Bathroom Humor...

...as only a boy can do. The other day at Wal-Mart, Ian and I were in the garden section, looking for vegetables for the garden. One minute I'm debating tomatoes, whether to go with Early Girls or Big Boys, the next minute I see Ian peeing down a drainage grate, next to the vegetable stand. I couldn't believe it! I should've known, though--that boy can & will pee any time, any place!

The next story is from the camping trip he and Cory went on this weekend. Apparently he was quite intrigued by the port-a-johns. Not only were there lots of them, but there were different colors. At first he would pee in the woods, but once he made a trip to the port-a-john, it was all over. He LOVED it! He kept wanting to try out the different colored ones, like there might be something different about them. I suspect someday that will change....

Another week

My goodness! Has another week come and gone already? I feel that I am on a wild circus ride. Life these days is busy, busy, busy. My calling is by far the most demanding I have ever experienced. A lot of that is due to the sheer number of sisters involved. There are just sooooooo many people. There are so many meetings, so many tasks to remember to see about, so many needs to be met. It can be a little--ok, quite--daunting and overwhelming. That being said, I can see Heavenly Father's hand in almost everything I do. I can literally feel myself being lifted up when I am tired, to be able to take care of what needs to be taken care of. Somehow I am able to meet demands that I never thought I could. I never want to lose that feeling. Speaking of all things Relief Society (these days I wonder if there is anything else), we had a fun activity last night. This month the YW have been paired up with RS sisters, with the RS being secret sisters to the YW. It has been super fun and I feel like it was a wonderful bonding activity for all involved. Last night was the culmination with everyone finding out who was who. Really fun.

Our AC messed up again. If any of you have followed my life at all, I am beginning to wonder if a broken AC is just the curse of my life. In running back over the years in my mind, we are approaching the 8th summer that Cory and I have been married. I can only recall one summer without any AC problems and I'm sure if I could remember things more clearly, there must have been something to happen that year. Could we possibly have had one summer without AC trouble? Anyway, it was 85 degrees in the house today--with windows open and fans blowing. Hopefully we will be on to cooler times soon. =) Thankfully it is only April.

We've had a field trip for Elise, her spring festival, t-ball games, piano lessons, RS meetings, and a few other odds and ends since I last wrote. But we're doing well. We're all reasonably healthy, definitely happy, and just hanging on for dear life. If you follow the link for "Barnett Bunch Pictures" on the side of the blog, you can find the latest pictures of the family. The last two albums are the most up-to-date.

Easter, better late than never

Easter completely snuck up on me this year. It's not like we didn't talk about it or think about or send things to Elise's school for the holiday. I guess I really thought the Easter bunny was going to deliver the stuff this year. Usually we do our big celebration on Saturday morning so we have more time, so we can spend Sunday doing more of the spiritual stuff, and so we can cut down on the sugar rush that the primary presidency has to deal with by getting the chocolate in on Saturday. But this year, all of a sudden it was Saturday evening and we still hadn't even gotten so much a a few pieces of candy. Cory went out for an emergency run that night, but after he got home I realized I had left a few important things off his list....like plastic eggs for one. Every year we hide eggs throughout the house or in the yard so that the kids can have an easter egg hunt provided by the Easter bunny, first thing in the morning. A little hard to do without eggs, though. But it was already late and we were scrambling, so we just went with what we had. Elise woke up early and walked into the living room where I was and sort of looked around, a little puzzled. Finally she asked, "Did the Easter Bunny hide our eggs?" Boy did I feel rotten. I tried to explain it away, and she accepted it, but she was obviously disappointed and I was feeling like a loser. =) So we just did things "better late than never". Monday afternoon brought a letter from the Easter Bunny, apologizing to the kids for leaving their eggs at the wrong house & asking their permission to leave eggs for them that night. The kids were really excited, left lettuce and water out for the Easter Bunny, hunted their eggs the next morning and just had a ball. So all was well and all was forgiven.

Bursting with *pride*

I went in last week for Elise's parent/teacher conference. Elise got fabulous comments from her teacher, so indulge me in a little "my child is the most wonderful person in the world" moment. =) Elise's reading, writing, and mathematical ability are well into the first grade range. Some of her strengths are vocabulary--using, understanding and being able to spell lots of words. She's also very good at sounding out words that she doesn't know how to spell. Patterns, sorting, and organization are other things she excels at. She's a great independent worker and is a good friend who is able to play and work with everyone in the class. She has super neat handwriting and her teachers use her work very often as examples to show the rest of the class what to do. She's just an all-around good kid who her teacher and classmates love.

Of course, I wasn't at all surprised to hear the good comments from her teacher. I see those kinds of things in Elise at home too. She's a wonderful big sister, often helping wash, dress, or play with Merry Grace. Ian, of course, adores her as well, and partly at least because she is good to include him in what she does and teach him things, too. She's so sweet and tenderhearted and sometimes prays that she will "always be a peacemaker". She's just a joy to have in our home and our family is happier when she is around. We are so blessed to have her as part of our family.