the brave post

in july i decided, in the midst of the hottest summer on record, to pull all the flowers up in our front bed. that required a lot of pulling in 100 degree plus heat plus humidity. i pulled up 2 layers of concrete bricks and over 200 iris bulbs. i was left with this....

that was 3 days later. my niece said i was the boy who lived. i looked like i had a palm tree growing on my forehead. it was annoying. four days later ( i have pics from every day, but won't post all of them) i turned into this.....

my entire face swelled. it was lovely. my eyes were swollen shut too.

it was oh so attractive. life had to go on. i went to stores like that. i bought huge sunglasses to try and hide some of my hideousness, but they don't cover your entire face. i got to the doctor who said it was the most extensive case of poison ivy he had seen. it got in my blood stream, and went up and down my arms and on my sides and stomach. let me tell you. I NEVER TOUCHED IT!! seriously. this is how allergic to that stuff. i just have to be in it's presence and it affects me.....so i guess i am the boy who lived and poison ivy is my voldemort :)

family bondage.....oops bonding

my sister and her 7 kids....that's right 7 kids.... are temporarily without living quarters (she likes to say homeless, cause as the middle child she needs the attention).
"temporary" meaning the entire summer.
what do you do when you have no place to live for an entire summer?
why what any sane person would do. load up your 7 kids in your suburban and drive across country to hang out with the east coast family (i say the better half, cause i'm the youngest child and drama comes naturally to me).
anyway at the end of this week, my brave sister will load 'em up and move 'em out for the summer adventure of a lifetime!

i am so excited!!!
a week at the outer banks followed by day trip adventures are sure to fill this summer with fun. my 3 and her middle 3 are close in ages, so a built in partner in crime will be so much fun. as a member of the east coast family we rarely get to hang out with the "mountain wac's" so again i say
i am so excited.

(i almost capitalized that sentence, but couldn't let my emotions show. )i'm the one in green and shes the one in stripes crossing her arms.
yes, were still that awkward.

kirtland weekend

we took off for kirtland thursday morning. it's a 6 hours drive and the kids were awesome. we arrived at our friend's house and it was playtime. the kids got into a water fight, and played hard. we got up friday morning and went into kirtland. it has changed quite a bit since i have visited and hubby has never been. again, the kids were great. it's an amazing place to be. i think the kids liked the sawmill the best.
we then dialed in the gps to see what else was around. i chose a submarine in downtown cleaveland. on the way there i got freaked out by f-16's flying around. i have lived in dc too long. i assumed that someone had flown into restricted airspace and were being "chased down". i never even thought of an air show. traffic literally crawled as we made our way to the air strip where the air force thundercats were practicing for the next day's air show. it was awesome!! these pilots are undeniably the best in the world. crazy!!!
we found the submarine and the kids had a blast shooting the boats in the lake down at the stern. lake erie was gorgeous and quite clean when compared to my recent visit to the potomac river.
we headed back to k&r's house for a night of food and fun. we headed out to watch the sunset on lake erie. wow! so much fun. we stood on the beach throwing and skipping rocks. so serene and calm.
it was an awesome weekend. no fighting between siblings. the friends all got along, and hopefully we got out before we wore out our welcome. it's nice to have such kind friends who allow us to crash their calm house for a few days. thank you!!!

2 wheelin' it

baby e decided it was time to take his training wheels off. unlike his older brother he immediately started riding the 2 wheeler like a champ. he didn't even want me holding on. it was awesome. growth comes way quicker than i expect or sometimes even want.

downtown

gravelly park is a plot of land on the potomac river at the end of the runway at reagan national airport. you watch planes take off, or bike, or play soccer, or as my kids do pick up trash and pretend to make science experiments.




we then headed over to iwo jima and read all the names of the conflicts listed on the memorial and walked over to arlington cemetery and talked about all the men and women who died for our freedoms. we talked about gratitude and service on the way home, and had a great discussion about how we can show gratitude for those that serve our country. the boys are going to send letters and pictures to military members serving overseas, along with the cub scout pack i work with. It was quite uplifting. these three do keep me on my toes.

monticello and luray

i dont plan trips very well. i usually think about it for a day and never say anything to the kids for fear of opinions. i woke up and asked kids if they wanted to go to thomas jefferson's house. they were indifferent...so we went. it took about 2 hours to get to charlotesville. we bought tickets and rode the bus up. the kids were stoked about the bus. we started tour with the tour guide showing me where the exit was. i smiled and said thank you. she then proceeded to remind me where the exit was every room we went into. the boys were angels, and princess grace was pointing at things. nothing noisy or annoying. by the third room when she reminded me, i grabbed the boys and headed for the exit. she stood in front of me blocking the exit, and said "you dont have to go". ha. apparently i do. i ran over her foot trying to get out. i felt better, and hoped i hurt the corns on her nasty crusty feet. they have a new kids discovery center, which more than compensated for tour drama.


