Apples and moons

Scar and I were reading one of our household favorites, Ten Apples Up On Top.   She asked why the bears were trying to steal the apples.

Me: "Because everyone likes apples.  People and animals." 
Scar "But not moons."
Me: "Well, no, I guess not moons."
Scar: "Because moons don't have mouths, mom."

Happy Halloween

Tonight, Charlie and I went trick or treating with one super adorable frog, a skeleton princess, Christopher Robin, and a water bottle full of wine.  We're going to let Scarlett eat a little candy, then 'trade' the rest in for a water bottle that she's excited about.  And since we only had 2 trick or treaters in the time we were home, this means Charlie and I have a LOT of candy to eat in the coming days. 

We are up to the challenge.

Homemade costume #3.  Charlie is really upping his game.

More Scar speaks

Me: "Scarlett, What does it meant to love somebody?"
Scar: (smiles big). "Happy!!"

later...

Me: "What makes someone a princess?"
Scar: "Happy!!"  (Thinks for a moment...) "Princess are happy but do not smile."

Blankets

"Everyone needs blankets except pumpkins and chickens and kitty cats."

-Scarlett, seeing the moon covered with a blanket of clouds

Superheroes

The thing about Texas is...

There are a lot of things about Texas.  It's a big place.  First off, my mom was born there, in Austin, and I wish I could have taken more pictures of the good stuff for her.  Most the pictures I took were out of the window of a moving car, or inside the hospital. Also, there were far less giant state-shaped belt buckles and big hats than I expected.  But there were some.  And there were some super Texan guys on the airplane on my way home.

One great thing is the food, which was accompanied by the margaritas:

And my coworkers who I never see, like Candace (who is really from Tennessee):

I was on this 'expert panel'.  What I'm an expert at, I have no idea.  Cleaning cheerios off the front of cupboards and warming up milk to the exact temperature that a two-year-old will drink it at?  Nobody asked questions about those.  Anyway, if anyone wants proof that I'm an expert at something, here it is:

I guess I sortof know a lot about being a PM too.  In this slide, I talk about the project manager way of grocery shopping- geographical through the store, so that I hit everything on my list in the order I walk by it.  That's right, you didn't even have to attend my conference, you get that right here for free.

These slides don't accurately show how enormous my hair was.  One thing about Texas is, it was humid.

Also, I left my water bottle someplace in Texas, which fascinates Scarlett.  She says maybe somebody in Texas is drinking out of it now. 
It's good to be home. 

Austin, TX

I miss Scarlett.  I miss Charlie too, but not in such an acute, homesick way.  Tomorrow I fly home, but they don't come home until the next day.  I've gotten lots of pictures from Charlie and his mom.  Scarlett playing and climbing on things and trying to drink rain water.  And I can hear her garbled voice over the phone.  But nothing compares to getting to hold her tight and kiss her sweet little chubby cheeks.  To reiterate, I am not cut out for the traveling-mama role.

In the meantime, I did my long-awaited (by who?  me, I guess) Project Management presentation today, for maybe 15 or so clients and a couple of my coworkers.  There are pictures of it somewhere, which I will post later, as I know there's nothing more interesting than pictures of me standing in front of a PowerPoint presentation. 

Austin is really lovely.  I went for a run by the river, and it's like Portland with all the greenery and all the exercisers, except it's far more humid and my hair is really huge.  I've had my share of margaritas and good Mexican food, and time with work friends who I rarely get to see.  I have a whole lot of work waiting for me once I get home, but that's not to be dealt with until Monday, and I get to see Scarlett on Saturday, and Polly will occupy me on Friday so I don't sit around counting down the time until my little girl is back.