The market

I drove by the market today and lots of emotions came flooding back...


It was a Saturday morning and Thayer had been wanting to go to the community market for quite a while. So as late morning approached, we loaded up the kids and headed downtown. I remember that my knees were sore (from jogging... but that's another story), so we avoided the steps from the parking lot and headed up the sidewalk on Main Street. Thayer held my hand while the kids ran along the brick wall ahead of us. We crossed over to the market.
It was the boy's first time and they were fascinated with the layout of things and they were REALLY interested in all of the crafts from the local vendors. They moved quickly from vendor to vendor... wanting to buy all of the really expensive stuff.
Thayer ended up picking out a watermelon to purchase. He also bought one eggplant that he was interested in frying....just to try out something new.
On the way out, we were interested in buying a chicken from some folks at church (who sell their products at the market). Since we were there later than most market people, they only had "big" chickens left. Thayer mentioned that it was worth trying atleast once and he proceeded to buy a $16 chicken!! He was planning to throw that bird into a crockpot and cook up a good meal.
We headed home to an afternoon of hanging out and working in the yard. He finally bought stones to put around our trees to replace the mulch and cat poop that had collected. (our neighbor cats had claimed our area as a litter box! ugh!)
He admited to me that he finally caved in and went to get the stones because I had been nagging him for weeks. :-)
I was so excited that we had started with the stones and I was so thankful for his work that afternoon.

Thayer went out that day, on his motorcycle, and got a hair cut. He was looking sharp. He also brought home the cake mix, icing and icecream for his birthday. We would be celebrating with my family the next day. He had insisted upon a German chocolate cake.
For dinner, I cooked Ravioli and I forgot that we (I) needed bread to go with it. He jumped on his motocycle and picked up breadsticks from The Upper Crust.
We all sat for dinner, together.
After dinner, Thayer said that he could either go downstairs and work on fixing a window... or go for a ride.
I encouraged him to go riding. He had worked hard that afternoon and I know how much he loved riding. It was a beautiful day for it. So he went.
A few hours later, I had baked his birthday cake. Daniel was working on school papers and I had just swiped the last bit of icing onto the cake when the doorbell rang.

"Mommy, there are police officers at the door."
I turned the corner to see those two troopers with those big hats and I knew instantly.
No more family trips to the market, no more family dinners, no more birthdays for Thayer.
And I've still got that chicken in my freezer.