Gimme 5

I spent the greater part of last night creating the ultimate playlist for the marathon this weekend and realized that it needed a little spice. I'm a same old same old girl and I've got my solid faves down, but I wouldn't mind mixing it up. So leave me a comment with your top 5 songs to work out to...but if it's Ace of Bace or Brittney Spears, you can just send an email privately.

What Bryson Does All Day

Well, at least when the sudoku gets slow...

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6341378

p.s. There is a picture of Bryson in the video if you watch it. He is testing bird flu.

Paid in Full

These words are a relief to me. I am wondering: how in the world have we scraped by for the past three and a half years? This is a little overdue, but also very timely. Our New Year's resolution this year was to finish off this second loan and about a month ago we made our last payment. Yay! Then this Monday we closed on a refinance with the first loan, lowering our monthly payout even more. I'm not judging, because everyone's circumstances are different (and we love all our neighbors), but with so many people walking away from their financial obligations and foreclosing on their homes, I am grateful that we've been able to do this. Financially I guess it doesn't make a lot of sense, but we've honored the commitments we've made and did what we said we would do. I'm grateful to have a spouse I can trust with money and who can work with me to live off very little when times are tight. But now it will be nice to have some breathing room!

Wallflowers

So no one picked up the swine flu this weekend at the Wall family reunion. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy eating yummy food. I don't remember having a family reunion with this many people on my mom's side since I was in the fourth grade and we all got hotels in Saint Louis and our family stayed at the lovely Knights Inn. Now all my cousins are grown up with kids.
Rick is very sick, but I was impressed with how he has his life in order and his loose ends mostly tied up. He said goodbye to all of his sisters. I wish my mom had it more together--she still has loads of loose ends--although a friend pointed out to me that I will probably always feel like my mom is not ready because I will not ever want her to go.
I'm battling kids, so I want to jot down items of note before I have to run: Sue's living room decor is awesome, Heather is a darling little pregnant lady but I can't picture her as a mom (I'm going to have to see it to believe it), Debby's kids crack me up and I am going to have to see Hayden's SloMo skillz again, I hope Josh Berrett made it to South Africa with enough cash to keep him out of jail, Josh Troyer's baby Opal is a beautiful little tiny baby, and Avery is in LOVE with Sue's dog Kiera Knightly. It was fun to meet spouses of cousins and see everyone's kids. I'm grateful for my family :)

Possibly the last time these guys will all be pictured together: Leslie, Debbie, Patty, Tanna, Rick, Terry, and Sue...

...and Dusty. How thoughtful. Someone brought her a cookie.

If I had a dollar for every egg hunt this year...

Attending multiple egg hunts is not a bad thing...except when mom is eating all the candy. And reading a book about the evils of high-fructose corn syrup while downing those jellybeans.

Our church grass is rockin'.

Preschool?

The burning question on my mind tonight is this...send Ella to preschool this fall or no? The girl still has two full years yet until she starts kindergarten. Is it necessary to educate your child for the two years preceeding public school? Is it valuable?
I lean against it because it's pricey and because social interaction comes free. No need to pay to make friends when there are plenty running around outside our front door. Also, she already knows her letters, colors, and numbers. I think she's on track for where she needs to be.
I lean towards it because she's smart and it would give her new academic challenges. I'd like to get her used to the dynamics of a classroom. And I'd hate to hold her back from reaching her full potential. Plus, it just looked fun. We dropped by Kinder Kids this week to check out their program and Ella was ready to jump right in and participate. She was confused when we were leaving.
Mommas out there, what do you think? Is preschool your babysitter (which also has value--I'm not gonna lie) or do you feel your child would have been behind in school without it? I'm not interested in EVER homeschooling my kids when there are paid professionals nearby; I'm just wondering, is it necessary at age 3?

On the Go

Avery has discovered the go button and she is off. She crawled for the first time about two weeks ago and her first shot took her across the living room. Now she is pulling herself up to standing and has even ventured a few steps. Time to baby-proof our life again!

We have been on such an emotional roller coaster this past month and a half. My mom had a major surgery a little over a month ago to remove a second cancer tumor. Then she was back in and out of the hospital for various complications over the ensuing weeks. We have been so worried, then relieved, then worried, then relieved, and now just tired. We're just glad she's making it out of this OK. Also, we're grateful for family and friends that will drop everything and fly out there to take care of her and that call and email every day when things get scary and that fast as a group to give support and that buy her a ticket to come out to see us. Thank you everyone. We truly appreciate it. I know there is power in fasting and prayer. Thank you.

I'd Like to Blame this on Scouts

Last night we had Little Philmont for Scouts, which for me was a 4-hour meeting. Towards the end, I started thinking that I hoped my kids were faring OK with just Bry...so I texted him the following: "Are things going OK at home?" And I was surprised when I looked down and a friend had responded that yes, they were, except their little boy was not interested in brushing his teeth. What??? Oh no!!! I sent it to my whole address book.
A seemingly simple inquiry suddenly became an intrusive little bombshell. Open mouth, insert foot. Or phone.