Force March Phillips

In my brilliance, I decided to take my playgroup hiking. We went to Catalina State Park yesterday. Of course, it was the hottest day of the spring so far (about 90. seriously). I was initially planning to do a short flat hike at the Romero Ruins, but the guy at the booth said to do the Canyon Loop since there was water still in some pools. So I looked at the map and thought, hey we can do this. When we started, I wasn't sure where the trail head was for our loop and chose the one closest to the parking lot. I had a feeling though that we should start at the other side of the loop but didn't act on it. First part of the hike was a steep uphill and then we went up hill, up hill, up hill. My kids were horrible but everyone else's were great. The twins wanted to be carried though and so I did the majority of the hike holding someone and my friend Jill (bless her heart) carried Kenna quite a bit. The hike took FOREVER. Laney was supposed to go to school but we didn't get back until 12:30 and school, which was a 20 minute drive away, started at 12:15. I felt terrible for making her miss school and boy was she mad. I'm pretty sure all of the other moms were hating me by the end of that hike too. I think we hiked about 2.5 miles. Secretly though I enjoyed the hike even with my whiney kids. We'll have to go again. But next time I'm bringing more supplies. Like trail mix. Because hiking is a lot more fun if there are M&Ms involved.

Wax B's and Eye Disease

Oh, glorious day. I looked in the mirror this morning and discovered that my eye was NOTswollen, red, itchy, and was only slightly peeling/flakey. For the first time since January. It has been just as awesome as you would imagine it would be to have said eye condition for nearly 3 months.
Not much on the agenda today. I cleaned the kids' rooms and we generally hung out. Looks like we're mostly on the mend. The kids still have a cough if they get active, but things seem to be clearing. I can't tell if I'm still sick or just allergic to everything. It is pollen season in the old pueblo.
The kids keep trying to go swimming. The pool is freezing cold, but it's been in the 80s every day for a little while and looks like it will be continuing. Spring is sprung.
As I mentioned previously, writing is a big activity in my house. On my way down the stairs yesterday, I discovered a big red B drawn on the stair carpet using red chapstick. Hmm. Also, a tiny robot looking thing has appeared on Laney's wall. In ink pen. I have a lot of painting ahead of me.
 

Creativity

It amazes me how fast children can change. In just the last couple of weeks, Laney has suddenly become a writer and artist. The light turned on and pow! There it all was suddenly. She's been writing all of her letters and her name and she made Charles a card the other night that was just the cutest thing. It had little people and caterpillars and things. Sure you may say, kids do this all the time and mine is always drawing something. Well, mine didn't. So one day no drawing, the next day figural drawings in lots of detail.
Griffin is still unusually attached to his pajamas. We fight about it whenever I need him to wear decent clothes (like to church) and he only wants to wear his tiger jammies. Hopefully this is a stage that goes quickly.
We went to church this morning and then went started our parenting class again. Then we went to the park for a church picnic. It was fun. Yesterday we cleaned the garage (or at least got a good start on it) and then I cleaned the car in the afternoon. It was amazingly satisfying to clean my car. It was just so gross that I felt bad every time I got in it or someone saw it. Yuck. Now it is clean and good. On the inside. I still need to go get it washed.
This afternoon I made gumbo and we all watched the Princess and the Frog together. The gumbo was awesome. I like okra though. Unlike the ladies on Our Best Bites, I do not believe that it is a vegetable grown in Hell and hoed personally by the devil himself. I guess I like goopy veggies. Now I need to go back and print out the recipe before my temporary membership to the website expires. Sad, yes?
Feeling sleepy now from too much gumbo (and a couple glasses of wine) so off I go. Got to help C get ready to leave again tomorrow.

