Last weekend we had Christopher's birthday party. It was a few weeks late, but only b/c we were out of town the weekend of his birthday, then Brandon was on call the next. It was perfect timing though b/c the weather was absolutely gorgeous!!! It was sunny and just cool/warm enough to want to spend the entire day outside. We had it at the big park on base like last year, but this time no rain or humidity in site. We had a lot of fun with all of our friends and the kids played hard. It was the first "friend" party we've had. Usually it's just family and 1 or 2 friends. I figured since we were leaving town the next day I save everyone from traveling to our house and invite all our friends that are moving this summer. It was great!

Sunday, the kids, dog and I loaded up into the van and headed off to the lake. We made one stop along the way at this beautiful farm and we played for a little while. I picked it b/c it was down off the side of the road and I just pulled over on the driveway. I didn't really realize where we were until we got out and looked at the lush green all around us. I wanted to stay on the dirt road and find out where it took us and imagined cowboy boots and horses and loads of fun, but we had some grandparents to get to, so I decided against trespassing.

We got to Grammie and Pop's house a little after they got home from church and thankfully the kids napped a little on the way there. We played hard. Brick swam and chased everything along with the other dogs. It was perfect. Monday it was pretty cool out and we were planning to run into Montgomery to visit with Great, but Christopher wasn't feeling well, so we stayed home. We were going to start sewing, but this was the day I slipped and slid halfway down the stairs, so we just went for a walk instead to make sure nothing got too tight. I think it worked b/c I never really hurt the rest of the week.

The rest of the week continued to warm up and the skies were beautiful. We played inside and out. I sewed a few things like burp cloths, started a bag and made a cover for the back seat of the van where Brick sits. It was getting really dirty, but I cleaned it. Aunt Jennifer and Anne Morgan came on Wednesday and it was so fun to watch little AM crawl around everywhere. She is seriously the quietest baby I have ever seen! You honestly forget she's there except she's so darn cute you don't want to take your eyes off of her. She makes everyone want another baby, including me. (But don't get your hopes up, Sophie's WAY too clingy to add to this bunch.) Both kids want another baby, but when Sophie learned that meant Mommy's lap would no longer be free for her to sit in she changed her mind. It was a funny conversation!

I have some photos, but haven't downloaded them and forgot to get the ones I took with Pop's camera. I'll put them on here later. It's great to be home and I'm glad we were gone b/c Brandon was even busier than the week before. He starts nights on Monday. Boo. We miss him when he works this much. But that's our life! (I still love it!)

Have a great weekend!

Thank you Lauren for being concerned about me. Surprsingly I'm doing well. I was half way down the stairs and my foot slipped and I landed on my back and elbows. Thankfully it was right above my tailbone and more on my forearms than the elbows. But I hit really hard and slid partway down the stairs. I thought I was going to throw up from the pain at first, but once I was able to get up and lie down I finally felt better. I have to admit, it scared the mess out of me and I cried a little.

I'm learning to sew today. I'm very nervous and intimidated. We were going to try yesterday, but I slipped going down the wooden stairs carrying Christopher's marble game/tower. Note to self: never wear socks at the lake again. I've gotten everything threaded and am ready to go with my practice scraps. Wish me luck! Here's to hoping I don't quit too soon.

I posted a long time ago about how on some blogs you have to type in those letters that spell nothing in order to have your comment posted. The reason I posted about it was b/c I swear to you the word was "sperm", but somehow I misspelled it. I still don't know if I just read it wrong (you know how sometimes they try to trick you by putting the letters close together) OR if I was laughing so hard I couldn't see what I was typing. Anyhoo, I just posted another comment on a blog I like to read and here's the letters I had to type... "innimas." Please try to say that out loud. Why do I get these words? I know it's not spelled correctly, but still. At least it gives me something to laugh at. Not that I need anything, I do have children after all!

