Whole Bunch of Little Somethings to Share

So, today, after suviving the earthquake which did quite surprise Tim and I this a.m. (we thought Coopy might somehow have been shaking our bed by itching himself...very aggressively--then after finding that it was not him, I lay there convinced it was a haunting...later NPR told me indeed it was a quake) Anyway, I got a wonderful, prayed for call from work offering me a 'snow day' of sorts...it's equivalent to that anyway. I took the offer! Though I'm technically on call until 3pm today--fingers crossed. Ok, so, I had tons to do and first thing I decided to mow our desert of a yard as the weeds were/are getting a little wild....unfortunately the grass is not quite so energetic despite our hard work. Anyway, as I was mowing past our wood pile (of wood we stack but never burn?) I saw that our straw (that we use to cover our non-growing 'lawn' to HELP it grow but still it doesn't) was growing a bit of it's own grass. How lovely, I thought. "You can't help the grass to grow in the yard but you decide to grow your very own lawn of your very own to keep to your own straw-self. How perfect." Moving on.....

On Wednesday I took the girl to the zoo. It was gorgeous weather and our zoo is really pretty. We had a good time and Alex really enjoyed seeing the birds (yes the ones that live in our very own trees at home) and was excited to point out geese and a few ducks. The bears, and lions, and rare breed animals did little to amuse her though she did like assigning the animals genders and letting me know who was the mommy, the daddy, or just the friend. I could never quite get it right. "NO, mamma, that's his friend, not his daddy." We did enjoy the train ride which we rode twice and the second time I lended a hand to a rather large old lady who decided, after sitting down, that the train would not be a good thing for her becaus her knees were too bent. So, I offered to help her out. As I did so, I took her hand in one of my hands offering support and delicately placed my other hand directly on her BOOB and proceeded to help her out of the train. I did not know it was her boob until mid lift in which case it was too late to then transfer my hand to a more appropriate lifting spot. In my defense, there was a lot of skin to 'hold' and I held what I thought was her side...forgetting that boobs that large can drift to the side. Nice. After my groping for the day we headed home for nap time.

Wednesday was Wacky Wednesday at Alex's school. I don't think she really got that I dressed her 'wacky' and mis-matchy but owell. It was fun nonetheless. Here she is posing---her favorite Eagle yoga pose that she thought might show off her wacky outfit a little better than just a typical standing pose.

Here's a pic of the all the beans doing yoga together at Gram's and Gramp's house. This, of course, is Alex's favorite pose....final relaxation.
They are all doing a fine job with it!

Here's a pic that i thought was too funny. It's from Tim's cousin's wedding. Alex found a 'boy' that she was smitten with. We have several of these pics of her trying so discretely to get closer...and closer.

Can you see the frustration...and sheer exhaustion? I can't blame her, sometimes at events such as these I feel like laying down and taking a 'resty', too...i don't think it would have been as well received, however, so I didn't.

Again, something else I feel like doing sometimes...just hiding from everyone, and what's a better place to go than behind the nice sheer, 'clean' curtains.

Here's a 'nice' fake smile family photo from the wedding I thought I'd share with everyone. We have so few pictures of all three of us usually because they look similar to this one and get deleted, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Al (with her other half-->'hat') and Miss Maizie. I just love something about this picture, don't you?

(sorry i didn't rotate this one first)

Ahh, the one slipper photo. I've been wanting to share this pic for awhile. It goes back to Brooke's blog about prayers strange things happening, etc. When my Grandpa was alive (my dad's dad) I remember he told me that to keep his feet warm at night he sleeps with one sock on and one sock off. I thought this to be peculiar but decided to try it out. It works. I have been doing it for years now. It's not something I ever told Alex and it's obviously not something that comes up a lot in conversations so she never overheard it...and regardless, if she did I'm not sure she'd know to apply it to her own sleeping preferences. Anyway, nearly every niight when I go in and check on her this is what I find...one slipper on or one sock on and the other off. Sometimes it goes from me putting her to bed with both on and finding she took only one off during the night, or sometimes she goes to bed with nothing on her feet and I come in to find she has ONE on a foot (sock or slipper). I like to think, in fact I know that it is a little part of my Grandpa in her and I also tend to think he looks over her while she's sleeping. I've have several encounters like this regarding my Grandpa in different ways...so I'm pretty sure in some way he's played a role.

'hat'....that never leaves her head

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday! This one was surely Heaven sent!