nothing but blue skies.

and all of a sudden, everything is green again. tulips everywhere. the house is warm when we wake up in the morning and go to bed at night (without the aid of natural gas). getting out of the shower no longer requires a couple minutes of summoning the courage. the ceiling fans are spinning and i'm slowing reintroducing my bare legs to the world. i have to try pretty hard to remember what 22 inches of snow looked like. gus is out of breath all the time.

we canceled the cable and the back porch is once again our living room.

friday night we dragged the alarm clock radio out there to listen to npr jazz under the stars. after a few mild hours, the crazy kansas wind blew us inside to bed, which was timely; one more drink and i would have pledged next week's grocery money to save public radio (i still might and you should too).

yesterday, we spent a spectacularly beautiful afternoon at a small lake outside of town (and also found the ultimate camping spot: stay tuned) with a friend and some fishing poles, a couple of canoes and a few little girls (other people's kids are always fine by me!). caught a tan, but nothing for dinner. (i was craving mcdonalds anyway.)

spring has inspired us to start planning for summer. last saturday we scribbled out "the big one." an eight-day trip to take us through the old west (dodge city), into the mountains of new mexico (taos and santa fe), north to denver (i'll be in touch with dates, soon, heath!) and finally back home through the high plains of western kansas. all we need now is a dog sitter.

oh, sweet sunshine and warmth, what a difference you make.

stock photo of warm weather happiness.