Wistful

Bjorn was home this weekend. He was barely home for 48 hours, but it took us all no time to get back into our normal family groove. The little kids absolutely loved it. I could tell Margaret especially had really missed him. Andy's old enough to understand more of what we're doing, but Meg really isn't. She's definitely been more clingy lately and picks up a lot of my tension trying to get it all together. We made the mistake of trying to cram too much into such a short time, but it was totally worth it. Except that it wasn't. Seeing him in some ways made it harder because it was just so good to all be together. So today we're all just sad. Part of me is also sad that our life here is coming to an end. Our life in this house -- where we brought both our babies home from the hospital -- is almost up. Bjorn will likely not be back here until it's time to move out.

Fortunately, I'll see him again Friday when I fly down to hopefully make an offer on a new house on Saturday. By then, I think I'll start to get super excited about the options down in Dallas rather than dwelling on all the work that has to be done. I am about 2/3rds of the way on this marathon and I'll admit I'm pretty tired.

Our home inspection was today. Fingers crossed it went okay. We have a weird radon detector set up in our basement, too, with all sorts of signs saying don't touch. I don't think the radon detector has any idea of it's up against with Monsters 1 and 2 in this house.

Sad

A friend of Mark's from high school died last week. The details are still a mystery, but the fact remains the same. He is gone. There's not too much to say except it's all so terribly sad and it hits a little too close to home.

Peter went with us in 2006 to Lexington to look at VMI and a few other colleges before the boys entered their senior years at Robinson and were considering playing football. I remember him being a nice, funny, polite kid. He was a good sport of hanging out with an 18 month old. He and Mark even babysat one night so we could go out to dinner with friends.

He will be missed.

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.

Surreal

It's been a strange few days here in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The Virginia Tech tragedy has its tentacles all around the area. Lots of folks around here either went to Tech themselves or have a kid there. In my small office of 50 people, I think we have four or five graduates and at least one person whose son attends (and is an Engineering major no less). Around Fairfax, lots of kids Mark and Jennifer know from school are there so it's really hitting close to home. I know that bad things can happen everywhere and you can't totally protect yourself from crazy. I know that intellectually, but seeing the names of the dead along with high school photos from schools nearby is making it very, very real.

It also all seems to exploitative at this point. All the networks have been camped out there and even all the morning shows are broadcasting live. Oprah today was from the campus. I'm glad they cancelled class the rest of the week so a lot of the kids and professors can get out of dodge and try to get some perspective on the whole thing.