Clean

It's Sunday afternoon and my home is near spotless. Might have something to do with the big fat "FOR SALE" sign that greeted me when I returned home from St. George. I knew it would be there, but it still surprised me...and made me something in me ache. Changes are hard, no matter how good they are.
Anyway, I consider it a miracle that despite the kids' help my home is still so clean. We'll see if we can keep that up. Rus and I are having fun checking out desert landscaping books and home design books from the library...planning all the things we would like to do for our new house. We really want a blooming, beautiful, welcoming backyard...in native plants that don't need hardly any water. What can I say, if you grow up in the desert you either love it or hate it. We love it. If anyone knows any good home design books, let me know. I need good pictures and love a clean, welcoming, traditional look with some modern/contemporary flare. I am suddenly being reminded of why I majored in interior design! (Now let's see if I learned anything!)
On other topics, Bekah's two days of school went really well. She enjoyed her teacher and class ("Mom! Ms. Teacher has these chalkboards, and I couldn't see what she was writing, but then SHE SLID THEM OVER CLOSER TO ME!"), and loved recess on the big playground ("There's this spider web thing and you can climb to the top and then when you get down there's this spinney thing and you twist like this and you spin around but I couldn't do it because I didn't want anyone to see these yellow shorts under my dress because they don't match and I don't want to get in trouble will I ?"), and admitted that first grade is a lot more work than kindergarten.
Yesterday we all went on a hike. We drove up to Sandia Crest and took a little trail down with an amazing view of Albuquerque. It is one of the most beautiful places to hike, I have to agree with Rus. My kids loved fighting over wildflowers ("Kids! There are lots of flowers! Jacob! PICK YOUR OWN!"), and wanted to move in to the stone house that sits on the very ledge of the mountain, built by the Conservation Corps in the 30s ("Bekah there's no potty!j We can't live there!")
...And just for the record I have to share this conversation Rus and I had on the way down.
Rus: Keri will you drive I have an awful headache.
Keri: Sure. Now do I put it in second or third to help me not go so fast on the way down?
No, that doesn't really help.
Okay, then I guess I'll just be riding the brakes the whole way.
It's okay I put great brakes on here.
(FIVE MINUTES LATER)
Rus, everytime I go to slow down I keep having to push harder and harder on the brakes.
Pull over. Now. Your brakes are hot. I thought that smell was from the car in front of us.
(smoke comes out of the right front tire)
Rus: Alright let me drive.
(Rus starts driving, shifts it into third)
I thought that didn't help!!
GRUNT.
So are they sticking again, Rus?
No. I'm pumping the brakes. [Insert long, technical, detailed explanation of brake systems here.]

I could barely speak from the overwhelming fascination of it all. Really. It was very interesting. Just glad we didn't DIE because I hadn't known that at the TOP of the mountain! Communication is such a tricky little bug.
Three cheers for family trips, huh!