It's a Wonderful Life

Last week we finally finished the first Harry Potter book, so we watched the first movie as promised.  The boys loved the movie so much.  It was fun to see how excited they would get when they would see the movie character after imagining them for so long.  Those really are great books and great movies!  So the day Erik left to go to Scout Camp, he discovered a mouse in Maverick's food container!  Eek!  I was so freaked out.  Luckily he killed that one before he left and then set out traps in the surrounding area.  Well that night, a mouse was caught in a trap.  I did not want to get any where near the dead mouse, so I offered Jackson 50 cents to throw the trap away.  Well he said he would do it for a dollar, and I said, "deal!"   It was a dollar well spent. We love our mini cold sodas at the pool! :)     I sleep really, really bad when Erik is gone.  After two nights of getting 3 or 4 hours of sleep ...

We enjoyed a gorgeous day at Marker's Miller-- the first visit of the year! So I've been really into reading different running blogs from people that have run the races at Disney World (I'm really hoping to run one in 2016!).  Along with reading about the races themselves, I LOVE seeing the racing costumes that people put together.  So fun!  Seeing this screen shot in the middle of the Marke Miller pictures, shows that I was reading them while my kids were playing on the playground.  Proud to report, I didn't do that the whole time ;)     That day was a breakthrough for Wyatt.  He finally agreed to put his face in the water!  This was an enormous step forward for him.  Since then he has put his face in every day at swim lessons.  Go Wyatt!!! We did our final 8th Miner contest video entry last week. It really was a fun project to work on with the kids. Snow White insisted on eating her apple while dancing fo...

We got about 45 minutes of swim time before some afternoon thunderstorms closed the pool.  At least we got cooled off!     That evening we went on a date.  And we had this shiny corvette as our date car!  There is a guy that Erik home teaches that keeps offering his car to Erik, so he finally took him up. For dinner we met up with Matt, Brian (both from ProBuild), and Brian's girlfriend at a fun Japanese restaurant.  We had a really entertaining chef.     Two weeks ago Monday was the start of swim lessons!  Anna and Wyatt were in the same class and I was happy to see them both comfortable enough to not have me in the water (though the next day they wanted me in and every day after I had to stay on the pool steps)   At least I got one day of relaxation :) Right after swim lessons we went to see the Disney Nature movie Bears.  It was playing for cheap at the Alamo.  We loved it!  It was a...

So Erik suggested that we go to "the Tractor Pull" that was happening in Berryville on the 11th.  At first I said no way, but then I felt bad for nixing a family activity he wanted to do.  So, I said let's do it. Well, these things are not for me.  I guess I'm glad I went to say that "oh yeah, I've been to a tractor pull."  But beyond that, there was really no appeal.  If it weren't so smokey (both the fumes from trucks and more obnoxiously, the thick haze of cigarette smoke), I might have done better.  Or if there weren't so many disgustingly rude T-shirts (seriously, like pictures or phrases that were so inappropriate and dumb), I might have been OK.  As it was, I just kind of counted down the time until I could suggest to Erik it was time to get the kids home. Early on in the evening, when I had not yet decided that I am not a fan :)  Anna was enjoying herself on this dirt mound. OK, and ...