Harvested

Eight crowns of broccoli have been picked. We ate a few and the rest of the lot were blanched and frozen. Yesterday, we pulled out the stalks and planted seeds for more broccoli, cilantro, and dill in it's place. Success!

Prayers for Joplin

This is Aaron.

I spent the day working in Joplin, Mo and will go back up tomorrow morning to help again. The devastation is worse than I imagined after seeing it on tv. Today we cleaned up yards and cut down trees that had fallen on houses. All that was left of some of these buildings were the cement foundations. Some of the piles of houses that you see on the tv coverage are actually piles of other houses down the street that were blown to new locations and dumped there. I heard today that a bunch of the medical records from the files at the Joplin hospital have been found in Springfield, Mo two hours away. Debris is everywhere. They've even found medical records in Indianna.

Looking at the mess, I cannot believe that only 139 people have died. You would think there would have only been 139 people alive. I talked to some of the homeowners we were helping today. They lived in older homes and waited out the storm in their basements. They said that the storm passing over them while they hid in their basement sounded like they were being run over by a freight train, and since the tornado was not traveling at a very fast past, it just sat on these neighborhoods and stirred up the houses into soup. It must have been so sad for them to finally come out of their basements after the storm and see everything above them had been destroyed. Some people are left with nothing, others are sleeping in the non-damaged parts of their homes under the parts of the roof that are left. The electric company is working through to get power back to these houses, but their water is still under boil order. It was clear that the people we helped today were poor to begin with, and I felt so bad for them that they are still sleeping in their houses. Their houses were still standing, but they aren't really liveable. The rubble smells bad, there are bugs everywhere, it is humid and it got up to 90 degrees today.

I feel glad that I could help them, and there were a lot of volunteers there. 150 men from our stake were requested to help this weekend and 300 showed up. We came home tonight because the campsite for volunteers was full. It was great to see so many able to volunteer. It was difficult work and a lot of it was more than manpower could handle. A group of guys can't lift chunks of a roof, and chainsaws can only do so much to cut things into manageable pieces. They need to use sawzalls but don't have any electricity in many areas, so we did what we could bit it is like picking away in small bites. There were bobcats there to help move debris into the dumptrucks and our job was to make the debris accessible and get it to the street so the bobcats could get to it. At this rate it will take them years to recover.

Please continue to pray for these people. It is going to be a long recovery for them. They need all the help we can give.

I Confess...

Sometimes, I get mad or upset and have a difficult time letting it go and moving on.

When this happens, Aaron turns on Wipeout, then sits back, and waits.

I sit there, fuming, and insist his plan isn't going to work.

But it's like a train wreck can't not watch
and I can't not laugh.
So then I get even more mad at Aaron for using a cheap tv show to make me not mad at him.

But then someone gets nailed in the head with a foam propeller and I can't stop laughing.
and Aaron congratulates himself on another victory.

Thanks, Wipeout.

Easter

The kids were up waaaaaay to early on Easter Sunday.

The egg hunting began immediately. The eggs had traditional Willy House contents of mini oreos, goldfish, mini marshmallows, teddy grahams, peanut butter filled pretzels, jelly beans, and other goodies and each kid got a baggie to dump their treats into to make a snack mix for the movie. We watched The Lamb of God and talked about the Last Supper, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the Sacrament with the kids. I love that they are getting old enough to really participate and add to discussions about gospel principles.


The Young Women in our ward held a fundraiser for girls camp that weekend, so we bought orange rolls from them to have for breakfast.

Corbin was a big fan.

The Easter baskets held new gluesticks for school, watercolors, Tinkerbell and Tiana underwear, a car, Peeps (gross), and the movie Despicable Me.

The girls were able to wear their Easter dresses from last year again (thanks, Auntie HolleeAnn!) and their dolls wore dresses to match. I wanted to take a picture in front of our dogwood like we usually do, but it was so stormy outside that we forgot about a photo until everyone was in pajamas again.

I baked a spiral ham, rolls, and fingerling potatoes in browned butter (new addiction...as if butter couldn't get any bettter-it can!) for dinner. Everything was really yummy and some of the leftover ham went into a pot of beans the next day. Perfect for a rainy rainy rainy weekend.

I love my little family.

