Author: Elsa

Dahlia was so excited to take the bus. She had waited 2 years for this
moment. When we would walk Monti to the bus stop in prior years Dahlia
would have us wait at the corner until we could no longer see the bus
as it drove away.

I said good-bye to Monti and headed off to school myself for kindergarten orientation. There were lots of new people and new policies to learn about. I really dread the beginning of relationships. It just seems like so much work. Today at Dahlia’s kindergarten I had to go through the painful process of lots of small talk and too many introductions – two things I am horrible at. I attempted to make conversation with this woman sitting next to me. I asked if she only had the one child. She looked and me strangely and said ” I was at the bus stop with you this morning with my older son.” It is so typical of me not to notice things around me. Sometimes I’m glad people can just lump me into “the dumb blonde” category instead of taking my lack-of-noticing-them personally.

My little girl looks so big waiting for the bus. She pulled me over
and whispered to me she was a little nervous. I told her it's OK I too
was a little nervous… What would I do all day at home by myself?

Dahlia met her teacher Ms. Howard. She has about four kids in her class from our street but no one she knew before.

One of the supplies Dahlia needed to bring to kindergarten was a
decorated juice container to hold her stuff in. Her can was decorated
with rhinestones and all types of stickers. For some reason she put
"MY" in front of her name. I believe she was just using stickers
randomly but I sorta liked "MY Dahlia Fleck."

We planned on going over to Monti's friends house on Labor Day to swim
at their pool if the weather warmed up. At 9 am Monday the girls were
in their swimsuits with bags packed for a day at the pool. The only
problem was it was only about 55 degrees outside. After lunch we
headed over to the pool anyway. I figured they would just play
poolside and maybe get in the hot tub. They swam and played in and out
of the pool for 4 hours while I shivered with a jacket on outside the
pool. It was only about 64 degrees and the sun was buried under
clouds. Dahlia took a huge step towards feeling comfortable in the
water by putting her face in the water with a mask on. Unfortunately
it led to a battle over the single mask for the rest of the day.

At Petsmart they had little black and white kittens for adoption. Of
course the kids loved them. Poor Joe couldn't even check them out he
just said he would meet us in the car. One day we will get a kitten
again but we won't get one that looks like the lumps. He will be our
one and only tuxedo cat.

This guy reminds us of our cat Corky in some weird way.

Did you know a bison’s head weighs about 250 pounds? We learned all types of fun facts including the name of the plant that stings your skin when you rub against it while hiking or biking in the Northwest. It is called Stinging Nettle and my goodness it does sting. According to our tour guide a good way to get rid of the sting from the plant is by using another Northwest treasure… gold ol’ slug slime.