TUESDAY

Did School.

Answered lots of phone calls - last day to call if you want produce this week. {g}

Visited with a neighbor - yippee....still smiling at her news.

Ran to Walmart...I bought some smaller Capri pants. I found one last drawer I'd not gone through since last year....shorts...all far to big. I'll have to try to find some shorts but for NOW Capri's and such are just fine. I don't want short shorts....and down here that seems to be the kind they have a lot of. LOL

We are planning a big party; I think we'll do it in a few weeks. This party will celebrate 7 birthdays/lives (Mike, Mine, and 5 boys). I've been running errands and calling to find info on that. We're thinking we may rent out a big skating fun center and invite families.....we're trying to decide on a local charity that we'd like folks to bring things for, instead of gifts. I'm also trying to figure out how many people to plan for - always hard to guess.

While at Walmart I picked up some training pants for Stacia. She ISN'T ready for this but I have to do something. It is not good for her to pull off her diaper all the time...and it is NOT good for her to steal Zander's whitey tighties. He's very indignant about this. I couldn't resist the hat - and here she is (with a little help from Jared) showing off her finery.

WooHOO - CELEBRATION TIME....

My dear sweet neighbor, Kathryn, came over just now. We've been praying for her husband Bill to come to know Jesus. He HAS. Yes, yes, yes!!!! A true homecoming in the neighborhood. I'm so excited...she has been praying for this for years. I told her that I have had such a sense of expectancy that 2007 was going to be the year. God is so very faithful!

Iditarod Update

"Twelve tough dogs and one irrepressible musher were Monday vying to do the impossible -- win the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Race and 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the same year."

We're rooting for Lance Mackey - the musher trying to do the above. Jeff King and Martin Buser appear to be fading. King said it would be "magical" if Mackey wins. It appears to be a race now between Lance Mackey and Paul Gebhardt for the finish in Nome - maybe tonight.

Jeff King crosses the Kaltaq Portage (?) - photo courtesy of www.adn.org/iditarod

Spring Look

 - time for some spring colors, though I'm not putting my snowmen up until spring is officially here. As far as I know congress didn't change THAT date, did they? I need to find some springier graphics.....all in time.

Monday

Several of us are still fighting colds and sore throats.

I went to Curves today. I'm going to try to do the 5-6 workout plan this week. I'm not sure HOW you get your heart rate up enough to count as aerobic while "going easy" on the machines. We'll see if I can figure it out. It was so much TOUGHER to get a video workout in at home than it is to go to the club. I'm going to try Curves only this week and see.....LOL

We did school.

Josiah suggested that the younger ones, he and I go caching after school. I agreed. He went to http://www.geocaching.com/ and found some coordinates for us to search out. Stacia ended up taking a nap and staying home. We found 5 caches (photos below).

We ran a few errands between caching and our evening activities.

Tonight I went out with a few friends: Charly, Sherry and Beth. It was a surprise shower for Beth. Becky, we went to your and Ian's favorite Italian spot and I thought of you.

We found MORE areas of town that we'd not seen before while out caching. Immediately after stepping out of the van Arielle and I landed on an ant hill. 30 minutes later, driving down the road, one of those pesky fire ants got me between my toes. OUCH.

I took a few pictures to show that we aren't wimps on our caching trips in W TX. I KNOW we aren't dealing with snow...but.....

Cactus....touch one and you get at least 5 thorns...

Mesquite trees/thorns....these are above you AND on the ground...

those thorns go ALL the way through shoes....

Nolan and Zander retrieve our first cache

Rattler Hotel Swampy, tall grass, warm day - we sent Josiah out alone on this one! ::snort::

Zander found his first cache! The kids did real well at not saying "there it is" but moving away when they found it....and thus....Zander was able to find this on his own. He was pretty excited.

The last cache of the day....big enough to leave lots of goodies in....we were even able to leave the snowman book we had picked up at an out of town cache.

Oven Update

I called our home warranty company. They sent a technician out to look at the oven. WHY are these things handled like this? I TOLD them what was wrong. They brought an element, realized it wasn't the element...and now will order the part....7 days....it's some computer chip.

How HUMILIATING to have them pull the stove out.....I need to remember to do that every few months. I had them leave it out so that I could clean it. LOL

Stacia and Zander Observe the technician

Stacia offers expert instruction (note the finger and moving mouth!)

EXCITING TIME OF THE YEAR!!!!

Darshia sent us the above posters. What a friend. She remembered that my boys had been collecting these posters from the Anchorage Daily News when we lived up there.

Yes, it's Iditarod time. We have a picture of the last Iditarod we attended above our computer....and this time of year always reminds me of the outing we took with Mom to the Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla. I'd post photos, but they are on another computer...one of the many crashed ones. ::snort:: We watched "Snow Dogs" last night in honor of the race.....and we've been getting daily updates from the ADN. If you're interested the official site has lots of great info.

This year's race is quite exciting. The winner is expected to reach Nome around Dawn on Wednesday.....Currently....Lance Mackey is OUT of Shaktoolik (Shak-TOO-lick), and Paul Gebhardt, Martin Buser and Jeff King are all IN Shaktoolik.