Happy at you

This is going to be yet another rambling list of things I don't want to forget. Maybe after we move my brain will shift back into some semblance of cohesive thought. Perhaps not, but we can hope.

 1. The husband got a really nice honor on Friday night. The students and professors and administrators at the university where he teaches named him the Opal Goolsby Professor of the Year, which means that they like him. They really, really like him. (Sally Field anyone??). I'm not sure who Opal Goolsby was, but I am certain that her name is awesome. Anyway, he is excellent at what he does and we are proud of him.

 2. The crops are coming along nicely. Actually, just the corn is. The expensive heirloom tomatoes seem rather timid and finicky:

3. Harper looks a bit feral in that picture. Which, actually, is also how she has been acting lately. We've been doing very little school (there was The Sentence Dictation Nightmare of Early April that cued me that maybe it was time for a little break. The offending sentence was, I believe, "May I please play with that chain?" There were tears aplenty. An unchained melody, if you will.) and have instead been playing outside most of the day. Because the weather is in that sweet place of perfection, which generally only lasts a couple of weeks here in Houston.

 4. Helena has been sick off and on (mostly on) for the past month, and just when I think it might be time to actually trek across town to the pediatrician, she will rally and act completely well. Everyone has been pretty sniffly and sneezy and wet-hacky-coughy. Enough about that.

She spends lot of time wearing that ballerina swimsuit (or "bow-weena cossume" in Helenese) and she insists on also having a bun in her hair and socks with her ballet shoes. Please don't think you can deviate from this. Because girls who are in a cycle of sickness will see this as a tremendous affront to ALL bow-weenas and possibly the entire world. And there will be weeping.

 5. We went to the Arboretum one day last week. We saw herons and turtles and also a black fuzzy caterpillar:

They were watching a millipede in that picture. I really love seeing kids crouched over like that, investigating outside. It's exactly opposite to the way I feel when I see them slack-jawed in front of the t.v.

 6. The husband, after many months of threatening to do so, bought me an ipad on Saturday. I am not using it much because I am, quite frankly, afraid of it. And I also haven't figured out how to post pictures yet. I am secretly hoping that he will realize that he actually bought it for himself, and then I can be happily reunited with my three year old laptop that takes a comfortable 8-9 minutes to load my email. Walking into the Apple store (my first visit) made me very nervous. I usually walk by and glance in at all of those people with an emotion, I've realized is equal parts scorn and pity. Similar to the way I might feel while glancing in a methadone clinic. Everyone assures me that I will grow to love my heroin.

 7. I need to finish and go do something productive.

 8. Helena, when she gets in trouble, has started covering her face with her hands. I'd like to think it's real repentance, but I'm pretty sure she's just sad about being caught. She says, "Daddy going to be happy at me?" and then, inevitably, one of the other two will say, very lovingly, "NO! Daddy will NOT be happy at you if you disobey!" and she'll cover her face again and weep.

8. Blogspot seems to have changed some things around and is refusing to post my list with the appropriate spacing, which is annoying. Still, this will have to do.