Sunday Pictures

**On the way to church yesterday we saw an RV that was towing a minivan that had been painted to match the RV. It was a sweet design too. Someone was living their dream**.
**It almost made up for the fact that the most wild kid in our class took off his shoes AGAIN and they are impossible to get back on. I really really hate feet. Sweaty stinky five year old feet aren't the WORST, but they are pretty gross to touch and try and shove into stinky shoes.**
**I think I might know why I am so tired and sore all the time. Aside from the fact that I'm pretty sure I have symphysis pubic disfunction (which makes me hurt like crazy all the time wah wah i need some sympathy here can you tell), I have been working pretty hard in the yard again. This time just cleaning out the leaves and stuff around the shrubs and pulling out the 9 shrubs that didn't make it due to the drought we are experiencing. I am hoping to transplant some of my plants that did survive. Maybe I'll wait until Lewis is home and not studying. Next month. We'll see.**
** The odds are actually pretty good that I will wait for Lew's help because today when I was putting away our gardening tools and brooms (we also swept out the garage and the driveway), I saw what lives in at least some of the holes in our yard. And it was big and black and so scary I can hardly believe I am typing it. Seriously, it's making me sweat and I think I might take the kids to a hotel or something tonight. I hate snakes. Even more than feet. Like 500 times more.**

Family Band part 2

Out Trip in Pictures

Totally haven't meant to be a slacker but...

WE ARE IN UTAH!!!! It was sort of a last minute decision because we were all sick (we are still coughing like crazy) and it is a 26 hour drive. ( I wish you could capitalize numbers). But we're here and I think the break from the poison ivy has been treating me right, it's doing MUCH better. Lewis is loving the skiing and fishing and we are loving the outlets (oh, how I love you outlet mall . it really is sick) , UTA TRAX, discovery gateway museum, and time with family. My parents are up here and Kip is getting ready to head off on his mission. Crazy. Aiden got to ski one time so far and I am JUST about to drive her up to the Park CIty resort to meet Lew for a couple more hours of powder skiing! She is a natural, or so I hear. We have been surprised at how terrific it has been to be un Utah. Even Provo was so incredible and fun, we were actually EXCITED to visit BYU which really caught us both off guard, we thought we would never miss that place in a million trillion years. The Minerva Teichert exhibit at the MOA really made the trip for us though. Lewis also loved stopping by the track and seeing his old coaches and some former teammates. Well, there's a basic update from us--if you are in Utah I hope you aren't offended if we haven't seen you, we are SO busy it's crazy, but so fun. I just think that it's so great to be around family. We are having a blast. And I don't mean this in a mean way, but I just don't think that people who have never lived far far away from ANYONE related to them can appreciate how great it is to get to spend a week with your family. I mean, it's almost been 2 years since we were here, 2 years since I have seen my Dad!! We feel so grateful to be here with so much family now. We'll post pictures and more details of our adventure when we get home.

Look what we woke up to Saturday morning.....

....pretty exciting, eh? Sure glad I didn't plant the grass seed yet! (the poison ivy is still raging by the way. SERIOUSLY it's getting OLLLLLLDDDDDDDDD. I noticed this morning when I woke up that it is ALL over my right leg now and puffy and itchy and gross. I haven't been in the yard since last Thursday so what's the deal!?!?!??!?!?????)
Brooks kept looking for "frosty snowman!", but he was nowhere to be found.
So, we decided to take a family trip to the mall. Brooks got a tie for Easter and the kids both got a cookie because Lewis just can't tell them no!
Poor Lewis has been really sick. He is still working though and studying too. Poor guy has the flu-- fever, aches, congestion, general yuckiness all over. I'm hoping we all don't come down with it (although A did have a fever last night) because next week is spring break (for A and Lew) and the flu could really ruin it.
Lastly, this is what makes potty training ok, don't you agree? I love that booty in "big boy undapants". Brooks informed me last week that he is no longer wearing diapers because they are for babies. Unfortunately, he has yet to figure out the toilet and walking around soaking wet doesn't seem to bother him AT ALL!!!!! BUT--isn't he cute?!?!?!?!

Week of Irritating Ailments

This is the before picture of the yard. The leaves, pine needles, ivy, and other random stuff was inches thick. And wet and gross. This was taken before we worked on Saturday, when we were about halfway done.

This is cute, my belly today. It's also on my chest, my back, and my thigh. As well as my arm, wrist and hand. Still mostly just on the right side of my body.
The backyard today after I finished with it.

The "other side" of the backyard. I hope to pull down the random fence, fence in the whole yard, dig out the monkey grass border and randomly landscaped shrubs and make the backyard big and grassy! We'll see, I'm feeling pretty burned out right now. Ask me in the morning and it will be a different story I'm sure.

So, the poison ivy is NOT gone. Even after using the prescription steroid cream which a lovely nurse practitioner prescribed for me. It was my monthly checkup and everything was great, my iron is even on the upswing. Only problem was the 2 and a half hour wait to see the doctor. And I'm not even exaggerating. It was SOOOOOOOO annoying. Anyway, I am as itchy as ever and must still be coming in contact with the poison ivy, OR it is something else altogether because it is spreading all over the place. (except it's pretty much all better on my face now.) See my pictures for proof. Friday night I couldn't get to sleep until 3 am because of all the itching and Saturday and Sunday my left eye wouldn't stop TWITCHING as a result. Sunday I woke up with my right eye completely crusted over and the thought of having to teach 10 crazy wild maniac 5 and 6 year olds by myself was almost enough to make me stay in bed all day. I itched my whole way through it, but it wasn't so bad. The lesson, "Heavenly Father watches over me" was a great reminder and the weather was great!! The best part of my story is that I finished the raking today!!! I filled another 18 bags with leaves, pine needles, dog poop, ivy, etc. and can't wait to start raking the other side of the fence. I even bought grass seed and fertilizer today at Costco. Hooray for projects and yards. Boo for poison ivy.

Rickwood Caverns State Park

Well, I had a Saturday off work and JJ was lucky enough to have an enrichment activity at the church, so I was able to have some down time with the kids. We traveled about 35 miles north of Birmingham to this really cool state park with caves and took a tour. It is a set of caverns, the deepest of which is 175 feet below the ground, and it has 365 stairs in it--one for every day of the year. The caves had bats, which B loved and the felt right at home with his batman delusions. After the caves, which the kids loved, we played at the playground and then grabbed some lunch on the way home. Then JJ arrived and put me to work in the back yard raking leaves. There are seriously a ton of leaves in our back yard. We filled 25 more garbage bags--stuffed, and there is still a lot of work left to do. I keep telling JJ there is always next week!