One of my kids is really into princesses. She has loved them since she was 3, and we own a ton of princess things. You'd be surprised how much princess gear there is out there. Besides the obvious (dress ups and clothes), we have nail polish, hair stuff, shoes, sheets, etc. You name it, we probably have it. We even "met" and had lunch with the Disney princesses last time we went to Disneyland, so in her mind that makes them real people.

So, needless to say, she is ecstatic over the British Royal wedding on Friday. Living out West, it will come on at 3:30 AM our time, and she somehow managed to convince her dad that she can get up to watch it (I made him agree to get up with her). Princess Catherine is all she's been talking about for the last week or so. I blame myself, because I'm the one who told her about the wedding and that the person would become a real princess after she married a prince. She thinks this is about the coolest thing ever and says that her new goal in life is to grow up and be a princess. We need to work on that one. Anyhow, she asked me the cutest thing the other day- she asked if Princess Kate was going to hang out with Cinderella and Snow White and all the other princesses. I didn't have a heart to mention that those are fake princesses.

Happy Easter! As always, it's cold here on Easter. We've lived here almost 6 years, and no matter how warm it's been (mid-80s last week), it is always cold for Easter. Maybe it's to make us sympathetic for all those northerners that still have snow. At any rate, it didn't stop the kids from running around outside looking for eggs. They refused to believe there were more eggs and kept looking. It also didn't stop the sun from melting the chocolate inside said eggs...

Along with this chilly day we have wind. Spring out here means wind, and lots of it. It's nothing to have 25 MPH winds. We routinely have gusts that are tropical storm force or higher- the highest at our house so far is 72 MPH last spring. When it gets that windy everyone gets cranky, including the dogs. They refuse to go outside and the older one likes to hide from the wind, which gets really interesting when they haven't been out all day. When the oldest kid was younger it was cold and windy and I was tired of waiting for them to hop in their carseat, so I said the wind would blow them away if they didn't get in the car RIGHT NOW and, suprisingly, they not only believed it, but to this day they are still wary of windy days. Man kids are gullible.

One of my best friend's dad died this past weekend of a massive heart attack. He was young and it was sudden. About 2 months ago another friend lost her father-in-law. That makes me wonder- are we really old enough to start losing our parents? Most of my friends' (and my) parents are in their 60s. That's too young, right? Living out West, 60 is not old. People out here are still active well into their early 80s. There's a 70-something year old in my yoga class that routinely kicks my butt. My 54 year old neighbor still competes in all the 100+ mile bike races. What's that old saying, "age is just a number." It's all how you feel and how you act. But back to losing our parents. I remember my grandparents- one died while I was young, then the rest in high school or college. Is that a dying trend, with people having kids later in life? And if we're old enough to lose parents, does that mean we are middle aged or just "real" adults now?

I was in the grocery store parking lot last Saturday afternoon at 5, listening to the kids argue about what movie they wanted to watch that night and thinking about how I needed to get home and make dinner so we could eat on time. I watched two young women walk out of the store, carrying their coffees (our grocery has a Starbucks inside), and chatting away. I imagined they were discussing their plans for the evening and I realized that I couldn't remember what my husband and I did on Saturday nights before we had kids. Sad, right? I tried to think about how different my Saturday would have been if there were no kids in the picture- what we'd do all day and, more importantly, how late we'd sleep in. Isn't there a country song to that effect? Anyhow, it's not that I wish we didn't have the kids, but more of just wondering what life would be like without them. I wonder how many other people feel the same way. Remember way back when, before kids were in the picture, and you (ok, I!) naively thought things wouldn't really change once there were kids? I'd just have this cute little kid to tote around with me, who would automatically eat when we did and be content to follow us around all day doing what we wanted to do. Of course then you have a kid and realize this isn't the case. Maybe when they get a bit older they'll be happy to do that. Or, eventually, we can just leave them home or they'll be off doing their own thing. Is it too early to plan for an empty nest?

A friend of mine just turned 30 and listed 40 things she wanted to do before turning 40. Figure she has 10 years, so that's 4 a year, and I have less years than that, so I should take 4 per year and multiply that by..... you get the idea. I think 40 is a bit ambitious (things, not years), so I can probably come up with 10. The last list I did had "learn to knit" and "take up biking" on it, both of which I did. Unfortunatley, I'm not that coordinated so getting both hands working, at the same time, to knit was hard and I've since learned to crochet. Much easier. And faster. Anyhow, here's the start of my list. Some are easier than others and probably can get done in the next year, others will take a little longer. I reserve the right to edit/change/delete items in the future. Hey, it's my list.

1. Do a triathlon


2. Run a half-marathon


3. Start a new job


4. Resurrect our Crochet and Coffee group and keep it going for more than 2 months


5. Move to a new town