Mia's bill

I came into my "office" to find the Cabbage Patch dolls and various stuffed dolls all piled up together in my office chair.
After I sorted them out and reclaimed my chair, I found this bill: I hope it's not for me to pay:

My special talent

Just tell me, where do you want to go on vacation or who do you want to see in concert?
I'll make sure it's cancelled.
It's my gift.
I set something up, make reservations, long lists and elaborate plans and poof! It goes away.
Look at my past year, for example.
For the first time ever, we decided to go on a cruise (even though I don't like water, traveling with lots of people or staying in enclosed spaces).
We chose Alaska and started packing layers of warm clothes, essentials like binoculars and gloves.
The ship was to sail in mid-May but the ports in Canada closed and our cruise was off, as in cancelled until further notice.
We signed up for a Cher concert and for a Frankie Valli concert.
Both have been cancelled for now, postponed for a while and now postponed until 2021.
We tried to head out to Iowa to see my brother. That got a legitimate kibosh from his Home Health Care nurses.
We were set for a relaxing Bear Lake vacation with raspberry shakes and a visit to Minnetonka Cave. I checked faithfully on availability — despite CoVid 19 — until the first of the month.
We just got a call.
Ideal Beach Resort is closed. Our condo is no longer open to us or anybody else for the coming weeks.
That means three families who were going with us are having to make other plans.
That means the menus and grocery lists I've been assembling are no longer needed.
That means no Jet-skiing, no mini-golf, no lounging in the lovely Bear Lake water. No hike to Bloomington Lake or tour of the cave.
The nice lady who had to call and deliver the bad news said we can rebook to another resort and save our trade fee. (We have two days to do that!)
But Marc and I are a little reluctant to choose another place to pick on

.
It feels a little like we have the Midas Touch.

Mia's map

We were at the end of a sunny Sunday afternoon.
We'd eaten dinner. The parents were chatting with the grandparents .
The kids were playing in the sandbox when Mia came up with an idea.
"I want to make an inside-outside treasure hunt," she whispered. "Ok," I whispered back. "Do you have a treasure?"
She nodded and went off into the house, full of purpose.
I wondered what she'd do. We have treats in various places in the house but would she feel like she could "borrow" what she needed?
Mia is 9 and this is grandma's house so I figured she'd be fine.
She came back a little later with a tiny treasure map and a plastic bag filled with cookies left over from dinner.
She looked around and quickly buried the sack in the sand with nobody noticing.
Then she announced to her siblings that there was treasure somewhere. She handed them the map.
Off they went.
Not much later, they came back and unearthed the treasure.
They were thrilled with the cookies and proud of their success.
I think her treasure map is worth sharing...