I miss Katie!!

What a pathetic mess I am. You would think I had never been apart form her before! She keeps calling me to ask questions. 'My tongue is numb. Is that normal?' Yes. 'I can't taste anything. Is that normal?' Yes. 'The little thingy that hangs down in the back of my throat is swollen. Is that normal?' Yes. I guess that even though her dad is taking great care of her, she still needs me. I miss her soooo much. 

So today I am tackling the cleaning of Katie's 'space'. She has her own bathroom upstairs and she is responsible for cleaning it. But......she's 15 and her cleaning skills need some fine tuning. She does a pretty good job most of the time, as in I don't have to call Haz Mat. So every once in a while I get in there and give it a good scrub. I scrubbed the shower, toilet, floors, baseboard, sink, mirror and anything else I could reach.  I straightened out drawers, threw away all the empty containers and wrappers that were stuffed in odd places, and popped in a new air freshener.

I didn't stop there. I proceeded on to her room. First step was to pick up all the clothes off the floor. I couldn't tell the dirty from the clean so it all went to the wash. Then I stripped her bed and threw all the sheets and duvet cover in the wash too. I put away a basket or two of clean clothes (Oh, now I get it. Clean clothes stay in the baskets until they are worn then get dumped on the floor. Makes perfect sense. So what is the dresser and closet for?) I picked up and straightened things, dusted and emptied the trash. Then I got a bright idea to look under the bed. Holy Moly, I think I saw Jimmy Hoffa!!! I retreated, got a large garbage bag and a long stick and went back in. Empty water bottles, tags off of clothes, underwear, shirts, socks, a toothbrush, two packs of take-along toilet seat covers (seriously) and her white belt. I straightened out her vanity and cleaned the mirrors. Next I want to attack a couple of spots on the carpet and vacuum (twice, probably) I will re-make her bed, add a new air freshener and leave it looking perfect.  Maybe I will take some pictures so I can remember this moment in history.....

Today our 4 year old showed me how to open a child proof bottle. He wanted a spiderman vitamin so he just helped himself. All the vitamins and supplements just moved one shelf higher, and I will be installing a child safety lock later today. Everything else in the house is already under lock and key. Maybe I should add a few booby traps????

We are at the peak of planting season here for things like trees, etc. I don't know if I mentioned the latest tree purchase we did. I had gotten 26 small trees last Nov. and placed them in posts until it was planting season. Then, just a few weeks ago Chris discovered a local tree farm that was having a huge sale. They advertised $8 for 8-10 foot tall oak trees. We headed up there in the truck and came home with 16 oak trees and 6 crepe myrtle trees, and they were even bigger than what we thought they would be.  Below is Chris next to a newly planted Live Oak (or maybe a Burr Oak) tree. Does that look like an 8 foot tall tree? And it was $8!!! All in all, 47 new trees.  That sounds like a lot, but you have to consider that we have 3.5 acres and 1 tree. We have a long way to go to create the park-like yard we want. We are on the 5 year plan (which may be like my college degrees and drag on a bit longer....)