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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?

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.

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.

Monti checks out the furs on display at the park while wearing her
leopard coat. She said she was embarrassed because she always wears
that coat when she goes to the zoo. At the park I read about highly
profitable market of black bear poaching. I was surprised to find out
that black bears are killed for their gall bladders and their paws. In
Asia they make soup from the paws and the gall bladders are used for
medicinal purposes. A bowl of bear paw soup can sell for around $1000.
One black bear gall bladder can fetch up to $10,000 in east Asia. This
is 20 times the street price of cocaine per ounce. It makes me wonder
about that black bear that was recently killed in the Smokey Mountains
after it attacked a small boy. Did they sell any of those bear parts
to help the National Park Service?