ready for church

look at our cute son all ready for church last sunday.



unfortunately...i wasn't ready. i thought i was, but i had no idea of what was about to happen. about a month ago i was called to be a primary teacher for the 5 year olds. it would be an understatement to say that i was apprehensive. jake is a newborn and sometimes a little demanding (should i say high needs), but they assured me that i would have a co-teacher. a couple of days before the first sunday, the co-teacher called and said that she would be unable to be there for the next two weeks. i girded up my loins and although there were some rough spots, we survived. the next week, she was there and i realized how nice it was to have help when i am trying to take care of a newborn and six or so 5 year olds. fast forward to sunday. i was in charge of the lesson and matt was going to be set apart for the new elder's quorum presidency. i planned in my mind to leave primary for 5 minutes or so to attend matt's setting apart, leaving the kids in the capable hands of my co-teacher. well...no co-teacher. i am not sure what happened. maybe one of her kiddos were sick. anyway, after sitting through 1 hour of sacrament meeting and then one hour of sharing time, it was time to have them and jake all to myself and change their lives with an inspirational lesson. a good friend offered to take a somewhat fussy jake (thank you mandi), we had two little visitors (who were cousins) and four of my regular kiddos. the visitors were maybe the best behaved. two of my regular kiddos refused to sit on chairs and instead laid on the ground. my cute little guy wanted to sit on a stack of 4 adult chairs and play with his indiana jones lego guy (complete with whip and hat that kept falling off) - not to mention his desire to run away every time a door opened. my other girl passed around seashells (a great distraction by the way) and entertained us with stories of zack effron, the jonas brothers and building a fort out of a golden plate, diamonds and sticks that she found with her cousins. a little disclaimer for those who might know anyone mentioned in this story - i do love all these kids so much, but it seems like they are easier to love when i have someone helping me.
anyway, (sorry this story is getting long) someone came to watch my class while i ran to matt's thing (which is a story in and of itself). when i came back she seemed maybe a little appalled by my kiddos. she mentioned that we needed to get some of the chairs out of the room. there were stacks and stacks of adult sized and kid sized chairs, but no table. both of the girls were still on the floor, but now one of them was hiding behind my chair and the other one was laying smack dab in the middle of the room. i tried to continue with the lesson, but no one was listening. i used the line "i will just wait until everyone is ready." that doesn't really work on 5 year olds. my little storyteller found this a great opportunity to tell more stories. she had a quiet audience. i was thinking if anything could be any worse...well i guess it could. the before mentioned child laying in the middle of the floor began vomiting. yep. vomiting. and i started gagging. i ran and got help, but now there needed to be like 6 of us. one to clean up, one to take care of the newborn who was now very hungry, one to catch the lego toting run away tot, one to take the girl to the bathroom (that could still vomit more) and clean her up, one to go and get her parent and one to take care of the rest of the kids. what do you do?? someone sprinkled powder on the vomit and then what? i am supposed to take my kids back in there and do what?? anyway, needless to say, i am thinking of changing religions.

outside working

we have quite the yard...one acre of dirt, but we were able to plant our garden. come to find out what we could have done in a day (before jake), now takes three weeks. alas, it is planted. we have 16 tomato plants (roma and celebrity), yellow squash, summer squash, zucchini, armenian cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, beets, cilantro, jalapenos, anaheim peppers, bell peppers, spinach, 2 kinds of carrots, onions, potatoes, peas, green beans, yellow beans, strawberries, pumpkins, spaghetti squash, sweet meat squash, honey dew, watermelon and corn. are we crazy??? i think so. so far everything is coming up except our most recent planting (corn, pumpkins, melons). please say that we will get at least a little produce from this venture.

please ignore all the weeds. i didn't say it was perfect. the houses in the background are our neighbors.

