Spring... REALLY!

Spring - it's REALLY here!!! So many things to do outside...

Work in the yard (or just snoop),

feed the catfish, most of whom thawed out,

count the goldfish/koi... and continue repeatedly - and a tiny bit less optimistically - every day to see if it's actually possible to have lost SIX of them from last year, and wonder what the heck is going on, and see that the three left are hangin' with the grass carp,

(Make that TWO goldfish, according to Randy's latest count, and this isn't one of them. Sob.)

pick up all the fallen limbs from three months of snow/ice/wind,

roll and pretend to have a pleasant personality (Sami's rolling on ROCK should give her away),

remember to keep your (malfunctioning) eyes out for the leader on the mountain trail at all times so you won't get left behind and so that the leader won't have to lug her outta-shape self back up the mountain to call and call and call until she knows you SEE her because she knows if she doesn't, your visually-impaired, GPS-less self won't have a clue how to get back down to the house because, granted, we haven't seen the trail in three months, which adds to the uncertainty of your location, and, yes, Kali, I'm talkin' to you, dear,

go for a swim because 50 degrees is SO much warmer than 5,

play one of Kali's favorite games, Oooohhhh... just a tiny nudge and my ball will roll back down the hill into the pond. AGAIN. So sorry to be gettin' my freshly-brushed self grungy, Mom. Heh, heh (yep, that's the whole game),

take a nap with Emma,

or play ball.

Of course, there's never enough time to play ball, if you ask Kali.

Pout.

So when the ball throwin' is finished, it's time to put the ball up.

Kali's way.

That's okay. We're happy with mud noses (well, okay, happy may be a stretch), because we were tired of the white stuff. Hard to believe we haven't been fully thawed out a month yet.

Welcome, SPRING!

PS - Don't forget to check out The Jeffrey Journey, the reissue of Helen's book about their angel, Jeffrey! You can go here for order info (including CDs of the soothing original music written by Helen's mom, JoAnn Derden). There's also a new Facebook Fan page!