Housesitting in the Carolinas: DAY THREE

Today was a little more of a hit-the-wall kind of day. None of us got enough sleep, with the exception of Libi, as usual who catches up during the day. Estella and I had a lot of apologies to make throughout the day for being short-fused and/or weepy, but we still made it through with a nice ending, thanks to some kind of mysterious blessing from Jesus.

I tried to take the girls swimming today, but my choice of pools did not turn out in my favor. I was trying to save $15 or so dollars over a YMCA guest pass for a day, and went to the local community pool for a lot less. One of the endearing things about Rock Hill is that it is not entirely web accessible. I had to actually make phone calls to find things out around here. One of the things I did not find out, however, is that the pool we went to did not have a kiddie pool, umbrellas or chairs (what is this world coming to), and the shallowest part of the pool was 4ft, which is about flush with the top of Estella's head. Needless to say, my arms were very sore by the end of our hour there. I had Eva on one side, Libi on the other, and Estella on my back. I'm not sure what we did that was so exciting other than walk around in circles several times and make happy "whoooo" noises, but they seemed to enjoy themselves until I decided to be really awesome and took them to the grocery store to get some ice cream and Estella ended up in tears because she couldn't decide what she wanted and I was being mean. Somehow, we recovered from all of this and had a nice afternoon. That's probably in part because mother bear took a snooze for a few minutes when we got back. I think we're going to keep our fun activities here at the house from now on.

Libi is getting more and more articulate every day, which is cute, though the timing is a little unfortunate, since I am the only one to meet her many specific needs. One of the more endearing moments was when she thrust a book at me this evening and said "read it" and then squealed 'THANK YOU" when I took the book and opened it up to read.

Estella and I have not finished our Monopoly game, although it does not bode well for me at this stage. You know it's bad when your daughter is trying to slide money across the table for you because everything you own is mortgaged and you have three dollars.