Chapter 445

 Let's take a minute to mourn those lost socks that we've all been looking for!

So last week I got this free, Free, FREE slide for Reagan since she has outgrown her little slide. This is just the tower for the slide and it looks much larger than it did in it's former yard, which was much, much smaller than our own yard. It was supposed to be for Reagan's birthday, but Grampa got ahead of himself a bit.

Since Reagan was coming over Friday, we spent a couple of evenings digging holes in our rocky soil and concreting the posts in nice and solid. It still needs to be power-washed and have stairs and railing put on it, but it was ready for Reagan when she got here. We'll keep working on it to bring it up to code and cute'n it up a bit.

Grampa takes a test-slide and gives it his stamp of approval.

Reagan and I had planted sunflower seeds earlier and so we planted her sunflower starts. I didn't know where to plant them, but I told her we were planting the next time she came so we planted...

...then we took Reagan to Costco while Chris and Carissa had a date night. We had a quick bite at the deli and Reagan ate hers in the cart. Nothing like feeding your kid in a rolling cage in a warehouse store.

Since she didn't eat fast enough to meet my deadline, she got to finish her dinner en route to the snacks we needed for our Jaguar outing the next day. She was enjoying this rolling pampering a little bit too much. 

Enjoying her spoils from Costco on the drive home. How did this happen?

Saturday morning we started our Jag club Spring Thing Rally from the shop at Auburn High School. The club members loved touring the shop and we met in the classroom for snacks driver's meeting.

While all of this is going on, Reagan is quietly sitting at my desk coloring away.

She sat at my desk and listened a lot more attentively than most of our students during the driver's meeting.

After snacks, the cars lined up in front of the pool and were dispatched to our route a minute apart to find their way on our plotted route to Black Diamond Bakery for lunch.

While Bob and I cleaned up after the meeting, Reagan happily continued to sit at my desk and ate an apple. She also likes to play with the little Hot Wheels and printed parking lot I keep on my desk. I print out a new configuration of parking lot every couple of weeks. This works like magic to keep the guys from fiddling with my desk stuff. It's an amazingly simple solution to a huge problem. 

Reagan wanted to take some of the flowers from the school parking lot home with her for her mom. She loved the flowers in the parking lot and reeeally wanted to take some to her mom in the worst way. Since I don't allow her to pick flowers from public places, I told her she could have some of the flowers from the parking lot because they were going to "trim them soon" anyway. She was a happy, happy kid.

Since we organized the drive, we didn't need to drive it one more time so we met everyone in Black Diamond Bakery Restaurant. Our auto class is fundraising to send the teacher and one of our students to Louisville, Kentucky for SkillsUSA national competition so We donated some items to raffle to the club members who were very generous with their donations. Reagan chose the winning tickets out of the bin and did a great job!

I chose our seats along the wall so Reagan could have some room to move around. It was a bonus to find that we had a nice little niche that she immediately planted a flag in and claimed it as her own.

We were all closed up in a little banquet room and Reagan and it couldn't have been much fun for a four-year old. She was as good as gold for the entire day.

Woo Hoo! We finally got rid of this monstrosity of an award plaque that has been leaning up against the dining room wall (backwards) for a year now. George said he'd been chasing that trophy for 3 years now and was very excited to finally have it in his hands. Good riddance to a huge trophy.

So while we are offloading our huge trophy and wrangling Jag folks, Chris and Carissa are having a flight in a C-17 around the state of Washington. Carissa even got her own wing patch.

Chris is looking out of one of the 6-ish windows in the C-17. It looks like Chris is in a full-size room!

Carissa got to ride up in the cockpit for quite a while. Although I have no desire to fly in a C-17, it seems like it would be fun to see.

They demonstrated the open-the-back-end-and-throw-stuff-out procedure. How many folks get this opportunity?

Chris and Carissa are cute anywhere, even on a huge military machine.

While they are flying around the state in giant green tube, we were lounging on the patio watching Reagan enjoy her outside time on our patio. She was so excited to get all her toys out and play with every single one of them.

Even Bear enjoyed sitting sitting on the patio to watch Reagan play and enjoy the great weather.

Reagan chauffeured her little buddy "E" around in her bike. Except that she kept calling him "Evan". I'm not sure where that came from.

 Reagan and her friend Jayne were enjoying the beach and each other's company.

And that bath last night? The one where I heard the screaming clear outside because she was getting her hair washed? Well, I think there's going to be another one tonight. I think I can hear the screaming now.

Reagan had a good checkup and cleaning this week. I see "E" and her penguin joined her on the surfboard. My how dentistry has changed in the past 60 years!