Good-bye

I should be packing, finishing last minute things, and generally pulling my life together. However, since I'm not going to see Hailey and Makayla for awhile, we have to fit everything important into our time together this week. On Tuesday, the girls wanted to check out the pet store, so we visited the one in the Heights. Hailey is sure she needs a hamster since, she said sadly, her fish died. I assured her she does not. She was in total disbelief when I refused to buy her one. I'm fairly confident Amy doesn't want a rodent in her apartment.

On the way home I made sure the girls stocked up on their calcium needs. I'm thoughtful that way.

Makayla informed me that she had "lost her happy smile" today. It's okay. I scratched around her tummy and we found it.

Wednesday was eye appointment day.

Amy and I prefer the "divide and conquer" method of appointments. Amy and Hailey went one way, Makayla and I went another.

 We may have divided, but I'm not sure we conquered. There was lots of having to hold still and nasty eye dilation, and looking at and identifying pictures on the screen. Not Makayla's idea of fun.  Definitely not Hailey's, either.

Makayla did enjoy playing "eye doctor", showing me how to use the delicate, expensive equipment. For some reason this game made the office staff nervous.

Makayla's preschool thought she had eye issues, and she does- like Hailey, she has lazy eye. Makayla's is a lot worse than Hailey's. Makayla goes around saying "I can't don't want to see nuffing", but I thought she was practicing toy-picking-up avoidance. Turns out she sees very little out of her left eye.

Makayla is sure she wants purple glasses. We tried these, but...

 Makayla is in love with these, in the picture below. Hmmm. Purple, but a teensy bit scary, Makayla.

Things took so long that I left with Hailey, who had a Zoo field trip with her class.  I guess I'll just have to wait until June to see which glasses Amy convinced Makayla to love.

On Wednesday night Makayla had her Head Start program. We ate lots of pizza with all of the other families, then the kids sang us some songs.

Makayla was pretty excited.

If Makayla looks like the youngest, smallest child in the group, she is. Most of her class will be going on to kindergarten in the fall. Even though Makayla has one more year of preschool, her September birthday means she will always be the youngest in her class.

Makayla receiving her graduation certificate from her beloved "Teacher Dana".

She was pretty proud of herself!

Today (Thursday) we headed out to the Lockwood school to play on their super duper playground. The conversation in the car was this:
Makayla: Santa has a mom.
Me: Yep. Everyone has a mom.
Hailey: Why are you talking about Santa, Makayla? You don't even like him.
Makayla: Him's scary. Him wears red clothes.
Hailey: God hates people with red eyes.
Makayla: Yep. Dem are bullies. And mean.
Me: Huh?
Hailey: Makayla, what color are my eyes?
Makayla: Blue, but I don't can't see berry good cause my eyes don't work.
Hailey: See? That's why God loves me. I don't have red eyes.
Me: Ummm......

Makayla immediately wanted to go down the giant twisty slide, but after climbing to the top, freaked out at how scary it was and needed Hailey to help shove her down.

Hailey liked the dozens of tricky bars at this playground. Since she's learned to cross them, she's a bit obsessed. 

 We played for a couple of hours until Grandma the girls were tired.

When I asked Makayla why her left eye was shut, she replied, "Member? It don't work!" Umm, Makayla, you have to open it to see out of it.

Well, there it is--our Good-bye Week. I've already committed to a Welcome Home Grandma trip to the new Heights swimming pool the week I get home. I'm sure jet lag won't be a problem, right?

All About Megan

Megan has been back home for nearly a month now. Our lives have been made considerably more exciting.

Since Megan has been home, she's turned the ripe old age of 19.

Megan has embarked on a new and exciting career. She went to a job fair, started interviewing with Del Taco, and suddenly the interviewer realized she was our daughter. Turns out the interviewer was our renter earlier this year. She and her husband were building a house in Shepherd and only rented for 5 months. She told Megan we were "so nice" and wanted to return the favor by not only hiring her, but also starting her out at a higher wage than the normal starter.

See kids? Your mother was right: it pays to be nice to people! You're welcome, Megan.

When we visited Megan at work today, her boss told us she is just a "little sparkler" a "great worker" and "so adorable". Makes a mommy proud....

Megan pretended to be slightly embarrassed at her mom playing paparazzi. So we ate some tacos,

...then we drove around to the drive-thru where Megan couldn't pretend to ignore us and ordered dessert.

I completely disguised my voice when ordering, but somehow Megan figured out it was me.

Megan demonstrated her best "how I deal with annoying customers" smile.

When she's not working, Megan pops out of bed at 7 am to do an exercise program entitled "Insanity". Seems appropriate.

She also Skypes a lot with somebody.

Occasionally she takes a quick nap.
Late night skyping + early morning exercise + all day work=exhaustion.