yesterday, we also took on the project of finishing constructing and filling with dirt the flower boxes around the front of our house. we also began to plant them. we got the special flowers (alyssum and petunias) that had been marked down from $14.99 a flat to $8.99 a flat. the only concession is that we had to trim the petunias way back so we won't have flowers for 2 weeks, but when they bloom they are a dark purple color. we plan on adding a lot more flowers (other varieties), but yesterday about wore us out. now is where the fun begins. it rained most of the day yesterday, which was nice. it continued to rain last night which was also nice (being raised by a rancher you always have to be grateful for rain), but not so nice for our newly filled flower boxes and newly planted flowers. if they survive the drowning, that will be lovely. some of the dirt washed away - we will be adding more.

another pleasant surprise...right next to our front walkway, there was a fresh new hole...large hole. pretty sure it was a prairie dog taking up residence in our new flower bed. if i could get my hands on him....let's be honest, i wouldn't touch him, but he makes me mad. when our home teacher came to visit, he got curious and collapsed the roof in and then got a little freaked out and didn't investigate further. needless to say, the flower boxes are also still a work in progress. i don't know if we can even attempt the yard.

summer yet?

we are ready for summer. how about you?

twister

how long has it been since you have played twister??? for me, it had been a long time. my brother was out of town, so my sister in law, kim, and her kiddos came over to visit and they brought twister. i look hideous (remember i just had a baby), but it was a lot of fun. i was seriously sweating so much. it was quite the workout (pretty sad, huh).
i was laughing, and my quads were shaking. matt and i had a serious competition going but it all ended when the stress on his digestive system got to be too much and we all were forced to move away...

sicker than sick

this morning i was getting diapers out of jake's closet, minding my own business, when out of my right eye i saw movement. it was a spider, not just any spider, but a black widow. it was like 2 feet away from my face. i know that it was a female, but i have a hard time calling anything that is so freaky a she, so i will refer to it as a he. he was scurrying his way up his thread and i was scurrying my way away from him. it totally freaked me out. he was right there in jake's closet next to his diapers and clothes (and my face). of course jake chose today to poo through two different outfits. how freaky was that to go into his room, reach my hand in his closet, pick out clothes, shake them and jump around like i had a spider on me.

now the next part is a little embarrassing. i have turned into a total sissy since i have gotten married. i figure it is the role of my hubby to take care of these sorts of things, so i called him and whined enough that he came home from work (what if jake pooed through another outfit??? - i couldn't handle it!)

so jake's perfectly organized closet was dismantled...







matt was determined to find it. he looked for over an hour. he found evidence, including webs in the closet...gross. then he found a big web in the air vent.







he was checking it out with flashlights, but couldn't see the spider. he went to investigate from the other end (the crawlspace) and came up saying that there were several nests. oooh! he still couldn't find the spider. i said that i was leaving and would not be returning to our home until it was sprayed. luckily our friend and neighbor is in pest control and while i was at my mom's he was at our house spraying. so there were lots of black widows and nests in the crawlspace. thank you for toxic chemicals. not we just need to put jake's room back together, but right now i don't feel like going in there.

our newest blogger

it seems like jake is changing a lot this week. last night he went to sleep before me and woke up after me (10:30 - 6:30). yeah! it was heaven! he is also starting to figure out his hands and he is loving his hangy toy thingy (thanks aunt stacy!). sorry about all the jake info. you are reading jake's baby book. i can do a baby book or a blog, not both :)

we went to visit grandma rass today at work. she showed jake the computer and he loved it. i mean he really loved it! his tongue was going in and out and his feet were kicking away under the desk. he even typed the word "I'm". he was grumpy and it made him totally happy.

it feels like summer but it isn't

it was so nice today! we were actually able to spend time outside. jake and i went for a run with the jogging stroller. wouldn't that be awesome to have someone push you around while you sleep!?! where do they do that? is it thailand or china? i need to go there. anyway, the weather was perfect. later on matt and i worked outside on some flower boxes that he is building around the base of our house. we are filling them with dirt. i can't wait to plant flowers in them. right now we are surrounded with dirt and more dirt.
our garden is coming along. we have spinach, green onions and peas that are now poking their little heads out of the ground. ohhh...i love spring and summer!