Julie’s Journal

Hey old friends…I am sorry.  My life is spinning out of control lately.

Today is my birthday.  I don’t really want to say how old I am…I’m just not that happy about that.  But I had a great day with my family.  We didn’t go to church today, but instead, spent the day together…and for the most part it was a very enjoyable day.

This whole weekend was like a rollercoaster…full of “ups” and “downs.”  I will recap them for you.

UP: Coming home from work on Friday.  Had a very positive meeting with our Literacy adviser, Asa, at the end of the day.  It had been a long week with conferences and I was glad to get out early, go shopping for my cousin-in-law’s baby shower gift with Jazzy and then get home.

DOWN: We had been planning to work in the yard and garage on Friday afternoon.  When I got home, Sam was standing in the driveway looking around at all there was to do, and then he handed me the rake and said he was too overwhelmed and he was going to cook dinner.

UP: Max and Savannah were a HUGE help.  We got all the toys cleaned up, yard raked and all the leaves out to the road in two hours!

DOWN: Discovered under the leaves the moles have torn up almost the whole section of grass behind the garage digging for grubs I assume.  It will have to be reseeded for sure.

UP: A great sense of accomplishment, and coming inside to some hot, delicious chili made by Sam.

UP: After the kids were in bed I decided to go see my friend, Stacey, at a crop she was at.  I brought her and a couple of other people some snacks.

DOWN: On the way out there, I grabbed a lg. coke from mcdonald’s.  Before I could even take a drink, I went around a corner and the drink flipped out of my cupholder and landed upside down on the passenger side on the floor…no more coke.  :(  And then I couldn’t see anything to clean it up because my dome light is not working right now.

UP: Got to go with my girls to Betsy’s baby shower in Breckenridge.  We had a really good time and the food was amazing.

DOWN: When I went to leave, my car wouldn’t start.  It was the starter.  I didn’t have any way to get home.  We had a party to go to at 6:00.  It was 3:30.  I was supposed to pick up the babysitter at 5:00.

UP: Sam’s uncle Kris offered to drive me and the girls to St. Johns where Sam met us. Thank you Uncle Kris!

UP: We got to the party and had a lot of fun with our friends celebrating Adam’s birthday.  We were only about 40 minutes late.

DOWN: Didn’t get to sleep in on my birthday.

UP: Got up early with the kids, we watched BOLT together.  Very cute movie.  It was fun.

UP: Went to breakfast.  Tried to go to OCB but we were too late, Roxy’s was our second choice, but the line was out the door…so we went to Big Boy.  We saw some old friends.  It was good to see them.

UP: We drove to Bloomfield Hills & made a stop at Marvelous Marvins.  If you ever go there…it a stop you have to make.  It’s an arcade…but really much more than what you can imagine the coolest arcade ever would be.

UP: Drove over to Farmington to see a magic show with some friends.

DOWN: Waiting for the magic show to start.  Trying to keep a 2 year old who is also tired and hungry quiet and still as we were waiting for the show to start…and then during the show…not fun.

UP:  Great magic show.  The magician even had a human xylophone play “Happy Birthday” for me and another member of the audience.

DOWN: Got to Benihana’s and I think Jasmin decided today would be the day she officially enters “the terrible two’s” stage.  We were excited about taking the kids to Benihana’s.  We have never been to a restaurant like that with them before…we were looking forward to seeing them enjoy the experience.  I think we could have enjoyed it much better if Jasmin was not with us…sad to say, I know.

DOWN: Jasmin spilled a glass of Pepsi on to the grill, while the food was on it.  She wouldn’t sit in her seat.  She climbed in and out of a highchair…so we got her a booster seat.  That worked for a few minutes until she figured out it was more fun to sit in it on the floor.  She cried about everything.  She wanted everything she couldn’t have.  We tried to keep her quiet by letting her drink my Pepsi (horrible of me, I know, but we were desperate!)  She pooped…and of course we had just used the last diaper when I changed her right before dinner!

UP: The other three kids were AWESOME!  Well mannered.  Didn’t fight or complain.  Loved the experience.  Ate their dinners till they were full…EVEN Karson! (That’s a big deal - let me tell you!)  The food was very delicious.  We have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

DOWN:  It was not an easy task to get a fussy, poopy 2 yr. old who had been pushed way beyond her limits strapped into a car seat.  I had left her pacifier in the restaurant…so I quickly strapped her in, which was like trying to hold onto a fish or something, so I could run back inside and get it before they threw it out…I was so distracted by her behavior…I left my dinner on the back of the truck where I sat it while I was trying to get her buckled in.

UP: Discovered it when I got out at Meijer.  Still in tact! Yeah!  Made a quick trip into Meijer to buy diapers.  Kind of wish they sold a 3 pack of diapers for situations like this.  Didn’t really like having to spend $11.00 for diapers when I really only needed ONE.

