Salon day

I took Meg to get her first official haircut today. I have trimmed it here and there over the past nearly 19 months, but it was time to get all of it cleaned up a little and her bangs trimmed. I'll admit I was nervous about it. Fortunately she handled it like a champ. She got lollipop that wasn't even that interesting for her. Rather she sort of skeptically sat there with me touching her leg through all five minutes. Quite a big girl.

Andy was very sweet about the whole thing. He kept trying to distract and reassure her. I don't think she needed it, but it made my heart well up a little.

Speaking of welling up, my cousin Katchie died last night. I say cousin generically as I believe she's my mother's first cousin. We spent a lot of time with her growing up and I have great memories of her houses in Pecos where she usually hosted everyone after church on Christmas Eve. We also spent some great holidays at her house in Ruidoso, N.M., where my grandfather taught us various card games that we played for hours in the hopes of winning the $50 pot.

I have seen much less of her as I got older. The combination of not going to Pecos for holidays anymore combined with her inability to travel and the complication of pregnancies and little people was a big deterrent. I did get out to see her a few years ago. My mom and I caught a Southwest flight from Dallas and just went to see the Pecos crowd for the day. She was a fantastic cousin and I was always very proud to say I was named after her (I believe my mother wisely named me Katherine after family on both sides, however, I was always proudest of my Katchie connection.)

Katchie has been unwell for a long time, particularly in the past week so it wasn't a surprise, but I'm sad all the same. My older sister was the hero of the hospital by going out to Midland to be with her at the end and I'm really proud of her for it. I can only hope that when my time comes there is much love (and Scotch) to go around.