Give a Little Whistle

Scott and I have both been extremely busy the last few weeks with work, our callings at church, and school for Scott. We're getting used to getting up at 5:30 every morning. Our days are jamb-packed with work and school for Scott, work, errands, scheduling, housework, and budgeting for me. We're making the adjustments and loving our crazy life right now. With both of us waking up so early and getting home so late, we usually don't see each other until at least 9 at night. Blah! But we've been taking advantage of every second we get to be together and have been having even more fun together because the time we have is so rare. We use every chance we get to spend time together.

Except for something about tonight. Scott got off at 4! Can you believe it!? And he didn't even come home and work on homework! He went for a run in the rain and to get a new tube for his bike tire. I got home around 5, which is unusual for me as well! You'd think we'd take this time to be together, right? Ha ha.. nope. We had to figure out YM/YW changes because of the rain (we were both scheduled to do hikes). We sat at the kitchen table across from each other, trying to email our kids with the new information. And of course.... Scotty's phone came.

So we had to drive out to the 39th West to go pick it up. (We did go get tacos tonight before YM/YW, and they were DELICIOUS! We brushed up on our Spanish for the rest of the night. Did I mention that I always have a blast with Scotty? Even getting tacos was so much fun.)

I think Scott likes this phone more than I've ever seen him like anything that's not a person or a river. Proof: it is 11:04pm. We are not sleeping though we will wake up at 5:30am as always. And Scott has not done an ounce of homework. He's having a lot of fun, and I'm glad we got him a cool "grown-up phone."

So now we are sitting on our bed while he gets acquainted with his new best bud. I have come up with a number of things to keep myself busy while he entertains himself. I've read from my new book. I've studied floral designs on various blogs and websites. I've played bubble breaker on my cell phone. I've folded all our laundry. I've changed our sheets. I'll never run out of ways to entertain myself. Tonight I decided to learn to whistle.

I've never been able to whistle. Since I was a kid, I wished I could. I have no idea what the problem was. It's not like whistling is that weird water drop thing that people can do by flicking their hollowed-out mouths. It's not like that creepy finger-jiggle-clicky-thing that only guys seem to be able to do. It's whistling. Where was the hang-up on whistling?

When I was in 5th grade, I was Jiminy Cricket in the school play (as one of the two shortest kids in school, it would make sense that I was be casted to play an insect in a top hat). I love the role. I had so much fun, and I was a good little singer who loved to perform. I was so humiliated though when I learned that I couldn't whistle. How are you supposed to sing "Give a Little Whistle" to an auditorium full of people when I couldn't even whistle?

I'll tell you. You get Pinnochio to whistle into his mike, and you mouth the shape with your lips. It's a cop-out, but it's believable.

Tonight, my friends (or friend. or internet stalker. or whoever it is reading this. maybe it is just myself reading this over again at some point in the future. ok.... let's face it. i'll be reading over it as soon as i publish it. why didn't i capitalize any of the letters in this parenthetical section?) I have TRIUMPHED over the world of the whistle. I stumbled upon it. I guess I'm growing up. I can whistle.

I made a victorious and overjoyed video to prove it. Then I accidentally deleted it. So I recorded this down-trodden moment. Then another try: the sound didn't work. Then another try: the sound didn't work again. Then the tester movie: the sound worked! So we gave it another go, and it worked. I had decreased in excitement, but increased in skill... so it was a fair trade-off. I was determined to catch this on film.



Are you proud of me, Mom? James McKean (my counterpart Pinnochio)? All the parents on the PTA painting our set? Here I am... over ten years later. I got it down.

And did everyone take special note of the fantastic expressions exhibited by my loving and supportive husband who looked away from his new cell phone to celebrate my joy? It's priceless.