The Organizer

Yesterday, as Sophie was practicing her Grade 3 spelling words, she pointed to the word "organizer" and said she thinks of me every time she spells it. I'll take that as a compliment.

Mom Friends

Theresa and her kids have been a part of our lives ever since I was 9 months pregnant with Lucy and she was 7 months pregnant with Louis - we've been together for almost seven years through those pregnancies, subsequent miscarriages, two more pregnancies (John and Carmyn), life changes, house changes, toilet training, training wheels and no training wheels. She's like a second mom to our kids - one who as Sophie says, "She's different from you, she's more like 'outdoorsy'. I want to be a mom like her." If Theresa wasn't such a good friend, I might have taken offense to that. Instead, I think it's great. She's the mom who has the slack line in her backyard vs. a swingset, had a climbing wall in her old basement and now has a full-size one along with an ice climbing wall at the farm. She's the one who can teach Sophie the thrills of outdoor adventures while I sit on the sidelines cheering them both on. Aren't friends wonderful?!?!

Dog Dreams

Since spending a week in mid-August with the Buboltz clan and their yellow lab Sam, our kids have been hounding us for a dog. (Yes, the silly pun was indeed intended.) For about 24 hours I seriously considered it - putting out of my mind that both John and I are allergic to dogs and the fact that Dave has vehemently told me over and over again that he will have no part of the whole dog thing.

Still, from Sunday morning until Monday morning I persisted in my thinking - especially after we told Sophie that dogowners have to clean up after their dogs and she could practice by picking up the deposits a neighborhood dog left on our front lawn. She did it willingly and quite enthusiastically. Then came the dog-like behavior - the walking John around with a leash, the barking language, and the canine eating behavior. Although they've behaved as dogs (and occassionally cats) for quite a few years, it hit home that Sunday evening when all three kids filled up bowls with water and food, hunched down on all fours and began lapping up their dinner right from the kitchen floor. More barking came later, as bath and bedtime rolled around.

Thankfully 6 AM pilates came bright and early the next day. As I stumbled out of bed, pulled on some clothes, brushed my teeth and barely made it to pilates on time I realized one thing - if we had a dog I would have gotten up 20 minutes earlier, taken the dog for a morning walk, picked up any droppings, fed it and then taken care of myself.

There went the dog dreams - sorry kids.

Timber!

During each windstorm over the past year and a half I've worried about the tree in the backyard toppling down on top of us. Three strategically placed cables have held the entire tree together for the past ten or so years and with them in place the tree even withstood hurricane strength winds. Yet, with blue sky showing through the main trunk we weren't hopeful it could withstand North Dakota winds many more times.

So, after a full day's work, the worry is gone and there's no more tree - just a lot of wood that we'll (OK, maybe just Dave) be splitting, stacking and burning.