but baby it's cold INSIDE!

Today, I got a preview of the rest of my summer. I woke up this morning to rain, so I dressed accordingly: pants, shirt, sweater. I was so glad that I did because all day at work I was freezing. I sat at my computer, wrapped up in a blanket or I would take brief jogs up and down the stairs just to keep the blood circulating.

Six shivering hours later I emerged from my igloo expecting to be hit by a wave of frosty air. Instead, I broke into a sweat before I had a chance to peel off my sweater. I guess rain in the morning and 82 in the afternoon make muggy weather.

By the time I pulled into the driveway I had rivulets of sweat trickling down my neck. I got into the house and immediately changed into appropriate summer attire, ate a late lunch with Tanner, and then we all piled into the car to get Kate from school. Georgie saw the school building first and started to screech, "Tatie! Tatie! Come here!"

After we had successfully secured our eldest daughter. we headed for our favorite park and played a game of tag. Even Georgie got into it though she thought the idea was to get tagged. It was at the park that I noticed Kate's shoes. They just looked funny. They didn't match her height, so after the kids were all sweaty and exhausted we clambered back into the car and went to our favorite store.

I measured Kate's foot. She is now officially a size 1. Just. To give her room to grow, we had to buy size 1.5. The shoe she had been wearing? 13. I picked out the tennis shoes. She picked out the dress shoes. The dress shoes are strappy, pink and sparkly. The tennis shoes are tan. I sometimes feel way too practical. Since we were getting Kate shoes, we also got shoes for Reagan and shoes for Georgie. They had both grown a size as well. Reagan begged for a pair of pink slippers with pink "diamonds" on the band. Thank goodness Georgie doesn't know any better and all she wants is "Thooos!"

Easter Sunday

What an odd experience. This was the first time that Tanner and I have attended an Easter Sunday Service at a mainstream church. As we pulled into the parking lot, there were parking attendants and areas sectioned off for guests. Tanner looked at me and said, "They're not seriously expecting THAT many extra people to show up, are they?"

Our church has three services. Most of them have about 300 people attend and the parking lot is big enough to handle all of that. Today, we drove round and round the church looking for a parking space. We concluded that maybe it was because we were early. We were wrong. We ended up parking near the freeway and walking to the church.

When we walked into the narthex, I wondered if perhaps the first service had just let out. It hadn't. We were standing in line for the second service. They had added 10 extra rows of chairs to the auditorium, and still there was only standing room available. We managed to squeeze into a pew. I guess all the sermons about not being a holiday Christians are actually pertinent.

The girls wore their Easter dresses today. The twirled and whirled their way into and out of church. Little spots of glowing color amid all the pastels and pinks.

We came home, and I donned an apron. The night before I had made cupcakes so that Kate could celebrate. The girls frosted and decorated to their hearts content while I got the ham in the oven, the potatos peeled, veggies cooked and finished filling the Easter eggs. Then Tanner and I went outside and hid the eggs all over the yard.

I love watching the girls dart from bush to tree to grassy knoll. I love the excited squeals from Reagan and the triumphant shouts from Kate. I love watching Georgie gaze in rapt wonder at the single egg she managed to find. I love her voice when she holds it up and says, "tany! tany!"

We had a frustrating Easter lunch though. Apparently, ham, mashed potatos, stuffing, corn, bread and green beans are "gross!" I caught myself saying, "there are starving children in Africa..." We finally managed to get some nutrition down them by telling them no chocolate bunnies until they ate their green beans.

Other than that, we had a great day. A nice little holiday in our busy lives.

The day before Easter

This morning Tanner and I had ice dancing lessons at 8:30, so we tumbled out of bed, fed the girls breakfast, grabbed coffee and tea, pulled on sweats, sweaters, jackets and stepped outside only to be hit with a blast of warm air. I did a double take. The weather up until now has been temperate with only one day hitting over 80. Last night it had rained.

We both shrugged, and decided to walk to the rink instead of drive. There is nothing better than a spring stroll in the morning in Texas. The grackles were cackling, the mocking birds were mimicking car alarms, the red cardinals were darting into the bushes as we passed and the bright sun warmed our backs as we headed down the gently sloping road.

I'm not sure how succesful our practice was. I'm breaking in new skates with a huge toepick, and I keep tripping over them and doing lovely faceplants across the ice. I did suggest that part of our act be sliding snow angles, but for some reason our coach just wasn't into that idea.

