Kids, kids, kids

Lizzie set off the house alarm again this morning. This time we were all awake and I was just heading out of the bedroom as it happened. I was able to turn off the alarm before the signal was sent to the monitoring station. I was only about 5 steps away from the control pad, but Rich was still concerned that they hadn't received a signal. The alarm freaked Lizzie out again, but Hunter and Anna didn't seem too concerned by it. I guess they've just come to expect Lizzie to make a bunch of noise.

Hunter just makes me laugh. Lizzie said something about wanting to go to a bull contest (bull riding)this morning. Hunter heard that and started talking about riding "that yak" and how "that yak rashed his knee". Then the Dr. cut a hole in his knee. It all sounds a little like a small incident that happened earlier this summer to his dad. Hunter idolizes Rich and he tries to do things like his dad. Every morning Hunter follows Rich around while he gets ready for work and then follows him out to the car so he can watch Rich drive off. He also really likes Rich's new Chevy Cobalt, or as Hunter likes to call it "the Chever".

Hunter has an imaginary friend named Jackie. Jackie is a boy who works in Dallas and sometimes Richardson (just like Rich). He always drives whatever car Hunter is fascinated with at the time. He sometimes lives in our old house in Richardson or our house in Bonney Lake and on occasion he lives in California next to Grandma. The funny thing is that Hunter will ask me if I can take him to Jackie's house. He'll pack a little snack and put clothes in a backpack. I guess he just misses all those old places. He had another friend named Katie for awhile right after Rich hurt his knee. Sometimes her dad hurt his knee falling off a moving truck too and sometimes it was Katie with a hurt knee. I guess he's worked through his emotions with regard to Rich's knee because he doesn't talk about Katie much anymore. The cool thing, and maybe this is a twin thing too, is that Lizzie knows all about these friends too and gets just as excited about the prospect of visiting Jackie as Hunter does.

Anna is just cute. She has the sweetest little voice and I just love to listen to her talk. At lunch today she wanted a "popacicle". I told her she had to eat lunch first and that made her mad. She tries to through a fit like Lizzie does, but she just can't pull it off because it is so cute. She'll say "Hmm" and cross her arms "I want a popacicle now". Or sometimes she'll hit something instead of cross her arms. The fit never gets her what she wants, but it sure makes me laugh.

I just had a little conversation with Hunter. Apparently his plan for the afternoon is to take a bus with Beth to Flapjack (?) and then he's going to Jackie's. He's got some bags packed and I think I'm supposed to take the bags to Jackie's house. Somewhere in all this Jackie is supposed to drive his jeep somewhere. I don't know how I got involved in this scheme, but I have other things to do.

I love these kids so much. As much grieve as they give me, I get a million times more joy from them.