our favorite visitor

Retirement has it's advantages. I am sure my mom can list quite a few but my favorite is definitely that she can pick up and come out to Albuquerque to help me with the kids when Jon is away. Jon was heading to Arizona for 4 days so Mimi to the rescue. It's always so nice to have her help and we usually find lots of fun things to do while she visits. I got tons of sewing done and we even managed to sew Presley a new dress without killing each other. Note to self: just because a pattern indicates that it's "Easy to Sew" does not mean that it's easy to sew! Mimi took Presley to her first real movie. They went to see Beauty and and Beast in 3D. Mom was worried that I would want to experience this first with Pres, but I had a feeling it was going to be a complete disaster and therefore was all the more willing to let my mom take the lead. To my surprise, Presley was great and loved every minute of it. Looks like movie going will be a future activity for our family. Landon was not left out and learned to say "mama" and clap thanks to Mimi. The week flew by and soon it was time for "Mimi to go back to Arkansas and check on Poppie". There's no one else like our Mimi and we are so grateful for her willingness to come such a long way to stay and play with us.

 

albu-quirky

I always enjoy discovering all the quirky things about the places we live. In Lubbock, it was learning about the west Texas winds and raining mud. I have been patiently waiting for Albuquerque to reveal it's hidden quirks and the time has come. The landlord came by to fix something and mentioned that he would be back soon to replace the air filter after the cottonwood trees were done "doing their thing". I didn't think much of that comment but come last Saturday I got a first hand experience of what the cottonwoods do. About 5 miles north of our neighborhood, the sky was filled with blowing "cotton". It literally looked like it was snowing. I haven't actually looked into the technical aspects of this process but understand that once the cottonwood trees bloom, the blooms blow off and look like puffs of cotton. I didn't have my camera with me on Saturday but I made sure to tote it with me today so I could share this little Albu-quirky.



lost & found

I have always believed in the kindness of strangers. Today I crossed paths with a stranger who went above and beyond to return something very important to me…my cell phone. We haven’t had a home phone for years and rely on our cell phones for everything. This morning as I was getting the car loaded up to take Presley to school, I placed my cell phone and some money on top of my car. Being in typical spastic mommy mode, I didn’t even realize I failed to retrieve these items before speeding off to my destination.  I didn’t notice I was missing my phone until several hours later. I placed a call to the preschool and was waiting to hear back from them so I hadn’t really started to panic yet. I headed to lunch with my mom when I realized the cell phone was accompanied by $60 in cash.  Once I put the two items together, I was at a loss as to where they could be. After confirmation from the school that my phone was not in Presley’s backpack and had not been found by maintenance, I started to get a little worried. After putting Landon down for a nap, my mom got a call from Jon who had the name a number of a woman who had found my phone. Here’s where the above and beyond part comes in…the woman found my phone in several pieces laying in the middle of the street about a block from our house. The money was scattered around the street as well. The woman put my phone back together, called several numbers in the phone until she got a hold of my brother-n-law, who got in touch with Jon. After speaking with her myself, she happily walked the phone and money up to our house and accepted no reward in return. We live in a crazy world, but every once in a while life can surprise us. Today my surprise came in the form of a stranger who is no longer a stranger, but Denise who lives down the block from me and goes above and beyond to return lost cell phones.

an egg-xtra special easter

We enjoyed a quiet Easter in Albuquerque. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we spent almost all weekend outside. Presley has been learning all about the real meaning of Easter at school. She does a great job of remembering to tell you that we celebrate Easter because "Jesus is alive!". We had a small egg hunt inside the house on Sunday morning and I told Presley she better enjoy her last solo egg hunt because next year Landon will provide some serious competition.

ready, set, NO!!!

I have been dreading this milestone since Landon was only a few weeks old. There is such a short window between sitting up and crawling, which means a mother goes from the ability to find a toddler where she left him and constantly returning the toddler to where she left him. Our entire living area is tiled and I have nightmares of bloody noses and bruised faces so Landon's immobility has been a blessing. But this boy is ready to go! I made him several pairs of leg warmers/knee pads but can't seem to find a pattern to make a facemask! Check back for posts of life with another mobile kid.