Pixie Dust

First, a Happy 8th Birthday to my wonderful niece and namesake, McKenzie Marie! It was six years ago this day that you had the biggest and best birthday cake ever (Al & my day-old wedding cake).

On to present day...

Minus the fact that Sarah had fire and EMS related meetings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night (I skipped the emergency management meeting on Thursday evening), we had a pretty nice and relaxing week. The weather was beautiful and spring fever is quickly jumping into ‘quick-get-the-yard-work-done’ to beat the summer heat. We’re supposed to have underground sprinklers installed soon, but I’m waiting on a date. Thus, I continue to hose away at the grass. Still trying to come up with an ingenious way to get shade on the back deck without demolishing the whole thing and starting from scratch. So far, no luck.

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary and since we’ve never really been able to celebrate it (year one was Easter Saturday, year two was a Pastor’s conference, years three and four were something else and year five was an airplane trip home from Grandpa’s funeral), we really went all out this time. Al got me a card (I should frame it) and 6 beautiful red roses, along with a Willow Creek figurine of a couple dancing. I found for him a clergy cap (black ball cap with a tab) and a green T-shirt that reads, “What Does This Mean?” with nearly the entire catechism printed out upside down in 7 point font.

Al worked on Friday so that we could take the kids to Mark & Laura’s house on Saturday and go out. We grabbed some water bottles and headed west for the day. We ended up at Ft. Laramie on a windy Wyoming day. It was a nice sunny day for a drive, and when we arrived, we were the only ones parked in the lot. We toured the grounds and had a history lesson on the forts of the area. I can’t imagine life in the prairies way back then. I tried to envision miles and miles of covered wagons, cattle and roaming hoards of people battling the hot wind, vying for a better life. At least at the end of our visit, I had flushies and Air Conditioning.

We left there and went back to little Lingle, Wy, to a great Mexican restaurant on the outskirts of town. The food was excellent and well worth the points on the weight watchers scale. We got back into town before bedtime and picked up the babes from Douthit’s.

Now, about the children….

Since leaving my instruction manual behind when we brought Eden home from the hospital 2 ½ years ago, we have had to learn on our own as we go along. This week, she started taking naps again (forced, not volunteered) and Tuesday thru Saturday, slept between two and four hours each day. This extra sleep during the day seemed to actually help her sleep at night, because she never came down to our room at all during the night. That was a nice change. Lars, however, had been eating once in the night, and has gone back to twice a night, alternating whether or not he’d like to go back to sleep.

Earlier this week, Eden disappeared while I was feeding Lars. When I found her, there was a fine dusting of baby powder all over Lars’ room, including his crib, oscilating fan, nightlight, lamp and book shelf. She was lifting the bottle of powder up in the air and squeezing it as she circled around and giggled. I told her she was covered in pixie dust, but wasn’t any closer to flying than she was 15 minutes ago.

On Friday, Eden got her hair cut short. Gone are the days of sitting on the bathroom counter, crying while I comb it. Gone are the fights of pony tails and which rubber bands to use. Gone is that struggle…at least for the summer. I think it looks cute. She compliments her new haircut with a newly inherited pair of pajamas, which she insists on wearing every night. She was quite upset when I wouldn’t let her wear them to church on Sunday morning and even more upset when I wouldn’t let her wear them outside Sunday afternoon in the sandbox. What a big meanie I am.

The coming week’s calendar is a bit clearer and I’m hoping to edge the new garden tomorrow and work on the flower beds. I bought green beans and snap peas to plant in the vegetable garden, so I need to get that tilled up this week, as well. There’s always something to do around here. Hoping for some moisture so we can see a drop in the daily number of grass fires. That has kept everybody on the department busy this week.

Until next time, take care of each other~

Who can beat that smile?

And those eyes will make you melt....

Al's new clergy cap...Eden's confusion is understandable

Eden's new haircut and jammies