hi, remember me?

so, in lieu of a posting full of apologies for not finding time amid my very fun and fulfilling holidays to blog, i'll just dive right in as though no time has elapsed...

my stove range went out the other night, right at dinner time, which is awesome timing. fortuitiously (yep) my great parents were in town and my dad spent the next day fixing it up. dads know and are able to do everything -- mine in particular gave the appliance store guy an unspoken run for his money. i also busted my blender that night trying to make milkshakes [editor's note: strawberry milkshakes can, if needed, be produced in a food processor, but this method is neither ideal nor recommended]. my dad looked at that, deemed it irreparable, and bought us a new one. my mom did all the dishes all the time, and they stocked us up on groceries. i AM 28 now, but i don't think i'll ever be too old to appreciate that. they played with the kids, who are totally enamored with them, and it's been a grand time.

they left this morning for denver on their way to texas/ohio to see some of my other sibs & their fams. carson and layla have been asking about them all day, when they're going to come back, etc. tender.

layla's croupy. i can hear her bark-coughing in her crib right now, and it's very very sad. i hope she sleeps okay. my mom thinks layla's hilarious because no matter where my mom was in our house or what she was doing, layla would find her (my mom's) massive purse and carry it to her, saying in a kind of exasperated way, "dahma, your purse, here it is." like she was SOOO tired of "cleaning up" after my mom or something. it was so funny - especially to see layla dutifully lugging the purse up the stairs to give it to my mom.

carson's signed up for a tumbling class with his cousin ella, starting next tuesday. we'll see how he manages. he started sunbeams on sunday and had one major meltdown but other than that was okay before and after. (apparently, one of the kids who was participating in "sharing time" was, in fact, not sharing his presentation materials. carson was heartbroken, insulted, and annoyed, all in one. hoo boy.) oh, and i guess his sunbeams teachers had all the kids draw a pic of what they wanted to be when they grew up. carson drew a zookeeper, but when he was feeling mad a little later in the afternoon, he threw the pic down and yelled, "IT'S NOT EVEN A ZOOKEEPAH, IT'S JUST A BUNCH OF SUH-CLES." i didn't argue with him -- he was right, it WAS just a bunch of circles, but i was sad to see the dream die. coloring/drawing isn't his strong point, but we're casually working on it.

life marches on.