Somehow Picasa is not on the computer anymore and so I'm unable to create a new title for our blog, but that's ok. I'm not up for the challenge of figuring out how to fix it either. (Lori, somehow the title box frame is showing up again too. No clue how to fix it.) But this is one of my favorite photos of our family. I'm not in it b/c I actually took this one! And I have to give credit where it is due. The iPhoto edit and enhance buttons made it look much better, but I still think it's pretty good for someone who has absolutely no clue how to take a decent photo. Ok, enough tooting my own horn.

I wanted to put it on here to remind myself of what a good day for us looks like. This is one of our family's favorite places to go. It's a tiny little beach within walking distance of our house. I know I joke/complain about the house we live in, but I really am thankful for it. It's far from new and not allowed to be updated by us, but it serves it purpose perfectly. Besides, we get to walk to places like this! We go down here even more now that we have Brick b/c we can't take him to the beach with us. I think he might love it even more than we do! He always runs as fast as he can ahead of us and waits, bursting I might add, for us to catch up so we can start throwing tennis balls into the water for him.

I could tell so many stories about times we've spent down here, but well, they'd bore you. You just have to experience it for yourself. It's narrow, but go on forever. It has a fabulous view. And a majority of the time, it's our own private beach. And this photo is just perfect to me b/c it shows just how much my family loves each other when we are here. Thank you God for giving this to me. I love it!

First, I traded my first book today! I posted them two days ago and already had an interest. I just printed out the two pages and wrapped it up to go. If your books weigh less than 13 ounces (which most paperbacks do) you can mail it from your house! How awesome is that? I don't have a typical mailbox, just a slot for outgoing mail, so I'll have to swing by a blue mailbox. But as long as I don't have to enter a post office with my two kids I'm good.

Second, my kids have said some funny/not so funny things the last two days. Depending on your sense of humor. We borrowed Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs from our neighbor and the main character's name is Flint Lockwood. Sophie tries to repeat things that she hears and tried to repeat his name one day. Didn't come out right. Comes out more like, "Sh*t wood." Not sure how she came up with that one, but she still gets some of her letters mixed up.

Then last night I was putting Christopher to bed and we had all been naming words that rhyme. Don't ask me why, but I said, "What word rhymes with corn?" He thought for about 3 seconds then said, "Porn!" I did my best not to laugh, told him that wasn't a word and he couldn't make up words to rhyme. They have to be real ones. We have absolutely no clue where the kids got these words from b/c I can honestly say that they are not said in this house. But we still laughed about it when we went to bed last night!

I mentioned on here before about how I've started on Karen Kingsbury books after Christmas and well, I just can't seem to put them down. A friend's daughter passed along about 20 of her books and I've been going through them very quickly. I'm on my 14th book now. They are that good! Thankfully Karen produces what seems like several books a year and since I just found her I have a whole lot of reading ahead of me. Yeah!

Now, here's why I even started this post. If you are like my husband and I you have tons of books out on shelves or stored away. I looked into selling them on Amazon.com, but got so confused on how to do it that I quit and figured I'd just keep the huge stacks of books and have someone else deal with them when I die. Until today. I was reading through my Parents magazine this morning and there was an article on saving money. One of the things that caught my attention was the mention of two websites that allow you to swap books with other readers instead of buying new ones. I looked into both of them and only one of them had lots of Karen's books. The other site had 1 little book. The site I liked is called PaperBackSwap.com and I think I'm really going to love it. I signed up, it's free, and added 10 of my own books I've had stacked up in my nightstand to my list and I'm ready to go!

Here's how it works, you create a list of books that you are willing to get rid of and they send you an email when someone is interested. You just print out two pieces of paper and wrap your book in them. They have all the info on it and you don't have to do anything. If the book is small enough you don't even have to take it to the post office! You pay to have it shipped to them, but that doesn't matter b/c when you pick a book for yourself you don't have to pay anything! You get "points" for each book you "sell" and use them to "buy" books for yourself. Great, huh? The books you get are yours to keep for as long or little as you like. Resell it or keep it forever.

I'm very excited about this new little treasure I've found. Oh, and did I mention that they also have sites for trading cd's and dvd's? Yup! How awesome is that?