All Alexia, All Week

We've had Alexia since last Saturday and we've been busy. She's the master of the glue gun and was putting the finishing touches on her foam Christmas house here.
And here is the final house. This was PJ day, which she declared - all PJs, all day. She did a fantastic job with this. There no instructions - just pictures. The pieces were supposed to stick together but Mommy knew they wouldn't, hence the glue gun.
Tuesday was our special girl's day in town. After lunch with Mommy, we went to San Rafael Park where she was able to tag onto a group of homeschoolers. It was 50 degrees but the kids didn't care. Monkey bars never lose their allure.
A switch turned on and suddenly Alexia was reading independently. She read the last chapter of The Magic Treehouse book that Mommy had been reading to her. So the next day she started the second book and when we said we were going to bed that night, she said she still wanted to read. I dug out my back-up reading light and clipped it onto the book. The lights are out here. She finished the book. We needed to get more books!
I took her to Barnes and Noble after the park and she got two more books and a magazine. She spent that night at home so she could go to Judo. Her Grandma Karen had her the next day. I had to get lab work done and so picked her up from Karen at Costco. The crisis was that Alexia's book was in Grandma Karen's car - could I wait until she was done so she could get it? This is the girl who was in special ed for reading last year. It's like a switch just clicked on. Just weeks ago she was still struggling, and now I can't buy my favorite flavor of ice cream because she can read all the labels.
We took an hour off last night to read after dinner and before watching TV. The peace and quiet was absolutely sweet. Today took a different turn. Alexia had crawled under the covers with me this morning, when Ian came in to tell me that the old upscale area of Reno was on fire. So many of these homes have mature landscaping and shake roofs. We watched the news off and on today. At last report, some 2,000 acres and 25 homes have burned. We have many friends among those evacuated - it's been a tense day. If you've wondered, we're at least 40 miles north of this fire. We're all tinder dry after a long wet spring and dry fall; it could be any neighborhood.

It was very upsetting and especially to Alexia. She's only seven and couldn't process that it wasn't her house on fire, and I'm sure our own anxiety added to it. She had a reassuring phone call with Mommy this afternoon, but it was a very long, anxious day for the little miss.

I drove her home this afternoon. Her home and her daddy were just fine, but the storm that the crazy wind gusts were pushing in from the arctic, started to deliver snow as I was driving home. We have sustained a lot of wind damage here, as have many of us. We lost our hay shed and the llama shelter is on shaky legs, but it'll make it through this storm at least. I know I've said it before, but I have no idea how the early ranchers survived. This is a harsh land. Maybe that's what the natives wished we would have realized and moved on.