Non Shellfish

I forgot that I hadn't posted about what we did on Saturday night.

Joshua's girlfriend's mom texted me to see if we could get Joshua and Jenni together to celebrate their anniversary.

Joshua and Jenni never really had an "anniversary." They started being boyfriend and girlfriend one summer when they went to Camp Barnabas together. One of Joshua's teachers in school had a niece who had Down Syndrome...and Jenni was her niece's best friend. She told me, "I just think Joshua and Jenni would get along great."

Well, some days...HA!

And time has gone on...and on. Joshua and Jenni each have siblings who have gotten married, so they have seen anniversary celebrations and things like that. Joshua and Jenni became obsessed with having an "anniversary date." I told them that since neither one of them could remember the exact day of Camp when they "fell in love," they should just pick a day in July...because that was the month when they went to Camp for the very first time. They chose July 1.

Of course they did.

But Jenni said she was going "to the hills" for the week, so they couldn't celebrate on their actual anniversary day (for the record, we have no idea where "the hills" are or what she was even talking about...but she apparently went there...and now she's back!).

So, Saturday night, Jim and I, Clark, Faith and Joshua...headed to Jenni's house. We dropped Joshua off with her family, and the rest of us went to dinner.

We picked him up a couple of hours later, and got to hear about their evening. They ate at their favorite pizza place. Her parents let them get their own booth, and then they sat wayyyyy on the other side of the room. This meant that Joshua had to pay for their meal...thank goodness Jim had given him some money at the last minute. We usually take care of things when we have Jenni with us.

The plan was for them to go to the Old Mill and walk around. They've been there several times and had pictures made. They just didn't take into account that it was 159 degrees in the shade, so the Old Mill was OUT! They ended up going back to her house and watching TV in Jenni's TV room, "with the door open," her mother said.

This ain't our first rodeo.

Joshua and Jenni have been "dating" for 11 years. WOW! That's longer than some celebrity marriages! Or even some "regular" marriages!

And they have their ups and downs (no pun intended) just like any other couple.

For example, last night, I needed to get a few things from the grocery. I had put off going all day, because of the heat. But it was about 8:20 p.m., and I asked Joshua to go with me. He was so excited! We know what we are doing, so we can get through the store pretty quickly.

As we were finishing up our shopping, I saw the case with the Cokes in it. I saw one right up front that had "Jen" on it, and showed it to Joshua. He grinned and said, "Jenni will LOVE it!"

So, today at Therapeutic Recreation, he said that everyone was getting out their lunches...and he took that Diet Coke out and put it on the table beside Jenni's food, and walked off. He said he was trying to be "sneaky" about it, and do it while she was away from the table.

Their FRIEND, Marci, saw the whole thing, so when Jenni came back and asked who had given her the Diet Coke...Joshua said, "Marci ratted me out."

Jenni loved it...but some time between that moment...and two hours later when Clark came to pick up Joshua...there was some great disturbance in the force. There were words said, and Joshua said he walked to Clark's car and did not react OR look back at her.

Well, ain't gonna be good.

He said he wasn't in the car 5 minutes when he got a text from Jenni. He thought it would be an apology text, and told Clark, "I bet this is Jenni texting to say she's sorry."

Instead, it said two words: "BUTT HEAD."

Yep. You read that right: BUTT...HEAD.

He said he sent her back a lonnnng text that basically said, "would a BUTT HEAD give you a bottle of Diet Coke with your name on it? I don't think so."

She did end up apologizing, and then she posted a nice status on her Facebook wall that said Joshua was "kind and non shellfish."

And I think we can all agree that...if there's anything we should all aspire to be in life...it's non shellfish.

"So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up." Galatians 6:9