after monticello it was only 2pm, and i thought we could do more, so we headed an hour north west to luray (pronounced lew ray by locals). the caves are wicked cool. they now do a self guided tour with head sets with a tour for kids and a tour for adults. the boys did the kids tour and were enthralled. it was so worth the time.



an easy day trip for me with well behaved kids and fun things to do in the great commonwealth we live in.

a favorite summer memory

one night i got wanderlust. i needed to get out of the house. i needed to explore. 2 of the boys did not want to go so at 8:00 at night baby e, princess grace and i took off for sights unknown. we headed to downtown dc, and baby e wanted to go to the lincoln memorial. we couldn't find parking so we ended up at the jefferson. we walked along the river and went up to the jefferson. baby e was intrigued by everything. asking questions and genuinely interested in everything. it was so much fun. it was a very sweet moment for me. no whining, no complaining, no demanding, just calm, quiet and fun!

as we left baby e wanted me to take this picture of him by this giant urn. he thought it was awesome.

i'm half redneck

i might be more than half redneck. i love demolition derbies! i laughed for the whole 2 hours. if you've never gone to one i highly suggest it. it's a great cultural experience that should not be missed. for example: this was the family in front of us, wife beater and all!



the kids had a blast. princess grace had her ears covered the first hour and loved the second hour. the boys were completely unsure what to make of it when the first 2 minutes the firemen had to use the jaws of life to pull a man out of his car (hitting the drivers side door is a big no-no in derby land), they quickly got over the fear of the noise and had a great time.




going to these fairs is a lot cheaper than visiting todd's family for the very same experience. :)

our new baby

well i dont think many would call this 125 pound of love a baby, but trust me this spoiled drooler is a big baby.

captain jack, and he was named, was adopted from a family with 2 boys. one of the boys had severe allergies to everything from pets to wheat, and the family had raised him from a puppy. he is a 3 year old purebred bullmastiff (laughed when they gave us his pedigree chart). he is awesome with the kids and is a big bundle of crazy.....so he fits in here just fine. come on by if you ever want a reason to take a shower.

last day of preschool

this was the picture i snapped on the way to the first day of school in september. i thought that he was going to be trouble in the classroom, and i might need to hold him back an extra year from kindergarten.



this was taken the last day of school, may 2009. his teacher claimed him to be very bright and very well behaved. he will be moving on to kindergarten in the fall. yay!!!


now i need to hide my sadness that he will be gone half the day. he is my little buddy. that is for another day.....sigh

yes it's february

and yes those are my kids



running through a sprinkler in february



cause that's how we roll

t is for temple

here's a picture that elijah drew of the temple on the way home.

i get to stand on my soapbox for a moment and say how awesome it is to have grandparents/parents so close by. additionally to have said grandparents/parents serve in the temple practically full-time gives us unique opportunities.
i took the kids to the temple and glamma was able to meet us in the foyer and walk the boys around and show them different parts. they thought it was so cool...and so did i.

in case you wondered

i love these kids!!!!




but dont for a second let yourself believe that i don't know that school starts in 14 days from posting this.
and yes, eli does always look like trouble waiting to happen.

fishy....why are you sleeping!!!!

todd has taken to calling me darla. hope the humor is not lost on you.
we lost one of the 2 new ones we bought after 2 hours.
and then there was one.

f is for fish........take 2

yes, you got it. sky and lava have already gone to that great toilet bowl in the sky. for those of you counting that was a whole 36 hours. a new record for beta fish. we will try again. maybe the new ones will live 48 hours this time!

f is for fish

glam-ma, as she is called by elijah, bought the boys male beta fish. they are so excited. within an hour of the fish being home the boys..ok....james...had crushed up a goldfish cracker to feed to them. you know cause they're fish. totally logical. they still are alive, for today. and we figure that after watching bambi a fish dying is a breeze.

meet sky and lava

i is for.....

in my quest for an alphabet summer i have hit a slump. lest you think that "i for ikea" is lame consider this; i traveled 45 minutes each way with 3 kids and walked the entire mile of the store. ok so it is lame but at least it's better than my other idea. g is for gas station

top ten lessons learned at yw camp

10 - the older you get the more you treasure sleep
9 - never trust a girl with a bucket of water
8 - be prepared to jump right in
7 - sunscreen is a necessity
6 - mom's and high priests - they can sleep anywhere
5 - animals are no respector of personal space
4 - waking up teenagers should come with hazard pay
3 - trust your heart
2 - forgive, forget and move forward
1 - friends can come from the least likely places

commune with nature

over the next few days i will be communing with nature along with 108 young women and 12 adults. i may make it back in one piece, but if not let it be known that i went by my own free will and choice. (maybe i should have checked with a therapist first?)

p is for pond

so for the letter p, we were a little stumped. since park seemed so obvious and rudimentary we thought of pond. we found a pond close by that had trails and a nice deck, easy parking and picnic tables. i didn't get many pics this time because some days are more difficult than others. :)