Gatti's Gatti's We're all going to Gatti's!

Today I had to be out of the house for an hour with all of the kids before I could take the three small ones to grandma's for the afternoon. The house cleaner comes on Tuesday afternoons so I leave so she can clean without having to re-clean a million times.

As you know Miles' legs are casted so that limits places like the park. I have to keep him in places with air conditioning because it's like he has little heaters on his legs. So, I was thinking about where I could go and then I remembered that I had 4 free Gatti coupons in my purse. Normally I would have dismissed that idea extremely quickly, but I was feeling brave.

When we got in the car I told the kids that I was planning on taking them to Gatti's, but that I was going to need a TON of help from them! They all eagerly agreed! On the way there I explained that we may play games and we may not. It just depended on if I thought it would be crazy or not. I warned them that even if they were good that we still might not be able to play games. I just wasn't sure. There was no complaining to my last comment so I was encouraged that their attitude was just right for such a trip. On the way there Spencer said, "You sure are brave Mom to take all of us kids with only one of you!" I smiled and agreed.

When we got there I was amazed at Joey's speediness. In a matter of seconds he had Melody, Jocie and Miles unbuckled from their car seats. As I was getting out the wagon for Miles to ride in the kids were waiting for me patiently at the end of the Suburban and Joey was opening up the door so I could get Miles out of his seat. I let out a breath of relief to see that this was going to be fun. Everyone was happy, everyone was helpful, and they were all pleasant to one another. As I put Miles in his little wagon Joey shut one of the back doors and Spencer shut the other and we were off!

We had to go in through the EXIT because the wagon wouldn't fit in their entrance. All the kids stayed with Miles while I paid. The people in line let me cut to the front since I had such a group with me. :) (perks) We got to a table that we could all fit in and I asked Joey if he was up for the challenge of being the "Drink Man". He said that he was. All the kids started telling Joey what drink they wanted, but I told Joey that he could pick all the drinks. He took 2 at a time and came back with his proud concoctions. After the first round of drinks I knew this was note worthy so I began to jot down all the drinks he made. Here's a list.

1. Diet Lemon Pepsi
2. Cherry Dr. Pepper
3. Lemon Rootbeer
4. Lemon Sunkist
5. Vanilla Rootbeer
6. Cherry Diet Pepsi
7. Mountain Dew
8. Vanilla Lemon Cherry Big Red
9. Cherry 7-Up

The worst of these belonged to Melody and it was the Diet Lemon Pepsi. Every time she took a drink she wrinkled up her nose and said, "Yucky". She had to trade hers in for "One like Sessors". (Spencer's)

There was a total of 6 refills while we were there and one spill.

I let Joey get his own food. Spencer got his own food and that went so well I asked him to get a plate for Melody. He was happy to be a helper so he ran to get her pizza. He did make her plate with the kinds of pizza that she likes. He was so excited that he did it he raised the plate in the air to show me and ended up dropping all the pizza on the floor. He looked up at me with a big embarrassed grin them quickly picked it all up, put it back on the plate and served it to Melody. Part of me wanted to send him back in line with a clean plate and fresh pizza. That part of me didn't win. I was just glad to have three out of five plates made.

So we were sitting there and people kept looking at Miles and whispering about him to whoever they were sitting with. I was wondering why people just didn't ask what happened to him instead of trying to figure it out on their own. I found it humorous. You could see that they wanted to know, but they wouldn't dare ask. (I don't think I would have either.)

The rest of the lunch went well. I did forget to put Ranch on my salad, but I was already sitting down so I just ate the salad without any dressing. It wasn't too bad. The kids were so enjoyable that I decided games would be just fine as long as we all stayed together. Usually I let them run all over and gather them at the end, but this time that wasn't going to work. First of all I've never taken them all by myself, and secondly I didn't want to have to wheel Miles all over that place looking for 4 kids for the rest of the afternoon.

So, they agreed and we cashed in our $8 of quarters for tokens. We were playing the bowling game and Miles fell asleep in his pillowed wagon. It was so loud in there I think he felt right at home. While we were playing this lady came up to me and asked me what happened to Miles. I gave her the brief answer of his hip was dislocated so he had to have surgery. I never can tell what information people really want about Miles. The lady said something like. "Oh, poor baby" and then went off to chase her kid. Then she came back and wanted to know how it happened. I told her that he had tone issues in his legs that made it happen. She didn't understand so I explained that his muscles were tight and blah blah blah. She went off again and then came back with another question. I decided to give her the whole story about when Miles died in his sleep and all that. While I was telling her the story she stopped me and said, "Wait a minute. I think I've heard your story on the radio." She had heard the letter that Randy had sent into KGNZ for the Mother's Day Spa Getaway. It was a wonderful letter and I ended up winning the Spa Day. I told her that it was me and so then we started talking some more.

She told me that when she heard that letter it made her cry and it humbled her. She said that she only has two kids and she complains about what it takes to take care of them but compared to what I have to do it's nothing. She kept saying, "I can't believe I got to meet you!" It was like I was a celebrity or something. (That was nice for the ego.) She also said that the letter made me sound like the best mother in the world. (Again, nice for the ego.) Anyway, it was so nice to talk to her. She's already plugged into a church so I didn't invite her to ours, but I did give her my number so she could call and check up on Miles. I told her that I don't know why this whole thing happened but I do know that the Lord is going to totally restore and heal Miles. I told her that the next time I run into her Miles will probably be running around.

So I left there proud of my children, encouraged that these things that I'm going through is already an encouragment to others, and once again excited about Miles being healed by Jesus Christ!