valentines breakfast

regular pancakes, just a little fancier.

I was wishing I'd thought to mash up some of the

frozen raspberries so they'd be pink (and raspberry-ey).

maybe next year.

on the way home

pictures taken through a sometimes dirty window along the way home (southwest Wyoming & northeast Utah) February 9, 2009. Because Doug was driving, I was free to get in roughly 387 shots (ok, maybe that's a slight exaggeration) along the beautiful return trip from my sister's house.

i finally went

tessa at ikea

I was brave. I finally went to Ikea. I have been terrified for months. All I'd heard was that it's BIG and you write what you want on a card and it's BIG. So today I was finally brave enough to go. Never mind that the courage came only because of the promised aid of personal shoppers (my sister and her husband) and another experienced Ikeaer (another sister) as well as another newbie (yet another sister). Oh no. I was certainly brave.

Tess very much liked the stand upon carts that move very easily and every which way & "The Playing Class" which is her name for any sort of daycare situation. I only bought a small package of cookies as a reward (along with cash) for my oldest daughter who was at Nanny's house helping to babysit a cousin and ended up changing her first diaper of the most unpleasant variety.

If I ever have to decorate a room from the ground up, I know where I'm going.

I really do remember how to knit

And to prove it, I'm working on a hat. And then another, and another, and another after that. And maybe more still. We'll see...

nie-nie dialogues

My sister forwarded me a blog address. A blog she's been reading. The blog of someone who is a member of a family who is somehow known to someone in her (my sister's) husband's family (did you get that?). I've read it a little bit, but it is hurting my heart. It's the blog of a mom. Last summer she and her husband were in a very serious airplane accident. She and her husband were covered in burns (she more than he) and in a coma for a month and a half. They had to leave their home in Arizona to return to Utah (from where the author originally came). Their children were divided among two aunts while their parents "slept" (as they call it).

I've been having some trouble getting a prescription filled. I think I need to wait to finish reading it until I can get that done. My emotions ... *sigh*

Anyway, it's an otherwise happy blog. She has such an amazing attitude. And her kids are adorable.

***

When I was 13, I watched the neighbor's house burn down. I saw my dad go into the house, the children's bedroom, through a window (keeping his feet outside so he did not lose his way). While thick, black smoke poured out past him, he went in and out of three different windows in the same room until he found a limp little girl. A 6-year-old. A girl I babysat. A girl to whom I had taught the alphabet in sign language. A girl I loved. She looked dead to me.

Just as Dad emerged carrying little Lauren, the firefighters arrived. They resuscitated her. They said if Dad hadn't found her when he did, she would have died.

But it was too late for her younger brother. Elliot. Only 10 days past his fourth birthday.

We went to his funeral. From time to time my friend and I (we had baby-sat together) would walk to the hospital, a few miles from my house, to visit Lauren. She had been badly burned. From time to time we would walk to Elliot's grave.

I guess seeing Nie-nie's jobst gloves in a picture triggered all of that.

Like I said, it's a lovely blog. But I think I need to wait until I can get my medication before reading further.