After a short day of work, I came home, made lunch, watched the girls gyrate across the room to canned music and tried to convince them to go outside to play. That should have warned me...the fact that they didn't want to go outside. I shrugged and let them stay inside. At least I've developed a studied reaction to their, "I don't want to go outside!" complaint. I don't ever make them go.

After they watched a movie, I put them all down for a nap. Did I mention that Tanner was sleeping during this time? The house got very quiet and a snuggled up with a good book. It dawned on me that maybe it was hot when I had to turn the ceiling fans on in the living room. At 5:00, I rummaged through my stash of "deals" and found the clearance pool I had bought the previous summer. Tanner was up by then, so he got out the compressor, filled the pool and we let the girls splash and play until dinner time.

Okay, it's the time of year where all Northwesterners will envy me for living in Texas. Tanner finally fenced in our backyard and installed a clothes line, so we are really taking advantage of the soft breezes, comforting sun and bright blue sky this year.

Sky so blue that you squint when you look up at it. No haze. No thin layer of milky gray to mar the sight. So clear that the sun makes your skin look golden even before it begins to tan. The type of weather that begs you for a walk and then after you've done that, you feel like going for a stroll to get ice cream or you feel like packing cold chicken and biscuits and corn and finding a bubbling brook to sit at while you have a picnic spread across a red and white checked table cloth. Kids belong in white on days like this with little straw hats. Little girls make wreaths of daisy chains and little boys have muddy knees. Bunches of wildflower bouquets fill mason jars that are stacked across the kitchen window. The jars are meant for jelly, but the girls have commandeered them.

That's the kind of weather we are having.

Palm Sunday

Today was Palm Sunday, and we almost didn't make it to church. We were up at 7:30am, but I really didn't feel like rushing the kids to get to the early service. By the time I had them dressed, since Tanner was sleeping it was a little more difficult, the middle service was already under way, so I gave up! Then Jonathan begged me to take him to church, so I finally managed to get dressed, but didn't bother with the whole hair thing, Tanner woke up and decided to go with us, and we all got to church by 11:00am.

It was our first real Palm Sunday ever. Our kids lined up at the back of the church and walked down to a grand old hymn carrying palm branches. They promptly got lost in the shuffle, and I spent a good 5 minutes trying to find them to no avail. Kate, holding Reagan firmly by the hand, marched up one of the side aisles scanning the crowd for a sign of Mommy and Daddy. She was the one that found us. She also told me that the whole thing had been "embarrassing!"

The church was holding an Easter egg roll right after the service, and imagine my disappointment when Reagan had an accident in the bathroom. I had to get Tanner and Jonathan and Kate and Georgianna with a squirming Reagan. We managed to get to the car, and we were buckling the kids into their seats when I found the dresses that Sheri bought the girls on our trip to Washington on the Brazos. Imagine my utter astonishment when I also discovered a clean pair of underwear!

At that point, I was glad that I had handled the situation so well. We got Reagan changed just as the service released. We sat down to a nice little lunch and then out to the lawn we went. Reagan and Georgie got to go first. Reagan felt very important and VERY experienced as she explained to Georgie what she was suppose to do. I don't think Georgie ever really got the idea. She was much more interested in her cookie.

Fluffy, dull, gray clouds hovered about today. A few hours of rain, followed by a warm blanket of clouds equalled a soft, muggy evening, and I pulled into the driveway expecting puddles of water, but they were missing. I guess the air was warm enough to evaporate the worst of the rain.

Tanner made an excellent peanut chicken dinner, and I added some coconut milk and lemon so that we could have a sauce to toss with penne pasta and broccoli. He is making valiant attempts at learning how to cook, and I have to admit, he is getting pretty good at it. Last night, I came home to these awesome turkey sandwiches and a multi-faceted salad with a light ceasar dressing. Wow. I almost don't know what to do with myself. I just come home and eat. It's like magic.

Kate was being a big girl the other day. Tanner and I went to an early morning practice at the ice rink and when we got home, Kate dragged us into the laundry area. She proudly showed me that she had figured out how to switch the laundry to the dryer. Then she had started a load all by herself. She had remembered soap. She had remembered to separate the darks from the lights. Everything. Except that when she was trying to figure out how to turn the water on, she set the load to medium. And the load was EXTRA large. But, I was impressed and very proud of her.

She got to wear her white skates to the ice rink for her skating lesson. At least now it will only cost twelve dollars to let them practice rather than $12 for EACH.

sunday, sunday

well, we should be at church,but this nasty bronchitis thing still has its grip on me. i go to the dr. tomorrow. Today, the kids get to watch winnie the pooh while dad sleeps and mom rests. i still have to go to work, but costume n mask will protect me.