When Stan and I went to Denver, Megan fulfilled my worst nightmare. At 6 am one morning, I started receiving texts from Megan telling me someone was knocking at the door and wouldn't go away. I suggested she ignore the knocker. Fifteen minutes later, the knocker was still at it. I told her to go peek out the window and describe the car to me. She peeked. No car. After 45 minutes of persistent knocking, I was terrified, sure that some creeper was about to break in and kidnap her. As I was trying to figure out how to call Billings 911 from Denver, I suggested she sneak out to the car, lock herself in, drive out onto the street, crack her window open, and demand to know what he wanted. She did. As she pulled out, she said "It's someone wearing a hoodie, with some kind of drink in his hand." Horrified, I whispered back "IS IT BEER?" Yes, I know-but that's the best question I could come up with under pressure. From Megan's end there was a lengthy and scary silence.

"Oh." she said finally, "It's David!" Turns out her friend had driven through the night from Idaho to deliver a cup of hot chocolate. He was kind enough to keep her company all day, then drove back home all night to make it to church the next day.

My legs were shaky for the rest of the day. I'm too old for that kind of excitement.

In other Megan excitement, we've got a new look for my car. Somehow the garbage can jumped out and slapped the mirror when Megan was pulling out of the driveway.

Well, I guess we've discovered where all those hefty paychecks of Megan's are going.

Finally, since Megan is home for the summer, I thought I teach her everything I know. Here I'm demonstrating how a ponytail should look. Poor Megan, she just doesn't seem to be getting it. Are you feeling as sorry for Megan as I am?

Living Dangerously

I've been living dangerously. Our last frost date is May 15, but I've been really dwelling on the edge and getting my garden in this week. I have to. I won't have time if I wait. After working from 7 am til 7 pm, I got the front yard done.

And I'm pooped.

And I still need to finish the backyard.

Oh look! The acorn squash is already up and growing! Okay, I bought started plants this year. I don't exactly trust Megan to nurture my seeds along until I get back. I figured she'd do better if she could see what she's watering.

My potatoes and onions, planted last month, are up and growing. Today I planted zucchini, butternut, 

cantaloupe, watermelon, peppers, tomatoes, and several kinds of herbs.

In other dangerous living, I'm getting a bit tired of getting my eyes pecked out every time I go out to retrieve the morning paper. If Mrs. Robin feels so anxious about our comings and goings, why did she choose this spot for her nest YET AGAIN?? Can you see her there, sitting atop the wreathe on her nest, just waiting to attack? This is as close as I can get without her coming for blood.

By the way, I've decided to step away from the edge. You know, the one involving the nest. The first time I peeked, there was one egg.

The next time I looked, there were two eggs.

Then I checked the next day and there were four eggs. Yep. The eggs double every time I look. If I were to look everyday for the next week, there would be----------whoa! That's it, I'm not going to look again till I get home.

Here is Stan's must-finish-this-week project: a desk for the *space in the downstairs bedroom that was built to have a desk in it*. Kids, you know where that is!

It has to be finished this week because that space has been there for 17 2/9 years now.

Yeah, I'm not sure about the urgency either......

Spring Surprise

Spring came early to Billings this year. To celebrate, I hung my Spring-y wreathe up by the front door.

It wasn't long until Robbie and Robyn spruced it up with their own special little red-breasted touch. This is the third time over the years that Robbie and Robyn have chosen this spot for this little decoration. They've also used the light on the back porch a few times. I think they like the excitement of someone walking out the door. It gives them someone to take their frustrations out on.

After  ignoring their nest for a week or two, they suddenly came back yesterday to check it out. By last night, they had decorated it with this cute Easter egg. I wonder if it's milk chocolate or dark chocolate? Just so you know, Rob, I prefer milk chocolate.

Today Makayla checked it out for me. She claimed she saw two eggs.

Hailey confirmed the count.

According to google, I'm going to be gone when they hatch. I don't know--do you think Makayla and Hailey would be interested in checking on them for me?

One of Those Days

This was an important day in Hailey's life.

After weeks and weeks and weeks of wiggling her first loose tooth, it finally came out. It was so far past the point it should have come out that her permanent tooth was completely grown in. It's Hailey's bottom front left tooth.

You can kind of see in this picture that Hailey's smile is different. Her right front tooth is also loose. Here's Hailey's version of events: "I was showing my friend how loose my tooth was and it accidentally fell out." Amy and Grandpa have been trying to get in there to yank it out for weeks. Hailey has been reluctant to part with it.

In other important news, Makayla "let" Amy curl her hair today. Isn't she cute?

Just don't look at the back of Makayla's head. She's still got all of that wacky, uneven layering from Hailey's adventures in hair cutting. When I picked her up, she pointed out her "curl hair" and I said "You're so cute! Does everyone tell you that?" "Nope," she said, "just you." I find that hard to believe.

An odd thing is happening to the Jones grandchildren. Happy Makayla has turned into "leab me lone" Makayla

and Mischievous Hailey has turned into easy-going Hailey.

 It must be Spring!