November 20

November 20 - Loveland, CO

Long, long ago when Natalia was little, we visited a touchy, feely place where  the kids could touch furs, pinecones and all that kind of stuff. When we left the place Natalia said that she wanted a pelt. I asked her how she was going to use it, she explained that she was going to wrap her doll just like the indian mothers did. So the search began, no one (museums and gift shops) could tell us where to find one. I think we were in Aztec, NM. We asked a lady who worked at the visitor's center for help. She suggested we go to a trading post that was close by. When we went into the trading post, the owner was showing a couple how to lay a pattern onto some white material (maybe deer skin), so we had to wait. When he waited on us, Jeremy took charge. The store owner said that he had some rabbit pelts and brought out two boxes of pelts. I had talked to Natalia about where a pelt came from because I did not want her to be upset about skinning an animal. Jeremy asked, "How much are the pelts?". The man said, "395". Jeremy said, "$395.00?", the owner said, "No, $3.95". Without pausing for a breath Natalia said, "I'LL TAKE 2!". So we left with rabbit pelts to wrap dolls in. But that day I learned from Natalia how to come up with a quick response.

Today, Michelle and I went to Best Buy looking for Kindles. When the salesperson told us the price which was much lower than what I thought it would be, I followed Natalia's lead and said, "I'll take 3". I learned well. Michelle and I came out of the store each with a Kindle and one for Meredith. Yahoo!!!!

This morning, I had an exciting experience that I never had before. I felt something in my right ear, so I dug around and pulled out what I thought was a fly. I handed it Bill and he put on the window sill so I could see it when I got up. He said it was not a fly but a spider.... ewwwww! By the time I got up to go look at the remains, it had walked away. Bill assured me that it was not black with a red spot on it but a tan spider. Once again, I flashed back to a lesson from Natalia. One night Jeremy did not go to sleep for a long time. She asked him what was wrong and he said, "There was a spider on the ceiling terrifying me".  She said, "Oh JP, call me next time and I will deal with it".  It seems like I've learned a lot from that little, adorable girl. I asked her one time how she remembered things so well. She said that she put sticky notes on her brain. I tried but my sticky notes kept falling off to this day.

Michelle surprised us at breakfast with sausage gravy with biscuits. She should sell her recipe to most  restaurants that do not know how to make it and do a horrible job. Thanks Michelle!