Self-Help

Carter is spending the week at Fine Arts Camp learning to fuse glass and create metal sculptures and the like.  He'll be there the whole week, sharing a dorm room with a guy he doesn't know (whose name is the same as a famous English writer, which I consider a sign that it will go well).  This is his first time away at camp for a week, and I'm super-excited for him!  It's also the first time in so long that he'll be the youngest in a group-- it's for high school kids.  I can't wait to hear about it, though I'll likely need to wait until he returns.  I told him I'd cry if he didn't call me to check in sometime, but he'll probably think to call on Friday.  It's just the way he rolls.

I didn't have my camera, so I'm sharing someone else's
baby raccoon photo to exemplify their sheer
adorableness. (Of course, the raccoons we saw
were way more adorable than these.)

On our way home from dropping Carter off at camp, we spotted over 100 white pelicans on this tiny pond in the marsh just off the highway in Sun Prairie.  We decided to stop and see how close we could get.  The marsh was was warm with chamomile and overgrown and wonderful, and we got really close to one shore where there were about 25 pelicans.  When we started back, I heard a rustle in the grass just ahead to the left of the path.  The animal didn't scamper like a bunny or chipmunk, so I tried to get a peek at it-- it was fuzzy and black.  Of course, I panicked and pushed Matthew in front of me to investigate the noise...  a baby raccoon!  He tried to scare it off, but it just sat there.  And then another one came out, then another, and there were four baby raccoons coming to check out what the commotion was all about.  When we were sure there was no mama in sight, we passed them.  Man! They were so adorable!  How can anything be so adorable and terrifying at once?! 

And on that note, I have about 100 days before the baby is due.  So many things, so little time!  We'll be moving to a bigger place in August, so we need to start packing soon!  And I have a list of 300 things to make, like baby clothes and a crib set and a new cushion cover for my glider and etc.  And there's the list of things to do this summer, like have baby showers and spend time with family and yoga and Rhinelander and etc. And the worst part is that I am stuck at this point where I can currently do nothing about any of the things to do except look at the lists, reevaluate the lists, and try to figure out what I can do ahead of time so that I don't have to do all of this stuff at once (when I'm a giant, exhausted pregnant lady and we are in dead-middle of the hottest time of the year).