Xylophones

I've talked to my mom (Hi, Mom!) a few times this week, which is always nice, and first, she said that the seester had a Is-It-A-Werewolf-Or-Is-It-An-Owl? experience yesterday, which is hilarious in it's own right, but also hilarious considering yesterday's post was ALSO about werewolves.  Great sisters think alike?

We were also talking about my Great Uncle Charles' (Uncle Chuck - my dad's mother's brother) upcoming 90th birthday party next week in Oregon.  This man was one of my absolute favorite people when I was growing up.  He would just show up sometimes to say hi, which always meant I got lots of snuggle time and often got to go to the store to pick out a toy.  What's not to love in that scenario?  Here we are in 1986:

Notice I'm plunked on his lap, despite being 11.  I think the look on his face says he thought I was OK, too.  As Mom and I were talking, I was also telling the hubby about Uncle Chuck and his visits, and it made me think of one time when he came and I got to pick out a toy, so of course I chose the most annoying thing (for everyone else) I could find:

A xylophone pull toy!  (I was NOT eleven when I chose this, in case you were wondering)  It not only made noise when I played, it also made noise when you pulled it around.  How fun!  I could be musical and annoy the whole family in one fell swoop!  Sorry, family.  I hope you don't still hate me.

This memory made me smile, and then go look for xylophone shoes.

Kind of blah, but hey! Xylophone shoes!

Not blah.  Absolutely adorable.

Cute and colorful, but again with the fleep flop issues...

Less cute colorful.  Still same fleep flop issues.

This isn't a xylophone shoe per se, but it kept coming up in my searches and it certainly evokes some of the more colorful options up above, so I decided to include it.  Because it's cute and strappy and rainbowy.

Thank you, Mom, Uncle Chuck, and Xylophones for inspiring today's post.

On a much heavier note:  yesterday's bad day turned into today's truly horrible day.  My screw-up went from not good to monumentally bad, and I'm not sure I'll be able to fix it.  I'm sorry to be vague, but I'm talking life-altering here, and not just for me.  Prayers would be appreciated greatly.