Melanie hit me with a snowball

We got tired of this late season snow-less existence, so we drove a short distance into the snow. Margie, Charlie, Melanie and me. I had barely stepped out of the car to breathe the still warm air when a snowball smacked into me. Melanie points at the car and denies all culpability. The car was her target, she claims. She didn't know the snowball would ricochet off the car into me.

Melanie has always been good at math. She knew. 

Text added at 5:38 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 42 and counting.

Melanie and her old friend, Moose Phillipia

One day when Melanie was seven, I heard a rather clattery knock up on the door. I answered it and was stunned to see a moose calf standing there."Hi!" The moose calf greeted. "I'm Phillipia, can Melanie come out and play?" This question put me in a bad spot, but I had to answer truthfully,"No!" I answered "I do not allow my daughters to play with moose!" Dejected and offended, the moose turned and walked away. Later that afternoon, when I was not looking, Melanie snuck out and she and the moose went off to play. They did this frequently and often. No matter how many times I chastised them – and I chastised them both! Today as we were returning to the house from getting coffee at Metro Cafe, Melanie suddenly shrieked , "Look! It's Phillipia!"sure enough, it was. I was very surprised. I did not know a moose could live this many years. 

Text added at 6:39 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues. Note: I did not realize that Squarespace had stripped the photo out of the original post until just now, when I finally got a chance to add the text back in, due to the fact that Squarespace will almost always fail to post both text and picture at the same time. 

A walk through a strange and unknown land

Melanie and Charlie showed up. They wanted to take us to lunch, but Charlie's car only seats two people and Margie is off gallivanting around in our car. So we took a nice walk instead, going to places where Melanie used to sometimes walk with me and her mom when she was small. There were no houses back here then, no road. Only a trail weaving through the hilly woods. And by this time of year, there was always snow. It was cold. We looked all around. None of us knew where we were. An airplane flew overhead. Look close – you will see the airplane. It is up there, in the sky - in the strange sky, over this strange and unknown land. 

Text added at 3:37 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 42 and counting.

Daughters, baseball and art recognition

Lisa showed up, too, eager to catch what she could of the World Series, game 4. She's a die-hard Cubs fan, but, of course, the Cubs aren't in the series so she's rooting for the Red Sox. The drawing is the work of Charlie, produced during the big art session with the boys. Melanie was pretty sure it was of a character from "Our Gang." She asked me which one it was but I didn't know.

Text added at 8:46 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues.

A major art session was staged

Melanie and Charlie came out too. A major art session was staged with the boys. Rex and Cortney left to go home.

Text added at 7:35 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues.