Stuff

I woke up this morning to a big gray cat lying on my arm which was up over my head. I have to admit, I didn't really mind considering how warm and fuzzy she was...

For Kaylee's swim class today, they moved to deeper water. This time the water was up to their necks. Kaylee did the "dead man's float" and some self-propelling things, and had a blast. These lessons last half an hour. So every day I'm there, under a big umbrella, with a Coke and a camera, watching and reading. It's still nice and cool at that time of the morning, so it's not even unpleasant. While the blinding whiteness of my legs ought to embarrass me amongst the tan lifeguards walking by, it's not so bad, because this is not a pool frequented by hard bodies. This is a family pool giving swimming lessons for the time frame, and I even in all my white glory do not stick out like a sore thumb. I have been known to stick my bare feet out into the sun for that 30 minutes and pretend like it will help my sock tan line. ;)

I swear, Kaylee is maturing at a slightly too-rapid rate these days. Her tone of voice, her word choices, all seem so old for seven. And other times she melts down like any self-respecting three-year-old. (I say that because as a two-year-old, she was pretty good; it was the three-year-old tantrums that were impressive!) Anyway, thanks to Oprah, Dateline, and a small conversation with a friend putting it back in mind, today I said to her "You know that should a teenager or adult ask you to come help them look for their dog or cat or anything else, you'd just tell them you need to get your mom or dad first and walk away....or if someone tells you that we sent them to get you, it's a lie because we know way too many people in this town and would never send someone you didn't know to get you no matter what they said to you or what they knew, right?" She looks at me, and says "I'd go to another adult, probably a woman with kids, and tell them I needed help and I'd give them your phone numbers, yeah yeah. Mom, I've known that for like my whole life. Why are you telling me again?" Like she was 13 years old. I told her "because it's important, and important things you say over and over so when you need them they will be right there in your mind. Like 'I love you'. That's important to know and say more than once too." Which started us down a whole rabbit trail of conversations on things that are important to go over and over so you know them and remember them. From Bible verses and Godly attitudes to 'emergency procedures' like Stop Drop and Roll to watching where you're going on a bike to saying "I love you". She's certainly got a wandering mind.

Which reminds me. We were in the car the other day, and she never understood why I was laughing so hard, but it's because it's me. She said some statement that was totally off the wall and had nothing to do with whatever else we'd just been talking about. So I said "Kaylee, where on earth did that come from?" She said "Well, see, Mom, I saw this when we drove by it which reminded me of this that so and so did which made me think of that which made me think of this which reminded me of what I just said." She stopped talking and I just cracked up, because I and my wandering mind do the exact same twisted path thing...just ask Steve who learned to quit asking "what made you think of that??" a long time ago. ;)

Steve flew to Iowa today on a student cross-country flight, and I went home with Kaylee who spent enough time at the airport yesterday to earn some fun hang-out time at home with her little friend from next door. Shortly after her friend goes home here, we are all heading out to eat at Hacienda with several friends for a daughter's birthday...

I've got a mountain of laundry to do and company, well, really family, coming tomorrow, so I need to get at least some of that laundry caught up and put away tonight. Big plans for the evening, as you can tell. ;)

To close, here are a couple of videos. The first one you might want to turn the volume down unless you are a fan of loud angry music. I just enjoyed the flying scenes, and the shot at the end of the plane on the ramp with the sun setting behind it and the guy filling it up. That would be an exciting job to have. The second one is from 1957, and it's how crop dusters used to do it. I guess I can't say whether they still do or not, but I highly doubt it, at least in typical arenas. I also wonder what kind of chemicals they were pouring into there to spray around, wearing no protective gear, just dumping buckets of pesticide into the holding tank. But the flying scenes are pretty neat, even if they are black and white and moderated with the voice of the same guy who did all voice overs in that time frame. ;)