Another on-the-go weekend!

Claire hams it up with Grandad!
Claire checks out the view from "Uncle Seth and Aunt Kara"'s apartment.


Last weekend, Claire and I went to Norman on Saturday and Broken Bow on Sunday, and this weekend, I went to Dallas on Friday, and Coleman and Sherman on Saturday. Whew! We needed to rest today.

Friday, we were out of school, so hurray! My job is becoming more and more stressful. I think it's because I'm becoming more and more disenchanted with the kids, which is not good. At first I thought they were so funny and energetic and unique, but now I'm generally overly focused on the punks who ruin it for everyone else. So Friday, I ran errands with Claire and then that afternoon, my mom picked her up, and I headed back to Caddo (!) to pick up four students who went with me to hear an author speak at the Dallas Museum of Art! Her name is Tracy Chevalier, who wrote the best-seller Girl with a Pearl Earring, based on the famous Dutch portrait of the same name, and also made into the movie starring Scarlett Johannsson. Overlooking the stressful rush hour traffic and exhausting late-night drive, the experience was lovely and inspiring. Tracy Chevalier is a lot like the kind of writer I want to be: she's focused and disciplined in her craft, she writes historical fiction even though she has no degree in history or training in research, and she writes about young adults, like I want to.

Saturday, I did the housecleaning I neglected last Saturday, when Claire and I went with Mom and Tyler to Norman to see Amanda. After we finished and Claire got a nap, we went out to Nana and Grandad's house in Coleman, where my Uncle Danny, Aunt Neila, and cousin Allie were, along with a bunch of my Pannell family members. Claire stayed with Nana and Grandad on Thursday, so she was very happy to see them again, especially Grandad. She also loves Grant, Mom, Amanda, and Tyler. The rest, I'm sure she will love, but she seems a little uncertain about them now!

Last night, Jay and I went to Sherman to get Claire's pictures made at Sears and run to Target for some wedding gifts. Of course, the showers were today, and I didn't even go because I was working on my story about the cabin we stayed at last weekend all afternoon--deadline tomorrow! Anyway, word to the wise: don't schedule a picture appointment for the last slot of the day! The photographer is considerably, and understandably, less motivated to get that perfect shot. I just wanted Jay to be able to go, and he needed to work at the Burger Shoppe.

General Claire update: she is into patting us while we hold her, especially if we're patting her. Last night, she slept from 10 p.m. (she had a short nap before her photo op, so a late bedtime) to 6:30 a.m. in her crib! Wow! That is big-time for us. I had been letting her sleep in her crib for the first part of the night, but she ends up in bed with us. We'll see if this continues. She's only nursing five or six times in a 24-hour-period right now, and she seems to be wanting to change to one nap a day, because her naps are fairly unpredictable right now.

Here she is helping Daddy putt at Seth and Kara's apartment this afternoon: