One Week to Go

Today is Palm Sunday, which means there is only one week until Easter. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of Peter Cotton Tail. This may seem odd because if you've known me for any length of time, you know I'm not a particularly religious person. That being said, Easter Sunday cannot get here fast enough. The reason for this sudden onslaught of religious devotion is I gave up chocolate for Lent. You same people that know me to be a not-so-religious person also know me to be one that often worships at the Temple of Hershey.

Giving up chocolate was actually Ashley's idea. On Ash Wednesday morning, I asked her what she was giving up for Lent. She told me chocolate. I thought about this all day, and decided to give it up as well; if she could do it, so could I. To my amazement, Thursday night after dinner, I found Ashley eating M&M's.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "I thought we were giving up chocolate?"
"You were serious about that?" she replied, and then said (between mouthfuls), "Methodists don't give up stuff for Lent; that's a Catholic thing."
"You'll burn for this, woman!" I said as I grabbed an apple for my dessert, which didn't quite hit the spot like those M&M's would.

Satan has taken many forms during Lent, tempting me in a variety of ways. The Sunday after Ash Wednesday, we had our neighbors over for tea. They are from Switzerland and had just returned from a trip. As a gift, they brought us these huge bars of genuine Swiss milk chocolate and dark chocolate. They smell soooo good. Ashley assures me they taste as good as they smell. I think I know what I'm having for Easter breakfast...

Satan also took the form of young girls in uniforms selling drugs, I mean, cookies, outside the supermarket. Yes, it's just my luck that Lent is simultaneous with Girl Scout Cookie season. Ashley was kind enough to buy a number of boxes, all of some sort chocolate variety. What a sweet wife. Much like the Swiss chocolate, she assures me the cookies taste just as good, if not better, than previous years.

Life without chocolate hasn't been all that bad. Vanilla ice cream tastes just as good as chocolate ice cream. Really, it does. It's mmm, mmm, good. I can see why there are so many vanilla-holics in this world. It's soo much better than chocolate (I, of course, am kidding). I was checking when Easter church services were--I figured once I went to church, the chocolate fast would end. Why, oh why, are there no midnight Easter services like there are at Christmas time?

Ok, enough about my poor, deprived life. All things considered, things are going quite well. Bode is rapidly approaching the ripe old age of four months. We think he's ready for a growth spurt because he spends a lot of time napping. He's also developing his own personality and traits. Ashley thinks he's the spitting image of her father, both in appearance and snoring volume.
As he develops, we know Bode will start to test his boundaries. Unbeknownst to Bode, Auburn has called "Dibs for Life" on the green couch, and she was not too happy with the little man being in her favorite sleeping area. Bode wasn't going to back down either, and the two had a fierce stand-off. Thank heaven Dudley came by to keep the peace.
We have no major plans for this lazy Sunday...maybe the store to buy Bode some books and then out to lunch. The forecast is for highs in the 50's today, so we'll probably take the kids for a walk. Pleasant day to all.