Orange Juice

It's been six months in Bakersfield. Mara's grown an inch. Lu's grown several inches both in height and girth. My hair is longer. Jayson is busy busy. We've settled into a groove.

Living in Bakersfield has its perks. We live by some wonderful people that have access to limitless amounts of tomatoes. We were able to get 100 lbs of them ... and after our (Jayson's) sweat and tears we now have limitless jars of spaghetti sauce. On the same day we picked 20lbs of mandarins. After we ate as many as we could there was still about five pounds left so the girls and I juiced them. Mara loved it. And I don't think I've ever had better juice.





And these just because I love her.



And lest you think Lu was left in the dust. She was actively (growling vivaciously) reminding us of her presence.



What a cutie.

I love these girls. I recently had someone ask me how I do it all with the two kids by myself. I answered - um I don't :) So many things are falling apart around here. I desperately need a hair cut. I find food encrusted on surfaces I didn't know existed. And my car is shamefully messy 100% of the time. And while there are bad days (everyone has those) I can't imagine going through all of this without my girls. Mara has the most infectious laugh. She sleeps with me on the nights Jayson works. And sometimes I just go sleep with her. Lu's laugh sounds like a crazy. She crawls around until she finds me and when she does I'm rewarded with the biggest smile. They each give me a thousand reasons to smile everyday. When I look back on these three years of residency I hope I can remember that while they were difficult these girls helped me through it.