Our cracks are showing and we are passing less gas

Yeah, I know, its been awhile. There just hasn't been much excitement here. As you can tell from the title, I've even resorted to corny phrases to try and jazz my life up!!

CRACKS
So...yesterday 5 men showed up to repair the cracks in our plaster walls. For those of you that have examined our walls, you'll understand the depth of this job. Here's an example:



They were all here working pretty much non-stop from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. It was a little frustrating trying to keep the kids out of their way, and live with all of our furniture piled up in the center of rooms! But it was well worth it since I am tired of looking at those cracks!




They did a great job repairing but, apparently contractors just aren't the tidiest of folks. I know this shocks most of you, but their idea of clean and mine were completely different. They DID NOT put drop cloths over anything, so last night I spent the entire night wiping, sweeping, shaking and mopping dust off every surface! Here's what our walls look like now...painters are coming next week for an estimate on the downstairs.



GAS
Well, the prices of gas are NOT going down. Since Brian drives the FJ for work, he was having to pay quite a bit more to travel. Its getting close to coming out of our pocket, so something had to be done. But, alas, the bartering system has come through for us once again! Our friends, Guy and Rachel, needed a bigger vehicle for their growing family, and they happened to have our old Honda Accord (which I used to drive to work before the kids were born. I loved that car!). So, today Brian and Guy did the swap. Brian was a little sad to say goodbye to the van, but I'm sure he'll be smilin' the next time he has to fill up his gas tank!

Here's Brian having a little alone time with the van on their last night together...




...and here's the "new" ride!!



Keith and Addy have never seen such a small vehicle up close! They were excited to explore a car "their size".





Until next blog,
Jen

Spring Break Pictures

We pull the kids from their deep slumber at 5 a.m. for a day of traveling and begin our trip by breaking the seat belt laws!



Stopping for peaches in Georgia...we had to settle for homemade peach ice cream since the peaches weren't ripe yet.






We finally make it to the beach and make goofy faces with Brooke and Audra!




The kids first trip to Magic Kingdom was magical! They crashed in their strollers on the way out of the park at 11 p.m.





Mid-week we took a pontoon boat tour and learned all about the local wildlife. Addy loved the on-boat "show and tell" session which included horseshoe crab shells, hermit crabs, huge snails in conch shells, sharks teeth, and examples of local vegetation. Keith wasn't too thrilled with it, but they let him drive the boat, which was exciting for him!






The rest of the vacation was spent at our condo...mostly on the balcony, in the pool or on the beach!!






Near the end of our vacation Addison proved to us, yet again, that she is growing up way too fast. She read her first book all by herself, needing help with only some very tough words. We have since heard the story EVERY night at bedtime since she is so excited to read it. Of course, it is about cats!!!



Until next blog,
Jen

blogging from the car...hour 10 of 16

Ahhh the modern conveniences...I can actually blog while we're driving back home! We just had dinner in Chattanooga after a 5 a.m. departure and driving pretty much non-stop except for an occasional potty break. We were going to drive to around Nashville and finish it off tomorrow. HOWEVER, we've got a wild hair up our rears and have made the crazy decision to power through all the way to home. So, we have about 6 hours of driving left. Brian is the driver and I am the entertainer. The kids are currently watching movies. Here is my view for the rest of the trip:




Here are all the entertainment items sitting next to me in the back seat (which prevents me from stretching out and napping, but the kids sanity is definitely worth the sacrifice!)



So, as you can see we are all tucked in our own little corner of the car, safe and sound. Including the newest addition to our family...turtles! Yes, that's right. Turtles. We actually are only taking one home with us; the other two I'm transporting back for my nieces who flew home.



You can see that Brian has kindly seat-belted them in. We weren't sure about seat belt laws for amphibians, so better safe than sorry!!

Well, the movie has ended and I'm getting requests for some book reading, so...off to do my duties!

Until next blog,
Jen