Claire and I went on a super-secret mission today.
Apparently, we weren’t the only ones.
Click image for more detail.
I’m not sure what the Prairie Dogs are up to, but they’ve shredded all the evidence. Yes, these are their homes with shredded paper spilling from the thresholds.
You’d think the Prairie Dogs would know that using a cross-cut shredder is more efficient in destroying evidence.
Amateurs.
We’ve had a fantastic week. The weather has been gorgeous. We’ve spent time playing and creating and sharing our time with friends.
I could post pictures, but you’ve seen them all before: crisp blue skies, bright sun, smiling faces. How awesome is it that pictures like that become boring after a while?
It’s nice to be in a place where we can breath easily, be present, and enjoy.
“Oh, the mountains are just gorgeous today, Claire!”
“Momma! You say that EVERY day!”
I snapped this pic on the walk home from school today.
When Claire was a baby, one of my sisters made a party dress and bonnet for Claire to wear at her First Birthday Party.
Look at Claire! She's ONE in this photo!
Yesterday, Claire was going through her closet and came out to show me an outfit she’d put together for school, and this is what she wore today:
...and almost four and a half years later!
The Bonnet doesn’t really fit well anymore, so Baby Rose got a new dress, too!
This has happened before. (If you haven’t, you really should click over and read “Who says the size on the tag means anything anyway” for some other fun photos of how long clothing tends to last around here…)
This blog post is coming to you live from Eva, the droid. I’m not even typing; I’m “swyping,” which involves sweeping my finger across a glass screen in a single fluid motion. I release my finger, and she knows I’m done with a word. I place my finger on the screen again, and she automatically puts a space and starts the next word.
Sometimes I’m sloppy, but she is also very intuitive and guesses what I’m trying to say, often times with scary-good accuracy.
Scary-good.
There are other cool features.
In fact I’m not even typing right now. I’m speaking at her and she’s typing for me.
Wow. That last paragraph was added by voice command.
I think I’m in love.
…and I don’t even have an app for that. 
I’m constantly writing notes and observations to myself: blog topics, funny things Claire does or says, plot twists for my book.
The easiest way for me to do this is to email myself. Then, when I have the time to focus on them, I either use them or file them away.
Today is the day that I address the one I sent to myself on August 29th. Yes, of 2010. We were in San Francisco, and I’d just given Claire a bath. Rather than lug all of our toiletries with us, we were using the shampoo provided by the hotel. This is sometimes a gamble, but it definitely paid off at this location.
This hotel was niiiiice. I may or may not have stuffed all the little unused bottles of these toiletries in my suitcase to take home. No, I’m not becoming my inlaws, so stop looking at me like that.
Anyway…
As I’m lathering up her hair, she starts to complain, which is odd, because she normally likes this part of the routine.
“Uggggghhhhh!” she says, sputtering.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“This shampoo does NOT smell like princesses!” she shouts, the displeasure of the whole situation crinkling her own delicate princess nose.
“What do princesses smell like?” I ask.
“Well, they DON’T smell like ORANGES.”
I guess you had to be there, but it struck me as so funny and I couldn’t stop laughing. Not sure what princesses smell like? Well, we’ve started to narrow it down… 
Yesterday, everything outside our door was covered in a sheet of ice. I had to check to make sure we hadn’t been moved back to Iowa in the middle of the night.
The temps then dipped, and have remained, dangerously low…or as any good Midwesterner would say, “Uh, it’s Winter?” Seriously though, it’s cold, especially for out here. Our weather is typically mild, and we love it that way!
Relatively early in the day, our school district canceled school for Tuesday. Soon, all the surrounding school districts followed suit.
Claire was devastated. Poor dear. She doesn’t have school on Mondays anyway, and now this?! How terrible!
Honestly, I was happy! I felt like a kid again, breathlessly sitting by the radio tuned to the AM Radio station, listening for our school district to be named. The lists were always alphabetical order, and by the time they got to the N’s, we could barely contain ourselves.
This time, it’s different. Twitter was my guide. I knew the news within moments.
Luckily, we also got the official robo-call at a decent hour, so we could sleep in today.
As much as I hate making up “snow” days, the thought of walking to school on May 31st in the sun and watching the butterflies flit on the soft breezes is much preferred to trying to get there today.
I am not fluent in French, but I just love the way that word looks when it’s spelled:
déjà vu
Doesn’t it look like a little guy, the j for the nose? See the upraised eyebrows over the concerned look in the e and a eyes?
…but I digress.
Remember when I had coral removed from my thumb?
Well, it’s baaack. Actually, pieces of it never left. My thumb healed well, but it was still painful to bend and grip, even after the incision and stitched area healed…and that’s when I could see another piece.
So, I scheduled an appointment that would work for our schedules, and Friday I got to go under the knife again. This time, he found another piece of coral, and possibly a fourth. It was really hard to tell, what with all the blood.
So, I have another stitch.
…that I couldn’t get wet until Monday.
…and it looks just as gross (if not more so) than it did the first time I had coral removed.
…and I can’t use my thumb until I get the stitch out on Friday.
At least it’s just a thumb. On my right hand. It’s not like I’d use it much for anything. All day. *cough*
Hopefully this heals, and we’ll be done with it. If any more coral is lurking, I get to meet one of the plastic surgeons in town that specializes in the removal of foreign bodies. OH! And! Coral doesn’t show up on an x-ray. True Story.
Who knew such teeny tiny pieces of coral could cause such trouble?
All this, and I still can’t wait to go back to Hawaii. I’m plotting my return to the islands. I think this is a sign we should have never left.
I hear you Pele, LOUD AND CLEAR.
Do you ever look around your office, kitchen, or house and think, “Well, that looks cluttered!?” Well, I’ve been de-cluttering the office, kitchen, and house…
…and now it’s the blog’s turn!
Rather than have a bunch of stuff over on the sidebars of the blog, I’ve moved them all to their own page:
I’ve also cleaned up and rearranged the tabs at the top.
I’ve swept it up, dusted the surfaces, and I love how it looks.
…now we’ll see how long it stays that way!
After two long weeks, Claire is finally back in school! We had a wonderful Winter Break, but she was most distressed about not being able to go to school. If given a choice, she’d go to school every day! (I know, because she’s told me this, on numerous occasions.)
Is it any coincidence that the song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” was stuck in my head as we got ready this morning?
I think not.
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