep when he arrived. However, once she woke up from her nap it was impossible to wipe the smile from her face. She was so excited to have her daddy home and didn’t let him out of her sight for the rest of the day. They spent the afternoon playing together and having quality daddy-daughter time.

Friday night the weather was beautiful! Things had cooled off enough that Ella could actually get outside. So we decided to head over to Rita’s for some Italian Ice and custard. Ella was insistent that SHE put the sprinkles on…”Not mommy…Ella will do it!” So as I ordered her custard I had to specifically ask the girl to put the sprinkles on the side because my precious 3 year old daughter who was sitting in the car wanted to put them on herself. The girl obliged and Ella was able to top her ice cream with the sprinkles. Ella wanted chocolate sprinkles, but once she saw my rainbow sprinkles she decided they were much better, so we traded…then Joe proceeded to eat Ella’s custard and I was left with the leftover key lime Italian ice…not what I wanted. Oh well, such is the plight of a mom. We couldn’t let the beautiful weather pass by without enjoying it, so we headed into DC and took an evening stroll around the FDR and Jefferson memorials. 5 ½ years ago Joe proposed to me at a bench along the water near the memorials, so this place has special meaning for us. When we were dating and neither of us had much money, we would spend many nights walking around the monuments and just enjoying the sights. This made it even more special to share it with Ella. She loved all of the water fountains (she calls it ‘dancing water’) around the FDR memorial, and she loved walking along the tidal basin. It was such a great night to get out as a family. Ella didn’t want to go home. She wanted to stay longer and see more dancing water, but it was WAY past her bedtime, and both Joe and I were exhausted.

Saturday was when reality began to set in. Not once did Joe say, “I’m going to study from 10 am until 7 pm.” When I had a bunch of errands to run, Joe came with Ella and me. It was great! I didn’t have to lug Ella in and out of the car for a quick trip to the post office…I just left her in the car with Joe. We got so much done! Saturday night we once again had beautiful weather, so after Ella got cleany-clean and into her Sponge Bob jammies, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. Ella recently got a new tricycle with some birthday money, so she rode her tricycle and Joe and I walked beside her (and one of us pushed the tricycle because really, she’s only 3 and doesn’t have complete control yet).

Sunday was church and as we were leaving Ella looked at Joe and said, “I like that church!” Boy, were we glad to hear that! We came home and relaxed for a bit, then Joe MOWED THE LAWN!!! The only reason this is a big deal is because for the past 2 years we’ve lived in the house, mowing the lawn has always been squeezed between studying. He would mow when the grass is so high that the mower barely fit over it and there wasn’t a choice but to mow. But yesterday he got to actually cut the lawn while it was still not too tall, and he even got to plant some tomato plants that have been very neglected. Hopefully now they’ll produce a tomato or 2. Sunday night a couple of guys from our church had a concert, so we took Ella to listen to the music. She loved it and sat through the whole concert.

It’s definitely going to take some getting used to having Joe back around without studying getting in the way, but I’m sure it will be a quick and easy adjustment. As one of my friends said, “There might be a time when you actually WANT him to go to the library.” That might be true, but for now I’m glad to have him around.