Sterling Update

Sterling's eye is doing much better. He was excited about taking benadryl every 4 hours. Once the swelling went down enough, he was bummed not to get that bubble gum flavored medicine anymore.

Bummer

While watering the garden, I noticed several biggish watermelons. I picked the biggest one, but then I saw one that was even bigger. They were heavy! I got so excited, watermelons sounds really good in this heat. I made one huge mistake. I didn't do my research online first. After the knife sliced through the skin, disappointment set in. I had picked 2 beautiful, unripe watermelons. What a waste! Maybe the pig will eat it.

Not Again!

I don't know what it is with Sterling! He has some kind of wasp magnet above his eyes. Sterling saw a turtle when he was getting the mail. After bringing the mail home, we went back out to find it. It wasn't there anymore, so he checked in the storm drainage tube. There must have been a wasp nest, because one of them got him right between the eyes.
We have too much experience with this, so as soon as he showed me, I gave him a dose of benadryl. Night time is the worst for swelling, and this is what he looks like this morning.
Poor kid. This reminds me to request an epi-pen from the doctor. What if he got stung in the throat next time??

To do list

Usually my to-do lists are pretty mundane and uninteresting. Today however, it looked a little more fun:

• Kill turkey
• pack
• practice harp
• dishes
• laundry
• shower
• blog

Now let me explain a little bit about the items on my list

-this is where the draft stopped… Still thought it was pretty interesting

Education Week

For my birthday, Joe is letting me go to education week at BYU. I am so excited to attend interesting, helpful seminars on all the important thing in life. Anything from emotional wellness, and family traditions, to church history, and gospel topics. It will be a great opportunity to rejuvenate my spiritual, and emotional self.

It will also be great opportunity to meet up with some old Boise friends. Maybe my sister will even drive down to see me??? Pretty please???

Girls just wanna have fun

6, 7-year olds + pool + sleeping in the living room = a lot of fun

With Winter's Birthday being in the middle of Winter - ha, how's that for a "coincidence", and right after Christmas, she usually ends up without a kid party.

A few weeks ago, Winter and her friend Payton came up with the idea of a slumber party. Winter was super excited to make little invitations, and send them to her friends. Let me tell you though, living out here, made making that list very hard. Good thing 3 of our cousins are around Winter's age!

Since 7 is still a little young, the mom's were invited too. Added bonus: I get to hang out with some friends too!! We ended up with grandma, and Olivia Allred. Katy, with Grace and Lille. Amy Riggs, with Tyra, and Michelle Harrington with Payton. It was the perfect size group. Not too many screeching girls to make me totally deaf. And just the right amount of grownups too.

The party started after dinner. We all hit the pool, and everyone knew how to swim. That made it a lot less stressful for the moms. The girls chased each other, hung on each other, and did a lot of screeching. It was almost impossible to carry on a conversation! somehow I was able to yell loud enough to get their attention for long enough to take a group pictureFrom left to right: Grace, Lille, Olivia, Tyra, Winter, Payton

After almost 2 years in Texas, we finally convinced Liz to join us in the pool. Winter had fun racing her across the pool, and I was surprised at her speed.
After dark, we headed inside, but the girls were definitely not ready to sleep at 9.30pm! Amy came up with this fun M&M game. You try to roll a certain number with the dice, and once you do, you try to suck up as many M&M's with a straw into a cup.

Winter had a system downTyra bought Winter a fun movie, which we all enjoyed together. I just loved the sight of 6 girls lined up on the floor to watch a movie. Reminds me of a sleepover I had when I was about Winter's age!

Amazingly, the girls didn't wake up until 8ish. I was worried that after going to bed at midnight, they would be up bright and early at 6 or 7. I made some waffles, and we had a great breakfast, before everyone headed home again.

Romantic Fear Factor?

I was giddy from anticipation while changing my clothes. For the first time, I was going swimming all by myself, and it was dark! (no, Renee, I didn't go skinny dipping)
It sounds romantic. Swimming after dark, in a lit pool. Yes, it was, for about 30 seconds. 30 seconds is all it took for all bugs within a 10 mile radius to do a bomb dive into our pool. 30 seconds is all it took for me to swim in a bath of dead/half living bugs. Maybe this is the way to kill the 500 million mosquitoes and beatles and crickets on our farm? No, maybe not.... But at least 300 of them are dead now.

That didn't stop me from enjoying myself though! I went out for a little exercise, and got just that. My arms and shoulders are still a little sore from yesterdays race. I expected the pool to be about the same temperature as the late night Texas air. It sooo wasn't! It was as if I just stepped into a warm bath. I felt great. The bugs did remind me not to open my mouth too big, when coming up for air. I don't mind swimming with bugs, but eating them is a little past my comfort zone!