The best best friend a girl could have.

On Friday evening as I was completing my nightly ritual of facewashing followed by 432,890,432 lotions and potions to prevent premature aging and wrinkles, I had the living shit scared out of me by a near 6 ft. ginger who just magically appeared in my bathroom.

OMG. My bestie circa 1995 hopped a plane from DC to surprise me for the weekend! I've never been so happy to almost crap my pants in all my life.

After I regained consciousness and started breathing again, we spent our weekend doing what all besties do: mani/pedis, copious amounts of shopping, delicious lunches and dinners, planning my next trip to DC and reading bedtime stories to one very special boy who was simply delighted to have Aunt Caitlin visiting.

If you ask me what happened the night this photo was taken, I will have to kill you. Have a nice day.

I realize that not everyone is lucky enough to have a friend who pretty much knows your whole life. It's an easy kind of friendship--you never have to explain stories or people from tour past, and whether it's been 40 minutes or 40 days since our last phone call, it honestly doesn't matter. As an added bonus, she just intuitively knows when to hop on a plane and scare the beans out of me. Probably because she's a lawyer. 

These genes run deep.

Sometimes it's so freaky how much Alex looks like my brother, Kyle. What's even weirder are that their sweet little personalities are the same, too. Everyone except my Mom sees it--even people who didn't know Kyle as a child. It be weird.

This? This is Kyle. But you might be confused and think it's Alex, and that's fine.

This? This is Alex. But you might be confused and think it's Kyle, and that's fine.

I sure do love my boys :)

Way down in Kokomo.

Alex, Grammi and I took a little road trip to Kokomo, Indiana this weekend to visit family. He got to play with Charlie and Lexie and all their SUPER cool toys.

Ridin' dirrrty with Lexie.

We went to Rural King to see the chicks!

Fun at the YMCA pool.

He was so brave!

Three little nakies.

As for me? I built the world's greatest Thomas village.

Happy birthday, Poppi!

Note: this was scheduled to post on March 13, but blogger done screwed it up. So, it's nearly a week late, but happy FIFTY NINTH birthday, Poppi!

Welcome, spring!

So I'm ignoring the fact that it's currently snowing (ahhh, Michigan) and choosing instead to relish in the fact that I did, in fact, have to bump all the clocks in our house ahead on Sunday.

Today I was dreaming of the new patio design for our back yard and mentally mapping out where I'll be putting all my planters with their blooming pops of pink and yellow. Yes, yes, yes. This winter girl is finally ready for spring!

A not so rhetorical question.

Today on the twitters, I asked the following:

And then answered myself, with this:

Because honestly, it's just lettuce, chicken, cilantro, tomatoes, jicama and some tortilla strips slathered in bbq sauce and ranch. BUT WHY IS IT SO DELICIOUS?

Listen, one glance in my direction and it's fairly obvious that 13 times out of 14, I'm not ordering the salad at any restaurant, like, ever. See also: I love pizza. So why do I go to a pizza restaurant and order salad? Is a conundrum that even I cannot solve.

All I know is it's the world's greatest salad and I could eat it all day, every day. Anyone for a date night?

Hopeful.

Today is the day that our sweet bdub was due. If you know my heart, you know that I don't celebrate or choose to remember what I call "death days" - ie, the anniversaries of days that people died or really horrible things happened. My sister and brother are weird and take after my Mom and can pretty much remember to the minute, hour and exact weather of those days. And that is fiiiiiine. But me? Notsomuch. That's a bunch of sad and depressing and ineffectively circular references. Instead, I remember life days--like birthdays and signs of spring and days that I bought really great new shoes.

So today, while driving into work, it was only fitting that I noticed little peeks of green in the grass where the yucky, brown snow is starting to melt. And buds on trees that will soon flower and smell like God's perfume. And for that, today I celebrate life and new beginnings and robins chirping outside. And I'll probably go buy some new shoes, too.

Today I am not sad. Today I am thankful and hopeful and content. My prayer is the same for you!

Life lessons.

Alex has recently been asking for a new game. Specifically, a very, very quiet and calming game called Hungry Hungry Hippos. I can only assume it's from the same toy designer who invented the ball popping "vacuum" cleaner. I hate that person.

Anyway, I thought about letting someone get it for his birthday (can't even talk about the f-o-u-r) and then we opted instead to use it as a little life lesson. We told him he had to earn his new game by doing special chores and helping around the house...which, to my surprise, he was SUPER excited about.

So after a weekend of cleaning up toys, helping with dishes and being a VERY good listener, off we went to the toy store. As luck would have it, there were two left on the shelf (and it was on sale!). My sweet boy asked if we could also buy one for Aunt Jane, since hers was "just a little bit broken." Of course we agreed and he was able to use his special weekend of helping to also bring a new toy to his friends at daycare. Two life lessons, one stone, & one happy Momma.

I think I'm getting the hang of this parenting thing!