Say it ain't so

Round 16: April 2025

Amabelle Harper is 70, Will is 40, Alexa is 33, Connor and Dane are 9 and Jena is 5.

Narrated by Alexa

We're all a bit worried about mom. She has been suffering from insomnia since dad passed away. Sometimes she goes to the swimming pool in the middle of the night, just floating on her back and looking at the stars. She says it calms her down enough so she can get a few hours of sleep.

In the beginning she would stay in her room most of the time but now she sits down for meals with us and has started to open up again.

She helps with the kids a lot too. She says it's so therapeutic to see their joy and energy. It also gives her a chance to go through all the good memories of dad because the kids miss their grandpa and want to hear stories about him all the time. It keeps him near to us all to remember the times when he was still here.

My business is doing pretty well considering that I only work a few hours a day and don't have a shop. I provide flowers for a couple of restaurants now and also have done a few weddings which I really liked. I haven't given up on the dream of owning my own flower shop although I don't know when if ever we'll be able to afford it.

Will's been quite reserved lately. I think he's worried about his job prospects. He's turning 40 this summer and it just hit him that if he doesn't make it to Senior Officer in five years then his career in the military is over. I know he's feeling pretty stressed out but I honestly think he shouldn't worry so much about it. I'm confident he'll get promoted in time to continue his career in the army and if he doesn't - well, we'll just make it work somehow.

The kids like to sleep late on the weekends so I've eaten my breakfast long before they come downstairs. Will works weekends which he hates because he says he'd like to spend one whole day with the kids. I know the kids miss him too. Obviously they spend time together every day but it's not the same with school and homework and everything.

I never work on weekends unless I'm doing the flowers for a wedding so I spend most of my Saturdays and Sundays playing with the kids. It's been raining a lot this spring so we got this llama game to play inside. The kids love it and want to play it all the time. They're also really competitive so I have to occasionally stop them from fighting.

One of the best things about Will's job is that he gets home fairly early. We let the kids stay up later than usual on Saturdays so they often do something fun with their dad once he gets home. Dane's usually waiting for him by the door and pestering him into playing catch or throwing football the moment he steps out of the car.

One Sunday morning Will told me to get ready because he had a surprise. He took me to this flower shop that's been open for about 30 years. He said that the owner wants to retire and is looking for a new owner for the shop.

I was a bit sceptical at first because we can't afford to buy it but Will said that we could take a loan and make it work. "You're never going to get your own flower shop if you don't take the risk" he said and I knew he was right.

He did a pretty good job encouraging me because soon I started planning how I would decorate the shop once it was mine.

We had a talk with the owner and she seemed really pleased to hear that I was interested. We agreed to have a meeting next week to go over the details.

Will and I haven't been out without the kids for a long time so we thought we might as well take advantage of our free time and have lunch at Café Carousel. We've been trying to keep up with having date nights and going out but it's been hard because we don't want to ask mom to babysit all the time.

Will suggested that we should toast to my new career. It wasn't until we had raised our glasses that he said he has some good news to share as well. It turns out he got promoted to Flight Officer!

I was in a very good mood when we got home so it wasn't too hard for Jena to get me to join her in a little dance.


Notes:

• Title reference: Say it ain't so by Weezer.
• I've had this update waiting to be written for about two weeks. I had a general idea for the update but for some reason I just couldn't get it done. I finally just forced myself to finish this. Hopefully the next one will be easier to write.
• Alexa doesn't own the shop yet but I intend to make her buy it (and redecorate) before their next update.