Steph is off to North Carolina to give her English prep tips and study points to prospective GCU students. So proud of her doing this sort of work for GCU. She gets to use her years of study and experience in addition to her presentation skills and put them to good use in recruiting future GCU students! While my sweetie is away, I get to have hang-out time with Tatum for two and a half days! First, we must get Tatum’s things together before we leave for my house. Tatum and Steph made this magnificent collage of different storyboard scenes for me. Geeze, this thing is a work of art! You just don’t whip something like this together in an hour. So honored by you two!
Steph made a Mercedes steering wheel, so Tatum could help drive us to my house. Ok, I’ll take the help in getting us home!
Oh, the send-off and good byes and kisses (and Coti too!)
We get to my house and have a nice Salmon dinner. Not just any salmon mind you, I made Steph’s world famous (or at least it should be) smoked maple Salmon. Then we go into the back yard for a little nature walk. I show Tatum the apple tree (yes, apple trees grow in the desert if you’re careful). She picked a little green apple – too tart to eat but perfect for baking.
Right away, we get her bed all set up and Steph always has a new pair of jammies wrapped for a surprise with a little love note!
In the morning, we have little scrambled eggs with bacon before we go the Gym.
After the gym, we needed to get supplies for our “Project”. When Tatum stays with me, we always plan on a project for her mommy. We do this so she knows how much we miss her and love her. Last time, we planted a tomato plant in a pot to produce little sweet cherry tomatoes. This time, we have canvas paintings to color with messages of Jesus on them. Now, this is my level of painting – painting (with felt pens) within the lines!
The next morning I had a conference call for work and Tatum was so good while I was in this loooong call. While I was in the call, she made a very elaborate battleship from a carpenter’s box of wood pieces. How cute is this pic?
We went swimming both days. We also brought a science project to the pool deck with us to make snow! Just add these white crystals to some water and presto, SNOW! We had to repeat this experiment a few times because it was very cool. Hehe!
Tatum’s front tooth was loose and wobbly. It would be her first baby tooth to fall out. We needed a tooth pillow to put it in for the tooth fairy just in case the inevitable happened. I was really hoping it would NOT come out until Steph got back because it’s kind of a milestone. Whew, the first one did NOT come out on my watch but the tooth pillow is ready when it does!
Along with the art supplies we saw a perfect Tot sized wicker hat with a neon green band that matched her shirt. OK, gotta get that too!
Then she decided that Austin the bear should try on the hat!
Well, it was time to go home so we carefully wrapped up Steph’s canvased paintings and put them in a gift bag to surprise her. We excitedly drove home to meet her and tell her of our time together but mostly we just wanted to see her and give her hugs because the best part about her trip is when we come together and the end. That’s FAMILY.
