NEW GUITAR!
Can you imagine my boys being loose in a music store? Especially one with guitars hanging all over the walls and on racks in the middle of the floor? Yeah. Not a pleasant picture.

So the second Ryan got home from work, I dashed out the door so I could go guitar-shopping all by my lonesome. That was a good feeling, but so was walking in and saying, "I want to buy a guitar, and I've got $550."

The guy hooked me up with a sweet-sounding guitar (no, that's not surfer-talk, it just means that it sounds gooood, not cheap and tinny) made in Canada. See, it's got little sugar maple leaves around the hole! He threw in all sorts of goodies: a posh hard-side case (I told him I have little boys), a quick capo (if you don't know what that is, you really won't care), an electronic tuner (you clamp it on the top and it tells you if each string is in tune--super cool!), and a bright purple folding music stand. Why bright purple? Because it was the only one he had. He'd sold out of the black, red, and yellow ones. I wonder why?

He just kept throwing things in the case. He even told me that when I find a guitar strap I like (his selection was decidedly un-mommish, with skulls and gothic crosses) he'd install a peg for it for free. He asked me what song books I had. I'm sure he thought I was lame when I said, "John Denver." When he put my new guitar through its paces, he played Welcome to the Jungle (by Guns 'N Roses). I think that's the last time this guitar will feel that song being plucked! If only he could hear the first song I played on it (read on)!

Then I swiped my credit card without any guilt, because the insurance company is footing the bill (my old guitar was in the Uhaul that was stolen) and hustled home so Ryan wouldn't be late for Round Table.

When I showed off my new acquisition, Jared asked me to play a song. The perfect song for the occasion, of course, was Puff the Magic Dragon. Then he requested I Love to See the Temple. What a good kid! Of course, I don't know that song by heart, but I told him I'd find the Primary Song Book and we'd have a sing-a-long.

Maybe my dream of playing and singing around the campfire with my family will come true! Especially since we have a fire pit in our back yard now...Marshmallows, anyone? Come on over!