After three quick days in Billings, I'm back on the plane. The flight from Billings to Seattle seems longer than the flight from Portland to Billings, but that could be the hour. It's 6 am pacific time. Still another hour of airtime before we land. I've been up since 4 mountain time (before that even since I can never sleep if I know an alarm will be going off and I'll actually have to heed it), that's 3 pacific time. The more I think about it, the more I need a nap!
The trip to Billings was delightfully restful, even with four kids in the same house. When its other people's kids, messes, and to do lists, the pressure of what comes next and what needs to be done just disappears, at least for the house guest. Rhys hid out in his room with his books and his legos, avoiding his siblings as much as the extra adult in the house, that's just being 10. He did come out to play Uno with me last night, but after he beat Kjersten and I twice, it was back to the bedroom for him! Cael is still in his pet rock stage as the mama calls it. He let me hold him a few times, but mostly he wanted the milk lady and a nap. Brennan is the family handful--at three he is all boy and clearly practicing for the Minnesota Twins, always swinging a stick, lobbing any potentially airborne item, or running bases. Kjersten is the little mama, always willing to help, just wanting to be involved in whatever was happening. She was the busiest of all during my stay, she got a visit from the tooth fairy, she learned to do handstands (as long as the couch or the wall are available), and she acquired a new pet--a pet "lady bug" beetle. (It's not really a lady bug since it's green and has 13 spots, but definitely related.) The mama, who is freakishly bug phobic, is so NOT impressed. Between admiring the bug and Brennan's heartfelt declarations of true love, I got to nap and read my book and eat junk food the likes of which rarely, if ever, come into my house. It was great. After three days of no vegetables (and two batches of chocolate chip cookies--Jason says I can come back anytime), I'm even almost ready for next week's delivery. (To Karen's defense, my visit coincided with the end of the grocery month, otherwise she does occasion see fit to feed her kids the occasional vegetable. Or so she says. :))
Thanks Karen!
Now it's time for two days of lawyer-on-location, before I get back to my pets and my bed. I'm anxious to see the progress at the house. Don tells me he's been working on the mud room / porch room. Finally, the projects at the house have advanced to our apartment (which is both good, it needs some love, and bad, living amongst Don's projects makes me fussy!). When we moved in, the walls of the porch were covered in poetry and acrylic paint pictures. The exterior door frame barely fit, you could see light around the shims, except where someone had piped insulation foam. It's a wonder that the weeks of using it as a home for the chicken box didn't attract some mighty rodents, there would not have been much of an obstacle to their gaining entry. I'm hoping to have a door and at least most of the painting in place before I return so I don't have to live with that mess off my kitchen. Plus, I think it will make a grand place to hide zucchini.
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