It is my spring break now, and with the weather comfortably in the 50s and 60s, many of the students head down to Florida for the warmth, but many also go home to hang out, and a few stay here to work. Our plan is somewhere in the middle: J.J. is working Monday and Wednesday, I am spending all day Tuesday researching and writing, and on Thursday we are heading to Chattanooga to hang out for a couple of days. The funny thing about this break is how much I am looking forward to the Tuesday when I can spend 8 hours writing without any distractions. (Doesn't that sound just like a perfect day during your spring break?) Those days are very rare with all of the things that need to be done. I view preparing for classes and grading papers as work, along with various administrative things that always show up on the desk. But writing, for me, is the kind of work that I pine for when I am doing those other things, even though it is also mentally exhausting, and so when someone asked me if I was looking forward to the break, I could honestly say "Yes" in every way, because I would get to be home with girls a couple of days, have one whole day to write, and go on a mini-vacation with my family.
Wednesday was a big day for Rachel that she of which she was not really aware -- her birthday. A few unusual things happened for her -- Grandma and Grandpa Walker sang to her over the phone in the morning, and she had a cupcake for dessert than night, (Just like Claire at her first birthday, she didn't have much interest in the cupcake even after a taste of the frosting. But, the rest of us did enjoy mini chocolate cupcakes for days after.) but otherwise it was a normal day. (She did kind of open some presents too, mostly with Claire's help. But she was very tired that night and didn't have much interest in a party anyway) The big thing about the 1-year mark for parents is switching to whole milk from formula and the front-facing car seat. We started the milk early, but waited to get the okay from the doctor on Friday for the seat, and she rode in it once and loved the new view. She is actually underweight, even after all that she eats, according to the doctor. (You wouldn't know that from picking her up. She just seems "thick". She is dense.)
Claire did have a few exciting things happen this week. Thursday afternoon was a Murray State Easter egg hunt for families of students and faculty, and the turnout was big so the found eggs for each kid were few. But it was fun to see many of our friends there, and even though Claire only found one egg, she had a ball with her friends in the nice weather on the campus quad. Friday night her friend Katey stayed the night, and they had a good time together, only staying up until almost 11:00. Katey's mom had a garage sale on Saturday, though it was rainy, so having Katey stay over was helpful to her and Claire enjoyed being the host. (They played in the pink room all night very nicely and quietly. They got along great. They the watched a movie and Katey was definitely ready for bed. They slept on the bed in the pink room, with a trundle and loved it.)
Saturday was a busy day with good pacing -- Claire had music class in the morning, then a birthday party in the early afternoon, (Claire was so tired after her big night, that she fell asleep and I had to wake her for the birthday party and she was pretty mellow at the party even with a balloon pool, unicorn and butterfly decorations with glitter and cake and presents) and during that time Rachel and I stayed home and I cleaned much of the house, swept out the garage, and took all of our recyclables to the recycling day that they have here every few months. The city has some bins, but they don't have a plastic bin, so our plastics box really piles up. It was great to empty it with the trip. Plus, another bonus at the recycling day was a super shredder, which solved a problem for me as ward clerk, because we had all these old documents that our little shredder just wouldn't handle, so Friday night I went through the files and filled two boxes of paper and financial stuff and took them to the super shredder on Saturday. That was one of the highlights of the weekend:) (Another of "fun time" in the Walker household). Boy, Claire and I are sure sad we went to a boring ol' birthday party instead)
In the late afternoon Saturday we had a great baptism in our ward. A sort-of family was baptized -- a woman and her 8-year-old daughter, and her boyfriend. J.J. and I had been helping fellowship them, and it was neat to see them baptized. The boyfriend asked me to confirm him on Sunday, so that was a neat experience as well. At the baptism, we were also able to secure one of the college students in our ward who was staying here to babysit for us, so we could go to the movie, Juno, which we enjoyed for its quirky look at a high school girl who gets pregnant.
On Sunday, while J.J. was at the welfare meeting, I picked up Jessica, the girl who babysat, and Bishel, a student who the missionaries have been working with who lives at the same dorm as Jessica, and is from Nepal. He is a nice kid, who just started this semester. We had invited Jessica over for dinner because the dorm cafeterias are closed, so we invited Bishel over as well, and it was nice to get to know him better. He doesn't know very many people, so he was excited to spend some time with us and he really liked Claire and Rachel. He hardly knows anything about Christianity, but he enjoyed church and dinner, even if it was a means to not be alone. We are really enjoying becoming so involved with the missionaries -- we have grown close to one of the elders who has been here since October -- yet has had 3 different companions -- and they are constantly enlisting us in their efforts. It is something that we haven't been able to do much before, and it is fun. In a small town and a small university, it is kind of funny how being involved with the missionaries will bring us into contact with so many cross-strata of people, who inevitably connect somewhere else -- like the family that was baptized was at the easter egg hunt because she is taking classes, and Bishel was so excited when I told him he could drop by my office anytime to visit.
Anyway, we hope everyone is well and happy. Soon I will be tilling my garden plot and planting seeds -- maybe we'll have two sets of crops. I hope I can keep the deer and rabbits away from everything.
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