Home Improving, Health Deteriorating

Bleh. We're all sick at the Phillips house. Griffin caught the crud last week and we've been passing it along. The bummer is that it doesn't seem to go away once you get it. So he's still hacking up a lung and now the girls and I are too.
I painted the living room over the weekend. Ernie brought a scissor lift over and I got to work. It was really fun to use a lift to paint. I'd totally do it again. I got really good at driving it. I painted the room a light tan, but Diane told me that it looks yellow. And I guess it does a little bit in the afternoon. Oh well.
Next up is getting my filthy carpet cleaned. I am also going to repaint the dining room. The piano is going to move into the living room instead of the dining room. It just too squished in there.
Charles and I are going to start co-leading a parenting discussion group at the church. I know, funny isn't it?
Mike went to jail over the weekend and Zack has a broken nose. Not sure what all is going on. We'll find out more this weekend I suppose.
This weekend we need to get out and start cleaning up the yard. My poor palm trees are seriously toast. I'm not sure if they will make it.

Baptism

Last Sunday we were baptized en masse: me, Laney, Griffin and Kenna. Diane and Ernie, Leah, Olive and Don came to the procedings. We came back to the house for brunch afterwards. Later that evening, Charles and I went out to dinner at the Omni for a work thing. Ollie stayed at our house with the kids.
It's Rodeo week in Tucson and Laney had fun at school. They brought bikes to school on Wednesday and had a bike rodeo. Today we went to the park and met Jill and Madelynn, then out to lunch with them and Richelle and her kids.
I think maybe next year we will be ready to try out the Rodeo parade. The kids are a little young yet to brave the crowds for rodeo.

Deep Thoughts and Poopy Shoots

I'm just shocked tonight. I was watching the news after the Mentalist and they did a story on a cold case murder. Last summer, after we had gone to Idaho, a man was murdered at Chik fil A. A man walked up to him and shot him in the head, then pedaled away on a bike. At like 7 in the morning. I heard about the murder when we returned in the fall, but did not realize until tonight--he was the dad of one of the little girls in Laney's dance class. I see his widow 3 times a week at St. Andrew's. I've talked to her at dance class. I had NO idea that this happened to their family. She's got 4 kids under the age of 10. It's unsettling to have so many tragic events occuring to people I know and at places I go.
[pause to reflect]
Ok. On a completely different note: we finally finished the enormous jar of cheesy puffs that I was conned in to buying at Costco. Sadly, we will no longer be able to fulfill requests for "poopy shoots" from Kenna. I laughed every time she asked me for poopy shoots. I'd ask her "do you want cheesy poofs?" and she'd say yes, I want some poopy shoots. LOL.
Griffin told me in the car yesterday on the way to pick up Laney and Rorie (our carpooling friend from school) that he loved Rorie. I said that was nice. Don't you love Laney too? He said no. He didn't love Laney. "Laney smells". These things start way earlier than I ever expected.
Laney is always talking about her future career plans. I am not sure why. I've never asked her for this information, she just volunteers it. Science careers figure heavily with doctor usually leading. This week, she was thinking about giving up the medicine dream to pursue dolphin training at Sea World. We watched Flipper earlier in the week. But it was back to medicine by today. Then in the car we were watching "The Incredibles" and at the end the bad guy gets sucked in to a jet engine (No capes!) at which point she speculated: "I bet his brain came out when that happened." Me: pardon?! Really, what can you say to something like that?

Amen to That

It's official. We're Presbyterians. We completed our two evening new member meetings and we got voted in officially. So now I belong to a church. Next up: baptism. I had to get 4 forms. I feel a little funny talking about it since I'm so not the religious type. I'm still sort of amazed that I'm going to church. But I must admit that I really am enjoying going. I still feel a little bit funny praying so much and talking about God a lot.
I've been working on my preschool packets to register the kids for next year. Yikes. Next year is going to be expensive! Whoo. But so worth it. So worth it.
In other news, I got my allergy testing done. And put up with days of welts all over my arms. I'm allergic to everything. Except mold and arizona cypress. The other 47 things are a definite yes. I was suprised that I was allergic to cats, dogs, and dust mites. I suspect everyone probably is just slightly. I got my first allergy shot on Thursday.
The eye thingy is still going strong. I probably should try to go back to the doctor.
The kids and I took a long walk (they all ran) tonight. The weather was just gorgeous. It's going to be 80 again tomorrow. Too bad everything froze so hard. My poor little petunias are mostly gonners.