Day 19 of ME: Fare Thee Well

You heard it right. Today is the absolute last Day Of Me.
(Dramatic Sigh)
Speaking of dramatic sighs...yesterday we took our neighbor's grandchildren to church with us. In previous lifetimes I have blogged about them. In fact, I have an essay coming up in the next Segullah about one special evening I had with my neighbor's grandchildren and how for a year they qualified for the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE!
Stay tuned.
My neighbor's grandchildren come in 3s, Becky, Katie and Shannon. Katie and Shannon who are 10 and 4 respectively, come to church with us every week. Katie LOVES the whole church-going experience and because her family are far gone inactive she comes with us. Shannon is there to wear a pretty dress.
Shannon and I have that in common.
Yesterday, as usual Shannon couldn't sit still. She kept making this insanely annoying pouty noise at regular intervals during the first 15 minutes of Sacrament Meeting.
"MMMMMMMMow!" (High pitched.)
Most Sundays I just ignore this pleasant little ritual, which as you can imagine, entices her into more dramatic territories. Yesterday though I was dishing out paper, crayons, pens, razor blades, candy, but she wouldn't be satisfied. She sat on the ground in front of her chair and rolled around on the floor, her scraggly blonde hair becoming a mess of tangles and knots.
(Every week I ask Shannon if she washed her hair before church. One time her Grandma placed Shannon on my doorstep with a sign around her neck saying "Please Wash My Hair". I once found a FULL SIZED GRANOLA BAR stuffed and stuck in the recesses of her locks. Anyway, Shannon screamed and screamed while I worked up a lather. Is it mean of me to say that I took a small amount of pleasure in performing this impossible mission? Guilty as charged.)
Finally, exhausted from her overwhelming trial of being in a church meeting in the heat of the day, she slumped her slight little body on the seat next to mine, and with all the wind in her mini lungs, she heaved out the most powerfully pathetic sigh that carried it's own penetrating sound wave to the depths of the chapel.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaahumph!"
Ward members from seats away were offering pens and paper at rates that put previous Cheerio sharing to shame. And there Shannon sat on her metal chair throne accepting the offerings as The Young Goddess of the Overflow. If Katie wanted to see the color-changing pen donated by Sister Bidthrup, Shannon, as Overlord and Ever-Protector of All Good Gifts would ensure that Katie was sufficiently denied.
Then it was time for the primary kids to sing the Father's Day medley in front of the congregation. Shannon took front row and sang so seriously and with such intent that Chup and I couldn't keep our eyes off her. You should have seen her "GREAT.BIG.KISS." that she delivered in Chup's direction.
"You know..." Chup started, "she's kind of cute."
And if I didn't know any better I would say that we, Shannon's Church Parents, were beaming. When she returned to her kingdom after the singing was over, we took turns giving her accolades and telling her what a precious golden-haired pleasant and perky princess she was. (And I don't use alliteration in just any description...)
In turn, she used her bequeathed color-changing pen to draw us a technicolor rainbow.




See you in London and Paris!