may flowers

We've had some amazing weather here. Sorry Minnesota, but the west has got you beat for early springtime! The month has flew by with few major markers. Dave's school had its annual fundraiser, doing just fine by raising 40,000 for next year's operating costs. (Charter schools in Oregon are funded by the state at 80% and fund raise the remaining 20%.) Everyone at school is pretty happy that it is over until next year! I passed all my EMT finals so now I'm official, at least on paper. I've begun to incorporate into the local team of emts, but I think it will be a bit before I feel really comfortable with everyone. Julia's been her usual awesome self, loving the spring weather which means lots of outdoor play. Her favorite thing to do is pull up grass and flowers, find scraps of wood and build nests. Sometimes she pilfers the real eggs and I find them later in rather artful piles in the lawn.

Our little silkie hen managed to hatch a chick, much to our joy, but then we were devastated on the 2nd day to find the chick dead and the silkie covered in mites. It was a real tragedy that I didn't catch fast enough. We've recovered from the disaster now, and maybe someday we will try hatching another batch of chicks. 

We went to a luau at Dave's college, which has a strong Hawaiian population. On the way, we visited our friends, the Gustafsons! 

lots of frolicking in the sunshine. the boards on the ground are one of Julia's nests. 

I've done a few drills with the local emts. we were practicing low-angle ropes rescues here

For about a week I couldn't figure out why the chickens had all stopped laying. I usually get 4-5 eggs a day, and suddenly I was down to 1 egg a day! Finally I discovered that they had been hiding a secret stash of eggs from me behind a hay bale! There were more than 20 eggs in the cache! Now I'm on the lookout for secret egg stashes, but they've gone back to laying eggs in the coop. who knows why! 

I finally took Julia in for a real haircut! Our daily battles over combing out the snarls were just too much. She was apprehensive about it, but the stylist won her over by giving her "princess pink lips" when we were done. She's commented daily on how she had pink lips ever since. She still gets all worked up when I go to comb her hair, but the snarls are pretty much nonexistent, so hopefully she'll relax soon. 

showing off the hair, the wings and a new dress!!! (thanks Bekah!!)

one day at storyhour, they put up a stage. the kids went nuts over it, putting on the most avaunt garde performance imaginable. 

And here's a new first, Julia went to preschool!!! There's a sweet little preschool that we've been noticing at our friday playgroup. I checked them out for next fall and Miss Amanda the teacher suggested that if we were interested, she would be willing to have Julia as a drop-in for the spring. So last week, we tried it and she LOVED it. Not so much as a tear when I said goodbye and when I came back 3 hours later and stood in the doorway, she made eye contact, smiled a huge smile and then went right back to her project of watering the plants. I think we'll keep on doing it on fridays, since she's so happy and to give me some time to myself once a week!