Pope, Tea Party, Garage Sale -

Pope John Paul II died last week and was remembered on just about every TV station all day and night for a week until he was finally buried in the grotto in St Peter's Basilica this past Friday. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Pope, I'm sure he was a fine man and certainly reached lots of people and strengthened their belief, etc. But I hope the next Pope is not so anti - gay, birth control, women's roles and rights in the church and world, etc. I'm also hate the way they covered up for so long while so many bad men hurt so many little kids (another reason go get some women priests in there!). I hope they all get some healing and peace in their lives. Someday we'll take Skyler to Rome and show him all of the beauty & history of the Vatican - the good, the bad and those creepy old Popes that look like they are wax mannequins in glass coffins - yikes! I guess they've rethought that macabre idea since they don't display them like that anymore. Only Sleeping Beauty and Snow White should be allowed to lay there in a glass coffin for all to see.

Skyler and I had our first tea party! It was so much fun! We had green eggs and ham made of Playdough and sipped imagination Darjeeling from the empty Playdough containers. We had a fascinating discussion about our favorite parks and both agreed that the Marina park has the best sand and jungle gyms but the Golden Gate Park has better flowers & squirrels and is great when you just want to go for a stroll and kick the ball around. We talked about books & movies and decided that movies with at least one mean character are better than the ones that have none. Skyler's newest favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz and he loves to walk around saying "I'll get you my pretty" and then laughing that horrible Wicked Witch laugh (except it's much sweeter in his little voice). She's mean AND green, and that is his favorite combo in 'mean' right now.

Nana got a great new job with a big real estate office called Hill & Company. My mom has the best interview luck I've ever heard of - every time she goes on an interview she gets offered the job! She's been flying back to the LA area the past few weeks to work for her old company ERG and train their new accountant. We've missed her but we get to go to her house and feed her beautiful panther of a kitty-cat Jet. He's a sweetie and Skyler and I love to play with him.

Yesterday we had a huge garage sale - huge in size and the energy it took to put it all together and then pack the leftovers up again (that part is still not finished!), but it was also a great money maker and it helped clear out so much old junk that we no longer need to rent a storage unit. In the ad on www.craigslist.com we said that we had lots of vintage items and an hour before our start time a driveway full of dealers stood around like vulchers waiting for the doors to open. They ended up buying boxes of stuff that we'd love to keep but don't have the room for. We cleared out a lot of junk and clothes but still have enough for another garage sale, hopefully in a few weeks, and really get our piles of boxes down to just what we really want to keep. My mom was great for watching Sky while I unpacked boxes and set everything up - lots of Nana & baby time that they both loved. We were also able to sort through all of the baby stuff we want to pass on to Sequoia (and hopefully get back for our next baby - cross your fingers and pray to those fertility gods!).

Alisha's Chandelier installation: I'm such a Handy Man... I installed her beautiful chandelier and hope that makes up for our conversation last night where I suddenly started saying "Yeah Skyler! You went poo-poo in the potty!" and listening to him squeak about wanting a second bath (kooky kid). I thought she was going to hang up (she said she was going to), but she stayed on the line - she's growing up too!

In between all of the above of course we've done all of the usual parks, playgrounds and Tot's Gyms. Tonight we grilled burgers in our backyard - what a happy house we have!

Steph