So Jonathan walked into the room a few minutes ago, and I noticed that he had chocolate on his lips, nose and face. So I asked him, "Jonathan, have you been eating chocolate?" to which he immediately answered "No". When I asked him how the chocolate got on his face, he said it just "jumped up there". I had him open his mouth...just as I suspected...chocolate remnants in the molars...when I asked about it, he finally admitted to eating four Hershey's kisses from his Valentine goody bag. Then he added, "But I only ate four....that's better than five!"

Sleepy

I have found myself so very far behind in everything lately. The laundry is piling up...the kids rooms are a mess...I just remembered that I was supposed to pay our property taxes...that were due in January :( Let's not even discuss the state of the bathrooms!! I don't know where my head is lately...all I can say is that I am so extremely tired. Maybe it's because I am pregnant at 37, and my energy level is just not the same as it was a few years ago. Maybe it's because we are doing a gazillion things that we all love, but I am not getting enough rest. When I was pregnant with Josh and Jonathan, I was working in Arizona, putting in ten hour days. I think I was so busy back then, and had no way of slowing down, that I couldn't allow myself to admit that I was tired. That is, until the eighth month, when I was carrying Josh. It all came to a crashing halt. I was the administrative coordinator for an endoscopy center. My front desk girl had just quit, and I was left alone to run it all by myself. I was literally running around the clinic a good portion of most days. No wonder my blood pressure went through the roof! I was put on total bed rest for the last month by my MD. With Jonathan, we were staffed much better, and I was able to do most of my work sitting down. Those were long days of making sure everything was in order, so that I could take 2 months off with my new little one without feeling like I dumped all my work on everyone else. I actually worked up until 2 days before Jonathan was born. This time around, I am at home. My mornings are all school, school, school...because around 2pm, I get so sleepy that I start to fall asleep sitting up. We are very busy with church, soccer, gardening, and running errands that seem to pop up almost daily! Sometimes I think that I am more busy at home than I ever was at work. One thing I can say for sure, I am much more peaceful this time around. My stress level is no where close to the stress that I felt when I was working. I just hope that once I pass this first trimester, I will start to feel like myself again. For now, it's 9:42pm...and I am off to bed!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

Well, we don't have silver bells or cockle shells, but we do have pea plants that have poked their little heads out of the dirt in our vegetable garden. The temperatures have hovered around 75 degrees all week, and our little plants are happy! We are also seeing some of our herbs, (cilantro and oregano) coming up as well. Now we just have to keep the rabbits away!

These are the newest arrivals here at the Luray Gardens...

Facing our giants

We all have to face giants in our life. This boy (center, in the the blue...Josh is to the left in white) is Cameron. He's Josh's giant. Cameron has played soccer against Josh now for the third season in a row. Although he is the same age as Josh, Cameron is at least a head, and in some cases a head and a half taller than every player on Joshua's soccer team. They are all afraid of him. He's huge, kicks really hard, and plays nasty at times. Today, at Josh's first game of the spring season, Cameron kicked the snot out of the ball, directly into the face of one of his own teammates. I have to admit, I was relieved it was not one of ours, but I felt bad for the other boy...poor thing. When Cameron takes possession of the ball, our team parts like the red sea, to make way for him to dribble the ball down field and score. When Josh plays against Cameron, he runs slower, and is not aggressive like he usually is when he plays. It's amazing what fear can do to someone. Josh's team lost their game today, 7-5. Josh still scored 3 goals, and played pretty well, all things considered. I was talking to josh about Cameron today, and I told him that he needs to remember the story of David and Goliath...that even though David was young and much smaller in comparison to Goliath, he had God on his side because his heart was right, and he defeated the giant, much to everyone's surprise. Josh listened, and asked if he could bring a rock to the next game (jokingly, of course, but with a hint of reality). He's glad that he won't face Cameron's team again for another 4 weeks!