It Skips A Generation

Hey y'all - 

On Saturday morning, your dad had to do something-or-other at the airport for Civil Air Patrol. I'm sure he told me the details, but I immediately forgot 'em. 

So while your dad was occupied with saving the world or fixing a plane or fronting an Air Supply cover band (really, it could have been any of these things for as much as I paid attention), I took y'all to the Feed Store in Alberton to pick up some seeds I'd ordered. Finding a way to kill 200+ plants a year has to start somewhere.

"This is how you get into the store, Hagen."

Then we went across the street to the school playground where Hagen was so bundled up, he could hardly move. 

I promise I didn't photoshop her eyes - they were really this color in the light.

After the playground, we picked up our produce order from the food co-op, then met Dad for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Dad offered to take Hagen home for the afternoon so the girls could stay in town and have a shopping day.

Let me tell you something about my mother: She loves shopping like no one has loved shopping before. I have never once heard her say, "Golly, I'm getting tired. Maybe we've seen everything out there and we don't really need anything, anyway, and the most sensible action would be to head home." Once, as an experiment, I took her to an outlet mall outside Palm Springs, which (I think) bills itself as the largest outlet mall in Southern California. Its wings have wings. I vowed that I was going to shop with this woman until she was ready to give out. "She's in her fifties," I thought. "How long can she last?" Y'all, we looked at every store in that dad-burn mall until I was hunched over like those people you see being wrapped in emergency blankets on the side of a marathon. We made it back to the car, where she sat down in the passenger seat, looked at me, and - I swear to all that's holy - asked, "Do you think we missed anything?"

I picked Laney up from school last week, and as I was signing her out, she asked, "Where are we going now?" "We're going home." Then, she wailed, "I don't wanna go home! I want to go to TARGET!!!" I wish I could adequately describe to you the look you get from a teacher when your preschooler is having a fit to go to Target.

So on Saturday, Laney and I went to Costco, then to Target, and then she said, "I want to go to three more stores, and I promise to be sweet." So we went to Old Navy. We went to PetSmart and watched the dogs being groomed. We went to Michael's and bought some stuff for a school project. And she was - as she'd promised - sweet as can be.

My new plan is to send Laney and Peg Peg to an outlet mall together and see who drops first.

Love,
Mom