34.17 minutes

When I hung up my cell phone on Friday morning it flashed 34.17 minutes.  I spent 34.17 minutes on the phone with my sister.  As a rule I don't talk on the phone while Astrid and I are together, but when it comes to my sister all rules get broken for a few minutes of togetherness 2,500 miles apart.  I realize it is a luxury, and it comes at a cost.

This particular day it took 34.17 minutes for her children (who were home on a snow day!) to dismantle one of the bedrooms she had just finished cleaning, raid the kitchen a couple times, and to get into things they shouldn't be getting in to...  During the 34.17 minute call I followed Hurricane Astrid around the house as she left a path of destruction with every minute I spent on the phone... passing me books to read, rearranging her new dollhouse several times, teasing Skagit, attempting to unroll the toilet paper all over the bathroom...  Our phone calls are always worth the wreckage.  I'm so thankful that I have a sister (and two brothers) I'm very close with... albeit on opposite ends of the country. 

This past week life our has been filled...

with Friendship:

My dear friend Holli (from my hometown - Houlton, Maine) came for a visit and we skied Pattee on a wet morning recently.


Getting out:

The beautiful Clark Fork in B&W.

Running in our neighborhood (left), and hiking with my pal on my back up Crazy Canyon (right).

It makes my heart so full to see my girls together on the trail.

Finishing up a very cool project:

Wilson was the mastermind behind this beautiful dollhouse project.  It was a lot of hours and work, but well worth it when Astrid saw it for the first time.  She plays with this little house all the time.  Every so often I will hear her "talking" her dolls.  Sometimes she says something I would say.

Holli and Wilson sharing a laugh.

Wilson put in a lot of time on extras:  a potbelly stove, a ladder, two beautiful wood stairways, laminate floors in the bathroom and kitchen, a chimney and shutters.

Don't ya just love the flowers?

Astrid's favorite part of Wilson's shop is the swing.

Relaxing with my family:

Fairmont Hot Springs delivered.

Getting to know my girl even better:

I wish I wrote down all the funny things that Astrid says.  She is increasingly independent and stubborn at times.  Just the kind of child I was my mother assures me.

I have to paint the scene for one recent funny story.  One morning after pulling on my workout clothes, I got quite frantic trying to get outside...  Skagit was just behind my legs at every turn.  Underfoot.  My skin was absolutely crawling.  I kept tripping over her everytime I went to grab something else I had forgotten in the other room...  Astrid's mittens, my hat, Astrid's hat, oh, and her glasses.  In Skag's defense once she sees me in this clothing she simply can't control herself...and I grow increasingly more and more annoyed that I can't move around, but I don't do anything about it. (like, put her in a down)

I grabbed that last item I needed and said "Astrid, come on honey, let's put our boots on at the door, click click." (I don't know exactly how to write it but it is that clicking sound you make with your mouth to call a dog.)  I realized what I had done, but I thought maybe she wouldn't notice.  Nope.  She announced immediately "I'm NOT a dog, Mama. I'm AAAAAAAAstrid."  This hit my funny bone and we both laughed so hard and so long about this.  Skagit just sat there looking at us like we were crazy.  It was a good day.

I love the way the afternoon light enters our living room as we watch the deer family move through our back yard.

As her personality develops and she learns how to express herself better and better, I love who she is becoming deeper and deeper.