A good daughter

Waiting for this transplant is the pits. Karen visited me a few weeks ago, then went to Utah for her sisters-in law double wedding (how fun!). She wanted to leave her boys with her mother in law and bring baby Claire and come and help me. She waited and waited and waited and it was time to think about going back to Virginia. Then she had a great idea! Rent a car and drive with the four kids and come to visit. She left bright and early. Lon and Alan met her in Reno and helped her drive the rest of the way. We had so much fun together.

It's hard to do anything together because we have to take two cars to do anything together. We are lucky that Grandpa is such a willing babysitter. He watched the boys while Karen and I and baby Claire went to Half Moon Bay. Why Half Moon Bay? Fresh peas!! There is nothing better to sit and eat than fresh peas. We got to the pea stand and tried a couple. They were divine! I asked the guy if he had any crates of peas for sale. He did. I asked when they were picked (yes, I am turning into my mother), and he said just that morning. Karen and I looked at each other and said we'll take a crate. A crate weighs about 28 pounds. He opened the lid and crammed more in. I guess he recognized desperation and adoration in our eyes. He put it in the trunk for us. We got two grocery sacks and stuffed one with peas (we used the other one for the pods) and drove back home. We finished the bag before we got home. The remainder of the week we carefully monitored each other's pea consumption. Heaven forbid one of us gets a few peas more than the other one. She became very solicitous of my potassium consumption. I couldn't find any definitive information, other than dried peas were high in potassium. Since raisins are high in potassium and grapes are low, I thought the same must be true with dried peas and fresh peas. She fired back that eighteen or so servings of anything has to be bad. It was an uneasy truce.

On Friday we got home from the Temple and she was eating peas and putting the empty pods behind her. She claimed that the boys were helping her blah blah blah. I found it highly suspect. Lon called it the "Wall of Shame." I got a lot of good mileage teasing her about it. Soon all the peas were gone. Mother and daughter remained friends.

She also made cinnamon rolls. She can make some good cinnamon rolls. The only bad thing is that they never last 24 hours.

We also went shopping to the outlets, and made several trips to In 'N Out Burger. We had a couple picnics with the family and picked a ton of wild blackberries. It wasn't quite a repeat of the pea adventure, but close. While we were shopping Grandpa and the boys caught a lizard. It wasn't Gizzard (the lizard they caught last time). I don't think this lizard was very sociable--he bit Cameron when he let him go the day they left.

Sadly it soon became time to go home. Her husband has an internship back east and has to work a ton of hours this summer so she was pretty much on her own with Mrs. Right Hand and Mrs. Left Hand for helpers. She left from SFO with the four kids, three giant suitcases, three backpacks, two carseats, a stroller, and had to change planes in Minneapolis then fly to Virginia. After she got to Virginia it was about an hour and a half drive to her home. She bribed the big boys (five and three years old) with any toy from Toys R Us. Four month old Claire is a good baby, but still needs a lot of care. Two year old Tyler was the wild card. He has a mind of his own and could melt down for just about anything. They were all smiles when they left. They got home lately and word on the street says they won't be needing to go to Toys R Us. She wasn't ready to talk about it yet. I think all five of them should go to Toys R Us and get whatever they want. Thanks for coming, Karen. I sure love my little girl!