My Sweet, Sweet Addie and Her Broken Heart.....and Mine!!

You moms know how it is. You always have the camera shooting great pics of the kiddos while who ever knows what you look like in a photo???? It's not a problem, but an observation. So the final day of our county fair, Addie was hanging out with me as we helped Ainslee by leading one of her heifers, Beth, to the community watering trough (may I add here that watering any animal in any public place is a HUGE no-no for health reasons!!! We were just tired and desperate!! Now both heifers have pinkeye....go figure!!) a kind 4-H mom named Robyn snapped this shot of Addie with me!! She emailed it to me, and I was so happy to see a shot of Addie and me together!!!!

SO back to the title of this post about Addie's broken heart and mine. Notice the necklace I am wearing in the photo. It is two strands of a hodge-podge od cool beads and then a western silver and brass colored square concho with a cowboy riding a bucking horse in the middle of it. I had been browsing the fair boths one day with Addie, and she and I stopped at this one booth that had this necklace. I fell in love with the beads but didn't particularly love the piece they had hanging from it. The young lady who made the necklaces and also did custom work with silver in the way of belt buckles and jewelry informed me that she could change out the "charm" part and put any concho on it. So I picked one I liked and she added an adapter and hung it for me to see. WOW!!!! But it was $42, and if you knew what we spent daily at the fair for shavings, feed, rides, rodeo tickets and our own indulgent food choices, you would have me committed!! So we kept on walking and also looked at this very cute stationary Addie wanted to buy with her money. It was a note pad of 50 pieces of paper with the little stick figures of pets and people that could be personalized. It was $20 total for the 50 sheets, but she insisted that she wanted two pads, so that would be $40 for two note pads.....I had a problem with that. Addie is usually a very, very logical kiddo. She is frugal and makes smart spending and saving decisions. But this time she was insisting she wanted to buy two sets. I tried to explain she could use one of the personalized ones for the first page of a letter and plain white after that as she does write lots of letters, but she would not budge. Of course she wanted to order then, but I didn't have the money and she needed to go to the bank to withdraw hers, but the bank was already closed. She whined about it some and then got really excited about hitting the bank first thing the next morning to get her cash. So the next morning we headed to the bank right after we fed the heifers. I made my deposit and then we turned it over to Addie to get her cash. Well, since Grouchy was with the girls when they opened their new accounts, the bank would not give Addie money with out Grouchy there!! YIKES!!! He is in Louisiana for the rest of the month, so that meant no cash for Addie. However, I figured I would just float her a loan and we would settle when Grouchy gets home. So we are walking out of the bank when I hear sobbing behind me. It's Addie!!!!! I turn around to ask her what is wrong and she burst out with, "Mom, I didn't want to buy the stupid stationary. I wanted to buy you the NECKLACE!!!!!" And then the sob escalated to a full-blown nose-running, alligator-tear producing CRY!!!! Oh my gosh, I felt horrible!! I assured her she was so sweet and I didn't need the necklace but I could loan her the money or my parents (who are living in the guest house til October) could loan it to her, but Addie was totally opposed to either option. She cried all the way home. I reminded her I didn't need the necklace and that I truly appreciated her thoughtfulness, and then reminded her that there is always a way, especially to do good. And there is always a way when you want to do bad, but it is usually much easier to do the bad and much, much harder, sometimes, to make the great things happen. Then I started crying. I could not help her!!!! I jumped out of the car when we got home and ran around to her side od the car to swoop her into a big momma-hug, and we both cried harder. Then we both are looking toward her little dog, Camper, as we cry together, and he scoots his bum across the pavement to itch his scratchy bum (no, not worms but maybe anal glands full or possibly just that he is a neurotic, in-bred little creature!!). And we both errupted with laughter, and then Addie got an idea. "Mom!!! I got it!!! Remember the piggy banks DiDi (Grouchy's mom) had in her kitchen, one for each grandkid?? And remember a few years ago she broke the banks open and gave us all our money at Christmas in silver dollars?!" I told her I had them in my closet but that she could not spend them. She said that she would not, but she could trade them for cash from me and then go to the bank when Grouchy gets home and take her to get her cash from her account to give me in return for her silver dollars. So it was simply a matter of moving a Ziploc baggie of 50 silver dollars from our special box in my closet to my jewelry box and give her cash to make it official. She was so proud of herself for figuring it out!! And I was elated she figured it out on her own!!! Back to the fair we went later, and she disappeared right away and came dashing up with a HUGE grin and the BEAUTIFUL multi-colored eclectic beaded necklace with a large concho with a cowboy on a bucking horse. It is stunning and probably my favorite piece of jewelry I have ever owned!!!!! But it could have been a strand of bottle caps and it would still mean the world because it was from my Addie!!

May you realize all the little things your kiddos do for you and the simple thoughtfulness you may share with others today!!!
Godspeed,

Clara-Leigh