Dear Karen

Dear Karen, I am awake before everyone else and the birds are chirping and the air is crisp and it makes me think of you. You were always up first and I can only imagine that you have had many moments like this. Many fond memories of the peaceful silence and being one with nature for a few precious moments. I think you would be happy to know that I am on a vacation with Stephanie. I have no kids with me and no husband! A girls trip if you will. Travis was very supportive, encouraging me to go and I haven’t looked back. I have only been gone since Thursday night but I am having so much fun! Stephanie’s parents have a home in Gold Hill (Near Medford) and it is a dream here. I long for the rural lifestyle complete with chickens and some livestock. Ken and Kris (Steph’s parents) are truly wonderful people and have treated me like family for as long as I have known them. They love our family and feel like our kids are their grand kids and we are happy to have them in our lives. They are our family. I was privileged enough yesterday to help with the chickens and got to catch one and hold it! This just made my day. I know I am quite the dork but I will embrace it and enjoy my chicken time while I am here. Steph and I got our toes painted as well yesterday and I have little white flowers on them like you used to get. I always loved your flowers on your toes and now I treat myself once a year to that as well. I have called Trav twice since being gone and he is doing very well with the kids (Not that I was worried). He is such a great dad. I wish you could see him with them as you would be proud. I see so much of you in him that sometimes it hurts. I wanted to call you the other day and tell you about Claire. We were in the grocery store and a lady was talking to me about laundry soap, as we were in that aisle, and Claire chimed in saying that I had turned all out towels pink. Yes I did do that but that was almost 2 months ago and it was a total accident with the kitchen rug. She has been telling everyone we know and some we don’t “My mommy turned all our towels pink!” I can’t help feeling embarrassed when she recalls this story and wish she would forget it already. She is so excited for kindergarten she is bursting at the seams! I got her a work book so we can be going over some things this summer in better preparation for the fall. You would be proud of how much she knows and of how loving she is. Ben is Ben. He loves to play and be ridiculous as much a possible. He can get me to laugh like no other. His smile gets him out of a lot of trouble. He is 3 now and is being difficult most of the time. Potty training seems to be getting better as I changed my tactics and he is responding quite well to them. The goal is to have him trained by the middle of the summer so he can go to preschool in the fall. He and Claire were fighting in their room a few days ago and so I went to investigate. When I got to the door I stopped to listen to what was going on and I hear Ben saying in a regal manor “I am the queen.” Claire is arguing against that saying she is the queen and that he can be the prince. Ben then says “I am the queen and you can be…….my servant!” We need to find some little boys for him to play with. Sam has been doing much better. He has gained weight and been pretty happy lately. He has a couple of teeth coming in so he has had some unpleasantness but that is to be expected. He is playing alone very well and is so SO loud. You thought Ben was loud! Sam is 10 decibels louder in his speaking voice than Ben. It is hard to imagine until you hear it. He started walking finally but only because my mom got him to do it. Trav and I tried so hard to get him to walk for months. My mom comes in for the weekend and got him to do it within the first 3 hours of her being there! It is great! He loves it, we love it and he is just delighted to be able to keep up a little better with Claire and Ben. Sam looks so much like you I find it uncanny. I will have to find a baby picture of you and post it with a picture of Sam so you can see it. He has so much Peterson in him and I think he laughs like you too. He really laughs and enjoys life. Today is going to be wine tasting starting at 10am so I had better eat a hearty breakfast and get myself together. I love you and miss you. You are always in my heart and on my mind. Love, KT