Blogging for Nicole

My sister Nicole moved to Kenya two days ago and I miss calling her a few times a day to tell her all the things driving me nuts and cracking me up, so I decided to take a few minutes every chance I get to write her in this medium. Email could work to, but that can be distracting. I get to working on triangle things or facebook things and before I know it I have forgotten that funny thing Mom did or Dom said. Here we go Nicole, here is what you should know about the last couple days:

Mata in the Pond:
I took mom and the kids to the botanical gardens yesterday to get our minds off the fact that you were in the air. They have a great little kids trail with a fun hut, binoculars, bridges and it ends at a black bottom pond covered in green algae. The kids loved it. They were great too. Everyone was inspired by nature when we got to the end of the hike. I stood next to Amata and looked up the hill where Dom and Mom were looking at a sign, asking them which way we should go to head back to the car. When I looked back to Mata about 20 seconds later she was up to her neck in the pond and horrified. I yelled, "AHHHH MATA!" and ran over and pulled her out of the water. Somehow her hair did not get wet at all, so I stripped her down to her diaper, put on her sweater that I had been holding and carried her back to the car. About 2 minutes into the hike mom and I started laughing. I must admit I am a bit surprised how quickly it all became hilarious. I thought it would take at least a day, but the girl was fine and the sight of her in that pond was just too much. Mom kept talking about how expensive algae and seaweed treatments are at the spa.

Mom's advice on birth control:
We are trying to decide what to do about not having more babies. I just want to make sure we do not have big regrets. Also trying to be a good daughter that lets mom voice her opinions, I asked. She had good advice, sharing that she regrets not having one or two more. I said that I needed a few years for sure so maybe I could get an IUD and mom said, "Babies come out holding them in their hands." I fell off the stool.

More Thank you envelopes:
As I sit here at my desk I can see two more destroyed envelopes from thank you notes Dom has destroyed. I am going to just email people!

Chocolate Milk: Amata loves drinking out of that Clifford cup that Ani left because of her adoration for her cousin. I gave her some chocolate milk and went into the living room to drink my coffee and watch the news. All I could hear was some happy sounds from the kitchen so I continued watching the hokey segments on decorating your mud room. At last I went to see what the happy kids were doing and found them covered in Chocolate milk. Apparently when shaken, the Clifford cup makes wonderful chocolate milk rain. That was one of three showers Amata needed yesterday. The kids had just as much fun with the spray bottle and rags they had to use to clean up the huge mess.

Okay...I will try to write again very soon. I think it will be fun to keep you up to date on the mundane and the ridiculous. Just to send you off with a great picture in your head: Dom is wearing my black heels and his new underpants which are red with airplanes.