Magical Days

Sometimes a day comes by that is pure magic. This was one of those days for me.



It began this morning at 5:00am. The alarm went off and I rolled over not ready to greet the day. I drifted back into dreamland where the workout class that I was supposed to meet at 5:30 had been canceled and a volleyball team was practicing in it's stead. The alarm went off again, I pulled myself from slumber realizing I was on the verge of being late. I threw on my clothes and headed out the door. I arrived to the class just in time to join in the warm up. Counting myself thier were five of us. Mandy, my faithful walking partner and good friend; Lisa another good friend who happens to also be 5 months pregnant, my neighbor Chris and Frida who's son was on Noahs soccer team this past season. After a few warm ups and excercises, Bree the instructor informs us we are going to play a modified version of freeze tag. Rule one we skip rather than run, rule two we have to perform the given excercise of her choice when tagged until our teammate can unfreeze us. So here we were five grown women skipping after one another as fast as we can, laughing and tagging one another as though we were six years old again. I found myself trying to use my once highly effective evasive manuvering twists that proved to be not as effective or evasive as I remember them to be. After a good round of freeze tag we moved onto duck duck goose. It was so fun to run around that cafeteria without a care in the world. For that hour of play, I felt transported back time. One of those moments in life I was really happy I had gotten up for.



I took the kids to school and volunteered in Hannah's class for an hour or so then met my mom for lunch. I returned to the school at 12:30 to sign the kids out early so we could join Mandy and Lisa for a field trip to the gem show.



The gem show is a huge deal in Tucson. Every February-March rock and gem dealers from around the world gather here to show off thier specimens and sell to thousands of jewelers and rock hounds alike. This year we had the opportunity to visit a section of the show that Mandy's family leases out to various dealers. The kids were so excited. The first table we stopped at was full of calcite crystal. The kids immediatly noticed the small pieces of calcite littered on the ground. They asked the young man behind tht table if they could have them. Sure he replied. No sooner had I expressed our gratitude and how much he just made thier day, a shepish grin claimed the corner of his mouth and he quickly scooped up a handful of crystals from behind the table and offered them to all of our children. Squeals, giggles and gasps of delight greeted the mans act of generosity. At almost every table we visited a new treasure was offered. One table was of particular fun for the kids. A display of cut rocks were seperated by classification and soaking in water so a buyer could get an idea of what the stone would look like when polished. Hannah was drawn to the orbicular ocean jasper. The next table had the jasper in it's natural form uncut. Noah, Hannah and I began the search for one we could purchase. We finally found one we could all agree on. I brought it up to pay for and was told that we could have it and all the young ladies could have one as well. Could this trip get any better? Crystals, ocean jasper, tumbled stones, desert roses had filled the pockets of our nine children. We took the kids back to Mandy's families area and had a little snack and rest. Lisa and I went out exploring once more with Hannah leading the way. Hannah oogled the opals and wala- a beautiful opal was offered up. Hannah could hardly believe her good fortune. Then we rounded the corner and found what we had been looking for, a pile of geodes. Mandy had told me about this place. Geodes could be bought by the pound, and thier were several people in the area that had the equipment to cut them. Hannah picked out two, one for herself and one for Noah. We paid three dollars for the two of them. Next we went on the hunt for a saw... Not long after our search we found someone to cut our geods, a very nice gentleman from Idaho who was missing his six year old grandaughter, who he proudly shared, at age four was shining and polishing rocks right along side him. Hannah's geode was the first to be cut. All the kids gathered in anticipation. The stone was cut. He held it together and asked her to move forward so she could be the first to see what was inside. She stepped closer and he opened it up. In unison we all gasped, is was a heart full of crystal. "Oh my goodness, well would you look at that", he exclaimed. His wife came running over to see what all the fuss about, and offered up the same reaction with an added "just in time for Valentines Day." Hannah of course was grinning ear to ear. She loves hearts, and Valentines Day. Noah and Hyrums geodes followed and both having impressive displays of crystal formations did not dissapoint. We decided this was a good note to end the afternoon on, and headed home. Hannah smiled to herself and reflected,"I know what my happy thought will be for tommorrow." This day was special gift.

-Mel

*Please excuse any misspellings-spell check isn't working. Sad I know...
*Pictures to come- that's not working either.