My darling niece is staying with us for a few days and it is so much fun to have her around! She is my brother's daughter and she is 16, but not annoying like most teenagers are. I credit my mother with making her a well grounded person. She's a bit strange, too, which means she and I get along quite well. And by staying here she has a chance for a little privacy and quiet, which she doesn't get much of at home with her insane, evil father and her two very loud younger brothers.
Yesterday we went out to try to find some school clothes for her. Like me, she is not a little wisp of a thing so attractive clothes can be hard to find. I love that she has her own sense of style and that she is confident enough to express herself with her fashion choices. She didn't find much that she liked, so tonight we will be continuing our quest with a trip to Hot Topic. It's where she wants to go, so that is where we will go, but not until tonight when it is a bit cooler and we can use M's car that I don't fear will overheat or stall if I run the AC. In temperatures over 100*, AC is more than a convenience to those of us who are prone to heat exhaustion.
It is just really nice to have her here. See? I'm not all evil where minors are concerned. Just most of them. And all of them until they are old enough to be somewhat self-sufficient and think past the next few minutes. But my niece is cool. She's at that point where she's not a kid anymore, but she's not quite an adult yet, either; so many her age get lost without a real sense of who they are, but Ash seems to know herself pretty well and she's seen enough crazy and unpleasant that she may be able to avoid most of it. She seems pretty mature to me, but not like she's in any rush to be a grown up. Really, she's pretty amazing to me and I love her very much.
Here's a random pic from the ice cream contest we went to a few weeks back. It's a dog with his matching human.
And here are a couple videos of Cat. Because she would smother me in my sleep if she saw that I had posted a dog picture and nothing of her. (grr... stupid thing doesn't want to finish processing. I may have to try again later.)