{29}

29 sounds older than 30, if you ask me, and I wasn't particularly thrilled about getting older. I never thought I'd be that girl who whines about her age, but I still feel 25, and that's where I'd rather be. I had a wonderful birthday that started out with a 5 mile run with Darcie and Tanya, then a trip to the farmers market, where they handed out dozens and dozens of free tulip bulbs (I can't wait to plant them in the fall! and free? excellent.), I got home just in time to head back out the door with my family for soccer games.

The girls played well and the games ended just in time for the sky to turn black and the rain to come pouring down. We headed to Fayetteville anyway and had delicious cookies and pettite fours at Rick's Bakery (I rate that place 5 stars. You KNOW it's a good bakery when they their plain old sugar cookie is something you crave daily.) The kids loved sitting at the counter and watching the ladies behind the glass decorate elaborate cakes with fondant and fancy piping. Aaron picked up a little cake for me (chocolate on chocolate) to bring home and continue festivities throughout the entire weekend (which I loved).

We also went to the Cricket store and got a new phone. I still don't know how to work it, and our phone service is still total crap and I still drop 3 calls a day if I walk into certain parts of my house or drop my foil antannae hat, but it is nice to hear better reception and have a phone with a battery that lasts longer than 45 minutes. Also, the new phone has web access, so that's fun. It also has one of those fancy touch screens, so if you recieve a text that says something like "re ctgan atia I dobn,t Kdjnboooow on sTURDAy" --just know it's from me.

Our friends watched the kids that night and we went to dinner at Table Mesa (another favorite of mine, I can't get enough of their flautas and sweet potato fries), and our waitress surprised us with a key lime tres leches. I am ordinarily not a fan of tres leches cakes (too soggy), but the key lime version was tart and fabulous! We were stuffed to the muff with guac and dinner and couldn't even finish it.

Weak sauce, I know. Aaron and I were disappointed with our inability to make room and muscle down something so good and so free. After dinner we went to Hanks Fiiiiiiiiiiiine Furniture to look at sofas (and realize we did not like anything in the store), a task that would have not been productive with the kids in tow.

The next day, I slept in until 7:30, had banana pancakes a la Chef(s) Willy Kids.
That night we ate cake.

It was a great birthday.

I am so grateful God has blessed me with everything I've ever wanted out of life: A loving husband, awesome children, good health, good friends, a job that I love, and a lovely home of my own.

I'm working on crossing things off my list of 30 things I'd like to do by the time I turn 30. There are a few things I don't think are going to happen (leave the country), but I'm starting a couple other projects this year that are not on the list that are bigger and more important anyway.

29 will be good. It is good.

Duh, Winning!

Over the weekend, I'm hoping to get caught up and publish all of the 1/2 written blogs that I never posted. In April-May, we had 2 Birthdays, Mother's Day, Easter, a Marathon, a Preschool Picnic, a Preschool Graduation, a Kindergarten Graduation, a College Graduation, a lot of severe weather, Grandparents visit, a road trip, and so much more happen. Forgive me for the mass posts that will flood this blog in the next few days.

The Marathon:

Ok, so the matchie outfits actually were not planned. We both brought shorts/skirts and tanks, because it was supposed to be hot. A storm blew through the day before the race and when we got there it. was. freezing! Like so cold and windy that you RUN to the car from the restaurant and get back in the car to warm up while you wait for your gas tank to fill at the pump.

We started the race running into 30mph wind and near freezing and very wet conditions. It was not good. I wondered during the first 3 miles if I was physically going to even be able to run 26 miles in this. After about mile 5, the wind settled to a breeze that was just right. What what?!

Only 7 miles to go, babeh! Too bad they're ALL uphill!



Hills, shmills. We didn't climb run Tiger and Crystal Bridges a fazillion times over the last 4 months for nothing.

Darcie finished her first half marathon with a smokin' time of 2:16! This girl has only been running for like 7 months! Are you kidding me? Go Darcie!

Kasey cruising through the finish line. We were timed right in step and so happy to finish this race together. Love it!

And now I know I can run a marathon.

I ran a marathon.

We finished strong and were nowhere near last place.

Nowhere near first place, either, but

did we win?

did I love it?

will I do it again?

Oh, absolutely.

When it isn't Raining,

two little fairies like to frolic in the backyard.