Harding Haroooo!

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I'm now in St. Louis with my sister, Ingrid, Peter, Pierce, Sarah and Grethen and HUMPHREY! who has been acting like a puppy ever since the temperature went down a tad.

Pierce is one of those 8 year olds you look at and say "you're gonna be gorgeous when you grow up." Yeah, I know he's my nephew, but it's true. He's in third grade now and I got to see his classroom when I went to his open house. When I went in everyone I met said "Oh, yes, he told us in class today that his aunt was coming!" That made me feel awesome. I'm someone to brag about! He has some awesome games that are really fun to talk about. The one he's playing right now with a bunch of friens of his is a ninja game where everyone has a place to live on earth, a planet of their own and many powers. My planet is aeronimbus. My place on earth is the sky and I've got lots of powers. I can turn invisible. I can turn into any animal. I can speak, understand and write in any language, including being able to communicate with animals (but if I turn into anything that you can find in the sea, I have to ask Pierce's permission first). Let's see, what else can I do... Oh yes! I can remember anything and everything, ha that's ironic that I couldn't remember that one! Cool game. And the animal one is a great power to have. That would be the first one I'd have if I could only have one, cuz then I can communicate with animals, I can fly, breathe underwater, all those things all wrapped up into one power!

Sarah is in regular Kindergarten and potty trained!!! When she is happy, she is a doll, truly. I've bene working on being traeted like an adult by spending time with her and washing the dishes and helping with dinner (i.e. not just being a lazy bum). NOT that spending time with Sarah is a chore! It's been working though. I was in no man's land before as to where I was in the family cuz we actually have 4 generations going, not just three. I'm in one allll by myself. Everyone else has someone else in their league. So it's really me and Sarah in our own league and not knowing quite where we fit. She's got Harding Haroo though, lucky duck.

Gretchen's name for me is "Dizzy". She's been hardcore drawing all the time. For hours. Then when she's done with what she's drawing, she folds it up and carries it around to everyone to see. When she unfolds it, she holds it up so you can't actually really see it as it bnds around her hand. Buuuut if you say "oh yeah, wow! I see!" she'll think you saw it and it's all good. She's growing up pretty darn fast. She can go to the potty by herself, except for the fact that she has a track record of putting her panties on using only one of the leg holes and puts her pants on backwards so that when she bends over you can see her butt! Silly. That's something she always says. "That's soooo funny." A twig found on the sidewalk while on a walk down the street. One of her many series of scarecrows (she's transitioning from scribbles of color to scarecrows again), most things are "sooooo funnnny."

Today, I woke up freezing freezing cold, so I stayed home from the Pirate Festival (which is outdoors for the entire morning and afternoon, no thanks) to take a long hot shower in their heated bathroom and write in this journal. It's no worries, because the Scarecrow Festival is next Sunday and that's supposed to be the bigger deal and the better one to go to.

got my new camera. didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me. I still miss the old one...

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Photos

Hardingharoo!
Here's my sister's fam with the scarecrow we just made.

Pierce's soccer game!
Pierce running away from the ball as usual

Messin' around
We do know how to mess around! They're c-crazy.