Easter Sunday

Wearing Carrots

I have been trying to decide over a slow bowl of ice cream which photo I like best and I can't for anything choose just one, so I'm putting them all up here. I look at her face all day long and yet when I put her to bed, I miss it. I keep pacing about for photos of her so I can see her even more, more strongly and surely, so I'll never forget. she's just the reason i get up every morning. she's sunshine and carrots and big curious eyes and she laughs so much now, especially at sam's silly faces, that it makes me breathless with happyhappyhappy. And this series is only breakfast. Thank goodness the camera runs out of batteries.

1903 Harrill

Okay so this is our house in the 'hood where we've lived since I was 8 months pregnant last summer 2008. It's a mess. The porch and facia board need painting. We need new windows and porch railings. The storm door got broken, ironically, in a storm. The bright pink azaleas have some kind of disease. Miss Mary who is 900 years old and lives next door saved the tires-mounted-on-hubcabs flower pots for me. I spray-painted them green and will soon smother them in sweet potato vine like I did last summer to hide their junkyard origins. Danny's dad planted a cypress. So far I've planted a forsythia, a camelia, a bunch of lilies, and mounds of pansies. Oh, there's also a rusting yellow fire hydrant in the yard. Inside though, it's beautiful. It's got 10 foot ceilings and beautiful tile bathrooms. Some of the floors are still old wood. The house is 103 years old and is only a dozen blocks from uptown Charlotte. We're renovating it one inch at a time. I guess I'm putting this photo here so later I can see how much it's changed.

Bad Guy King Bonks Head, Gets Kiss

Yesterday Sam excavated a grey t-shirt of Danny’s from the heap of laundry on the table and after a tussle, managed to get it on. Then he declared himself king. “Where is your crown?” I asked. “I are king!” barked Sam. He swung his arms around as if wielding a sword. “I are bad guy king!” he added with a snarl. “What is a bad guy king?” I asked. “I fight them!” said Sam, and roared. “Please would you go and fight the…(my mind scrambled for an alternative to “bad guys”)… monster!” Sam paused mid swing. Then, “Ya! I fight monster!” And with this he turned, leaped over his broken ukulele, and disappeared into the other room.

Growling and snarling ensued. He returned a few minutes later, face aglow. “Wow! I said. “Now would you please go and fight the...umm... dragon!” “Ya, I fight dragon.” He looked like Yoda in the long t-shirt as he leapt away. After some grunts and yelps… silence.

Sam appeared around the corner, his face crumpled up like a wad of paper. “I bonk my head!” he wailed. “Does bad guy king need a kiss?” “I need kiss!” he bawled. He staggered forward and I kissed his sweaty head. “Are you my bad guy king?” I asked. Sam nodded. “Can I take a picture of the bad guy king?” Sam kneeled on the floor and snarled, “I are bad guy king!”

green sundress

Weather

On March 2 we woke up to blankets of icy snow. Today, three weeks later, temperatures sauntered up nearly to 70 degrees.















Because i'm a writer, I feel all this pressure to write something really witty or spiritual or wise about this jarring juxtaposition of temperatures. BUT, Sahara is pulling on my slipper and making squawky noises. It's so hard to concentrate. My inner muse has been entombed in dirty laundry for two days. I've also been dying for a shower for the past 6 hours, if you must know, and now might be my last chance to make a run for it (err, the shower). I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I SOUND LIKE THIS! Well, can't be helped. It is what it is. Therefore, in light of my muse-less state, I bring you the wit and wisdom of others:

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. ~Carl Reiner

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while. ~Kin Hubbard

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? ~J.B. Priestley

It is best to read the weather forecast before praying for rain. ~Mark Twain

There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. ~Garrison Keillor

Papi and Abue Visit

Papi and Abue drove down from Chicago to visit us this month. Thank you! Papi planted a tree. I built shrines to the Plueddemann ancestors all over the house and lit candles. :-) Danny and I got to go on a date. (Wow, I had forgotten what those are. I swear the waiters at Olive Garden are 12 years old. Who knew that a normal restaurant could make me feel uber-frumpy?) Sam and Sahara don't know what to do with themselves now that the house is empty. I don't either. We're barely managing...