Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate.: April Showers Bring May Showers.

It's been cold here. I know it's Colorado, and I understand how much everyone around here loves to say "Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes!" but I've waited and all I've gotten is tricked. Remember when I was tricked into buying a flowering plant earlier? Because I thought it was sunny forever after, and then it snowed the next day. Since then it's mostly only been cold, with a few days of beautiful, sunny glory mixed in there just to remind you of what you really want-but what you can't have.

Here is one example of how cold it was the day before Easter:

(Sorry I cut you out, Dad. You were clearly trying to be in that one. I think I did you a favor though...) This was taken at poor Lilly's soccer game. When I arrived and tried to figure out which game was ours my mom's polka dots were like a beacon. I'd come to the right place. But then I looked around and it felt very wrong. Surely that chubster stuffed into the unibomber getup wasn't my handsome nephew? And my mom certainly hadn't stolen her granddaughter's track jacket to use to warm her hands and refused to give it back? It was. She had.

BUT I will say- It Was Cold. Later my parents (who, despite having lived ~45 years of their lives in New England, can't even handle the colder days in Phoenix without the heat) watched the game from here:

So anyway, it inspired me to make a soup from scratch one day (#89-complete) but I think I'll still try some other soups too. But here's hoping the weather won't inspire any more soups for at least a few months!

I also got to cross off #70- Print New York pictures and find a good way to hang them. I found some silver binder clips at Target that I liked, so I slid the little clips on the nails and the pictures hung free to move around a little. I liked it enough, for now. BUT THEN the cold/wind got to them. I left my window open (because I had previously been tricked into thinking it was going to be a nice day) and when I got home they had all done this:

Curled all the edges! So that goal will have to be revisited. But at least now I know one way that won't work? And they're printed- so half complete.

Now for a sad story and a happy story. In that order. (Aside: when asked, who ever chooses the good news first so that they end on a bad note? That seems like a poor choice to me.) Okay. My flowering plant died. I really didn't see it coming, I thought I loved it enough that nothing could kill it. It turns out the cold can kill it. Well that's my theory. Because if I left it outside to get some sun, it would also freeze. If it kept it inside to keep it warm, it never got the "full sun" that it called for. Also what happens to a flower plant after everything that's going to bloom does? It's an annual, which Nicole told me meant it would come back next year (well if I had planted it in the ground that is) but I thought that meant it would last for at least the summer! I was wrong. Nicole please don't look. Here it is now:

Rest in Peace. So I'll have to start over with another flowering plant to keep alive for a little longer. But I'm not going to get my heart set on one until I'm sure this weather turns around. I did save Cliff's chopsticks and twist ties for the next one though. No need for neighborly love to go to waste.

BUT!

Buddy is doing exceptionally well. That tiny little bud that was coming out of the side of him has turned into THIS:

See that arm? It's actually gotten even longer than that. And I have no idea what to do with it? But it seems to be a sign of health! Some of the bottom ones are falling off dead, and when I took one of them off I found THIS: