Maundy Thursday

Well, it's Thursday. It has been a long, taxing week. I am already exhausted. The weather this week has been much better. The first part of the week was wet, but not very cold, with a heavy mist falling nonstop. The last two days have been warm (upper 50s), sunny and beautiful. At lunch yesterday and today, I went for walks along the Clive Greenbelt, not far from work. It was a good respite from work, and really nice. The cardinals seem to be everywhere right now! You know how in Utah, a moose might sometimes walk into town and cause a commotion? Well, in central Iowa, there's none of that, but there are ANGRY URBAN BEAVERS! (check it out). I am used to seeing flowers and budding trees before Easter, but there hasn't been any of that yet in Iowa. Soon enough, though. We had snow on the ground nonstop for 103 straight days! Asher has been having trouble sleeping lately. We think he is having bad dreams. he wakes up screaming, sometimes multiple times during the night. The other morning, he walked into our room and said "Mommy, I had good dreams!" Asher loves his new school. They have bunnies he can play with on Thursdays! Today, he got to play outside in the sand with a shovel. He loves shovels! Asher's new thing is counting. He can count from 1-10 very well, but he usually leaves out one number, never the same one. A new game he likes to play is he asks me if I need a haircut, then spends a minute or so making clipper and scissor noises, and running his fingers through my hair. When he is done he says "all done, here's a sucker!" and hands me a pretend sucker. He loves suckers, and gets really upset when Sarah takes him through the bank drive-through but the teller doesn't give him a sucker. We are trying to figure out what to do for Easter. Our church is having a special service at a big theater in dowtown Des Moines called the "Temple For The Performing Arts". If you told me when I lived in Salt Lake that I'd be spending Easter morning in a temple, I would have laughed. After that, though, we aren't sure. Do we go to brunch or cook an Easter dinner? For me, it isn't the same without ham, cheesy potatoes, and hot-cross buns. Asher might go to one of the big Easter-egg hunts, we haven't figured it out yet. Hope everything is going well for everybody!