Silver Lining Weekend

How was your weekend? Did it go as you planned? Well, mine didn't exactly turn out the way I thought it would. 

As of Friday afternoon, my plans for the pending two days off were to start cleaning up and organizing several rooms in my house.

My wife was pretty sure she would have to be doing work for her job from home most of the day on Saturday. I thought the best way to spend my time was to sort through some of the things in those rooms. I could decide what I wanted to keep, give away or sell over the coming months. 

But by the time my work day was over things had changed. Out of respect for those involve the specific details are not mine to share here. 

Although my time at home during the weekend would be different than what I wanted them to be; every cloud has a silver lining. That silver lining came in the form of a little visitor. 

Our two year old granddaughter came to spend the day with us both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, James brought her and on Sunday we had her all to ourselves for the afternoon while James & Brandi went to the movies.  

It was two days of playing with toys, looking at Lego mini-figures, watching Disney videos, and playing Farmville on Nana's Ipad. 

Here she sits busily playing a game on James' cell phone while enjoying a chocolate popcicle. 

The majority of her time was spent sitting with Nana playing with Play Doh. 

They made flowers, trees with blue leaves (they didn't have any green) but mostly snowmen. 

Her Papa also spent a lot of time with her making "snakes" and snowmen too. 

We also played with my latest series of Lego Mini-Figures. She was drawn to them and wanted to "see them."

Because of the small parts her investigation of them was well supervised by me. I took them down off the shelf and let Aria set them on the TV stand on her own. She also picked them up and took them to show her Nana. 

We had fun as she repeated the character's names as we moved them. Her favorites were: The Unicorn Girl and the Hot Dog Guy. 

We had a great time with our granddaughter on both days. 

Not all my weekend plans had to be changed. I finally put the last of the Christmas things still out in boxes. They are now stowed in the attic until this year's holiday season comes around. 

On Sunday before Aria got to our house and the NFL championship games came on, I made a errand run into Bowling Green. I needed to return something to Toys R Us and pick up a few things we needed at the house.  

One of the things I purchased was an e-collar for my dog, Angel. She has a irritated sore on her right hind leg that she will not stop licking. The e-collar will keep her from doing that. 

But she is not, I repeat NOT, happy about it. After doing her best to get out of the collar, she decided that all she could do is lay down and sulk. 

The surprise of the weekend happened while I was on my trip into town. As is my normal routine at the start of each week, I stop into a local convenience store to check my lottery tickets from the previous week. 

Each week I ask the clerk that checks the tickets to replay them, "Unless I've won the jackpot. In that case I'll give you enough to go buy a cup of coffee...in Brazil."

What routinely followed was the clerk running the old tickets through the lottery machine, confirming that they were not winners and then replaying the numbers as requested. 

This time was no different; until the clerk informed me that I had won $200. That's the most I've ever won in the lottery ever. I was so happy. 

Of course I was anxious to share my good fortune with my wife. But instead of just calling her and telling her about my windfall, I bought her a present; a pair of sparkling round earrings she had liked while we were Christmas shopping in December. 

She liked them so much that she put them on right away and wore them all day. You can see her wearing them in the above picture of her and Aria playing. 

To treat myself with my unexpected gain, I bought a newly released Lego kit that I really want. It's from the Lego Movie. 

So there you have the details of my "adjusted" weekend that was changed by some unexpected "clouds." Getting to spend a couple of days with Aria was the silver lining and the winning lottery ticket also added a little "gold".

Have you ever had weekend plans that changed but turned out to be better than you initially thought? Ever win "big" in the lottery? I'd like to know your story. 

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