New pix and such

Hello! We're still around, starting to stir from our winter hibernation. Okay, so the winter hibernation has mostly been in my head, but we really are spending more time outdoors despite the chilly temperatures that continue to plague us.

We've just last week returned from a trip down Tennessee way, for Grandpa Great's interment. We buried his ashes in this gorgeous little cemetery, in the Montgomery family plot right next to his wife. And when I say we buried, I mean that rather literally. Since this was a small affair and a small cemetery, the minister (a distant cousin) handed out shovels and he and Mark did the hard work while the littlest ones (Evynn, Gaz, and Merynn) helped by tossing in handfuls of red Tennessee earth. It was perhaps a bit morbid, but still very sweet. If I can't manage to finagle a sea burial for myself, I would love to be buried by my grandchildren and great-grandchildren (though that's getting very much ahead of myself on several levels!)

Sadly, the pictures from the cemetery did not turn out very well at all, so I haven't uploaded those yet. I need to do some work to try to fix the weird color/exposure issues with those, but I did upload a bunch of other photos from before and during the trip.

The first part of the trip (can't do anything in order, can I?) we stopped through Evansville for a night and had an early Easter egg hunt with Nana and Pehpaw, then headed down to the Nashville area, where we spent a couple of days visiting the Sandersons and their kids: Fletcher, Lily, and Malcolm. Lily was born just a few weeks after Agatha, and they combined their unholy affection for all things pink and princessy into something truely awe-inspiring. And loud. But they had fun and little Malcolm wasn't too traumatized, I hope. (As for the adults, we all had a great time too, but we wore many fewer loud clomply play shoes and did less fighting over mermaid costumes.)

We met up with the Mitchell clan at Henry Horton State Park, down by Chapel Hill, TN. When we weren't at the aforementioned cemetery, there was a fantastic dinner at a Mexican Restaurant, and a spontaneous trip to Lynchburg for some of us legal folks to go check out the Jack Daniel distillery. While Mark, Emily, Kyle, and I were there, the kids and Grandma and Grandpa planned a show for us, with singing and some acting, and a side of ham. Gaz had a really fabulous time, considering the funeral overtones, but she is still trying to grasp mortality.

On that subject, she found a dead squirrel in the park a couple of weeks ago and had many questions about what "dead" is. This has come up enough over the past year that I'd hoped I would get a break from those questions, but no dice. I guess it's part of the deal.

Other than the above events, life here is much as it ever is. There's a lot of art projects going on, a lot of singing of strange little narratives, and a lot of toys everywhere.

so much to say

But to start off, here's what Gaz said at dinner when I asked her how she signs "strong" in her own version of sign language: "Strong is when you eat a little monkey and chew it!" Not sure where we get monkey eating from (unless you've been telling her stories about the Navy, Papa Charley!), but she did go to the zoo yesterday with Mark, where she played with a little girl named Emily. Today she went to the park and met a girl named Lucy and they had a great time. We'll have to see if we can connect at the park more often.

Let's see . . . We visited all the grandparents, who are all doing well. Gaz got to visit another funeral home, when my cousin's grandmother died. It was a situation not unlike what we went through with Grandpa in February, which was a little surreal for me, and all the Sawyers remain in our thoughts. Gaz made the best of it, though, and spent most of our visit there running around outside with another little girl. She makes friends everywhere she goes!

We're in the middle of a big Scooby-Doo kick lately. Lately, she's all about watching "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost," so don't be surprised if she sings one of those abominable Hex Girls songs to you. And speaking of all things Halloweeny, I'm working on another Mothra costume. But like Mothras from the movies, this one will be different! I'm not so much styling it after a particular movie, as I am working on alternatives to the foam wings I made last year. This year, once I get the basic construction done, Gaz will be helping. I'm looking forward to that. She gets a big kick out of anything artsy these days.

Particularly, she loves painting. I tape some paper up on her easel, and in no time she's completed a masterpiece and is demanding more paper. If I can get the scanner working, maybe one of those will become part of the blog here. Today she decorated a pumpkin with googly eyes and yarn hair. She was frustrated with the mouth she drew, but I think it's beautiful, of course. There are pictures, I just need to sort out the hundreds that are on the SD card.

That's it for now. More as I remember things!