The most incredible dinner out – ever!

Two happy boys with 550g of chocolate earned!

I wasn’t going to post for a few days because I know a few friends and family have actually subscribed, which means they get spammed by me whenever I post, so I want to be sensitive to not throw too many posts up or they’ll block me! 🙂 But tonight was just off the charts…so I must capture it while it’s fresh in my mind and heart.

Our little Friday routine lately has been hit a favorite park and then walk into downtown Poulsbo for dinner. Tonight we went to JJs – the boys’ favorite place for clam chowder! So dinner was great, the boys were well behaved, we actually had somewhat of a conversation, Sam telling me things about school (such as, I think his teacher reads him Little House on the Prairie during lunch!). I was literally just yesterday thinking I’d let Sam watch that show because I remember loving it and I am a big fan of the one-room schoolhouse era. I actually belong to a one-room schoolhouse listserv and dialogue with a couple older country folk who remember what it was like back in the day. I have some long, detailed emails from them that I treasure. Recently I’ve gotten some interesting accounts of what they did for recess because Sam’s school is under construction (new building going up) and they don’t have a playground this year. So anyway…all that is to say I am hearing really really awesome things about school. I just want to fist-pump when I hear, for example, “Mom, my teacher LOVES to teach. She said so. She EVEN said ‘Science rocks!'” Back to JJs for dinner now…so Ben is eating his grilled cheese and the waiter asks how it is all going. Ben says “This tastes like BEAR!” I think that means GOOD so the waiter went off to compliment the kitchen staff and Ben gazed over at them with his mouth wide open in a happy smile, grilled cheese all visible inside the gaping maw. So, we’re wrapping up and I’m paying and a nice older man comes over and says “I just wanted you two boys to know how impressed I was with how you behaved during dinner. I’m in the restaurant business and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone better!” How cool! Wow! Another inner fist-pump and glow. THEN…

The waiter comes up and says “Ma’am, are you a Navy wife?” I say “Uh…yes?”  “Well, the man behind you wanted to know.” So I look around and another sweet older man is smiling and motioning that I need to rip up the check – he wants to buy us all dinner! I explained that we’re only sort-of Navy, Dave doesn’t deploy (he stays home and audits my doings which isn’t nearly as much fun!), but that we are so touched and thankful for his gesture – the highest compliment. So I go over to introduce myself and the sweet man is all choked up – even his wife is not sure if he’s swallowed the wrong way, or choked up, and then I nearly got all choked up, so I just said “God bless you” while giving him a few pats on his shoulder. I wanted to hug him, but preserving his dignity is what stopped me. So I finished up paying and then came back with the boys. He’d recovered enough by then to say he was a Korea Veteran (as was my Dad’s dad) and we chatted a little about the difficulties of life at sea, especially in the pre-nuke days. I gave them my email address and joked around with the sweet wife about how the menfolk can just totally mystify us sometimes (she was speechless watching this whole exchange). They literally stupefied me with their generosity. I was absolutely floored. So I told the boys they could find the biggest piece of chocolate in Marina Market that they could find. As big as Sam, if he could find it. (Sam had a smile ear to ear for that mental image!)

So in we go to see Andrea at Marina Market (where we stock up on reward jar treats for the week) and ask for a large hunk of chocolate. She came back with one 200 g bar, and one 250 g bar. So we are well outfitted! On our way (jogging, because Ben just takes off on a run and won’t stop – he jogs a mile without thinking about it) back to the truck I told the boys that they absolutely made my night, my month, likely my year. Sam asked if I would never forget tonight’s dinner, and you know what? I don’t think I will EVER forget it. Andrea at the market said it was really good the boys got to see me being praised, and them being recognized by complete strangers for their behavior. She’s right – it really did make an impression on them, too, that they were so noteworthy that others actually said something to them. I think they got it. We prayed for those sweet people tonight that many blessings would be heaped down upon them because they enriched us so much.

Just yesterday we were totally floored and surprised with another generous surprise from the team of real estate agents that represented us and the previous owners. They are all such good people and were there for us as we dealt with some really disgusting surprises upon moving in. We were grateful for them, and we enjoyed seeing them last night now that we are finally all able to laugh about the creepy crawl space!

6 Comments

  1. Gramma 9 September, 2011

    Oh my goodness — I’m overwhelmed! I feel like I was in your skin living your life vicariously. I had an AWESOME evening living through it all. God bless YOU, Alli!

  2. Anonymous 9 September, 2011

    Please don’t say you are “sort of” a Navy wife. You have done a whole lot of “time” that most of us will never understand/experience. You deserve the attention of that dear couple. And also the rest of us. Don’t forget it. just sayin…

  3. alli 10 September, 2011

    Oh Anonymous – thank you so much! I am stunned, again, by your kind words. Those times when Dave jets off to an emer mgmt center in the middle of a tsunami warning, then to Guam and Japan after Fukushima are the times when I DO still feel like a military wife – being resilient (and hopefully reliable 🙂 )…proud of my hubby for sure! Thank you. (Just wondering – he never gives me his itin, flight schedule, hotel, barely even a destination when he leaves for inspections…wonder if that is because he wants me to still feel like he’s going out to sea on a submarine? I ask and I don’t get…I just want to track his plane, be sure he’s in ok, tell the boys where he is, etc. Oh well…more rambling…sorry!)

  4. alli 10 September, 2011

    Ooooh! I just clicked on your IP address and figured out ANONYMOUS is my most amazing cousin! Love you!!!!!

  5. Leslie 10 September, 2011

    Haha. I didn’t mean to be so mysterious. I just forgot to fill the the blanks above my post!

  6. Gramma 23 September, 2011

    I was just browsing your blog again, enjoying that “chance” (God-planned) encounter at JJ’s, and thought the same thing as “Anonymous” Leslie! 🙂 Then I saw there were 5 comments so, being woman, I got curious. Thank you Leslie!!!

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