Rachel

Well, this was Rachel's weekend. Rachel is my son, Phil's, second daughter, his third child. She will be eight in about six weeks.

I picked her up after school yesterday and we did the same things I do with her sister, only I gave her a choice -- Dollar Tree or Macy's. Macy's was having a fantastic sale on children's clothing, and Rachel, being the clothing lover that I know she is, chose, of course, Macy's. We really lucked out. Not only did she get a couple of complete outfits for school (slacks and tops), but we also found this beautiful dress for her to wear to the Father/Daughter dance at her school, which is coming up in two weeks. Notice the gold shoes. Aren't they the cutest?

The dress top has a sparkly material and drops glitter as she walks. Oh, well. The skirt is layers of netting over some thule. The top layer of netting has sequins glued to it randomly, of course. So cute. So very Rachel.

After we got her dress we went out to dinner at, of course, the children's favorite restaurant, Bob Evans. Not my fave, but that's okay. Then we came home and watched the third of the Ice Age movies, which she has not seen. Nor had I. It's a cute movie.

Then it was time for bed. I read four chapters in a book about Jimmy Skunk -- one of Peter Rabbit's friends, and I could see she was dozing, so I shut the book and told her we'd continue it on Saturday.

This morning she came in and woke me. A very dangerous thing for her to do. Alan sent her. He knows better. Fortunately, I didn't swing at her, like I usually do when someone interrupts my sleep. I made her breakfast (lots of bacon and other stuff, but heavy on the bacon), and off we went to get her hair cut and styled. (The picture was taken before we had her hair cut.)

Melissa Radcliff does a super job on children cuts. Any she did a great job with Rachel, which was difficult because Rachel doesn't sit still -- EVER! That's part of the charm of Rachel. Now it's up to Rachel to keep her hair shiny and combed.

After her hair was cut, we packed her up, and took her to McD's for lunch, then home. She seemed to have a great time. And Rachel is a chatterbox, so the conversation was easy to keep up with her. Some of my grandchildren are introspective and it's difficult for me to get a conversation going with them.

So, Rachel, thank you for spending the two days with me. I'm glad you could come. We'll do it again, probably in the summer.

As far as my holding up -- always a concern -- I did great. I can still walk. My back is out of whack, a new twinge, but other than that I'm fine. Alan also enjoyed Rachel. And he is watching football playoffs now. Well, he's sleeping through the Arizona/New Orleans game. He does that a lot. (Smile).

ttfn