The ride home was pretty uneventful. All the kids were wiped out.  Slept all the way.  I drove.  We got home at 8:30 and they all went straight to bed.  I think a couple of them even just slept in their clothes.  We had a good day.  If it hadn’t been for Jasmin, it might have been fabulous.  But even though there were stressful moments with her today…I really am SO glad we have that kid.  She brings so much joy to everyone’s lives.  I’m hoping to be able to successfully block the “downs” out of my memory of my **th birthday!

Hope you all had a great weekend, too.

Now…off to work on my lesson plans.

…seems to be the most popular title of my blog posts over the past year.  Enough to make me question whether anyone cares if I even keep this up.  I have entered the Facebook world…and it’s faster and easier…that is one thing I like about it.  I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook.  Rarely chat with my friends…but it’s so great to keep in touch and reconnect with people I haven’t seen or talked to for years.  Now that I have an iphone it is even easier to update my status and check my friends’ status reports within a couple of minutes, which seems to be about all my life affords me for free time lately.

I’m back to teaching kindergarten and art again this year… and if that wasn’t enough, I was also given the added responsibility of teaching literacy-title 1.  It’s nothing I really have to plan for…it just took away planning time I had before…so now it pretty much seems like I have NONE!  I do have planning time, it’s just when it’s broken up into 7 minutes here and 20 minutes there, it really doesn’t give me a chance to accomplish much except a quick trip to the restroom or a chance to make some copies or something.  Anyway, all that to say, I still love being a teacher.  I like teaching kindergarten…it’s just hard.  I feel like I am not able to be great at either teaching art or kindergarten because of all the work I have to do and it really sucks because I hate that.  I wish I was just teaching art, of course.  Maybe someday.  Our school district’s enrollment is a little better this year and we are hoping that means something good for all of us.

This summer was loads of fun.  We had a great time doing Pirate Island and a blast being together as a family.  It was really enjoyable.  The kids had so many adventures this summer.  It was hard to get back into the school/work routine.  We still feel like we are trying to catch up with stuff.

Sam and I recently took a trip to Chicago to see U2 in concert.  It was the best weekend EVER.  We took the train and it was so nice, actually, to just sit and relax after such a crazy first week of work.  I still thought about school…worked on my lesson plans and stuff, but it was enjoyable and it was fun to just be with Sam.  The concert, of course, was amazing.  We had a blast that night…wore us out though.  Jasmin (big) watched our kids over the weekend and we had some great friends fill in for her while she had to work at Agape. One thing I enjoyed about the weekend was that I got time to draw.  Not a lot…probably could have drawn more, but it was fun…made me miss it.  I will post those soon. Just got to get them scanned.

So that is what is happening with me right now…in a nutshell, I guess.  Hope all is well with you.

New Message

After we packed up the show on Saturday, Sam and I escaped to dinner for just the two of us at Logan’s. As we got out of the car we saw this amazing rainbow! I haven’t seen a rainbow for so long…but this was THE most amazing rainbow I have ever seen. This was only 1/3 of what we saw! This rainbow was so bright and it stretched in a full arch, touching the horizon on both ends…I have never seen a full rainbow, ever! (except in bible story pictures and stuff like that). It was so amazing…but there was no way to get the full rainbow in the frame of my camera phone…it was so huge!

My 3 oldest kids decided to build the Mayflower after lunch today. Not really sure when it turned from the Mayflower into a fort, but here is an account of the ten minutes they spent working together on building their fort:

2:02
Max: Karson can we have your tiny pillow.
Karson: Yep
Max:  Go get it.  Get mine too.
Max:  Baby, come here.
Savannah:  Ok.
Max: We’re supposed to have a few more pillows. Karson went up to get them.
Savannah:  Baby, you can’t come in, so sorry.
Karson:  I’ll hold the pillow
Max:  No you don’t need to.
Savannah: No, no no no no no
Karson:  Share, share
Max: How does that look?
Savannah:  Going to get more blankets.
Max:  There’s only room for one person.
Savannah:  No Baby no!
Savannah:  No Jasmin!
Max:  Come here
Max:  Sasa, baby’s goin in the fort
Savannah:  No, no jaz.
Karson:  She just wanted a little spot to get in.
Karson:  Will you keep this little spot for the baby.
Karson:  Here max.
Max:  No!
Karson:  Why?
Max: We don’t need it.
Max: Where is your sleeping pillow?
Karson:  This is my pillow
Max:  Stop Karson!
Savannah:  Fine if you don’t want a fort
2:04
Max:  This is the DS port.  I will go get all 3 DSs.
Savannah:  Are you sure?
Max:  It will be awesome.  Even more awesomer with the DSs
Karson:  This fort is awesome.
Max:  Karson, let her go.
Max:  Go bye-bye.
Savannah:  Go see momma,
Savannah:  Momma’s got a surprise for you.
(Jasmin crying)
Savannah:  Come here (to Jasmin)
Me to Max: What’s wrong?
Max:  Karson smacked her head.  Max walks back into living room.
Max to Karson:  You’re weak.
Karson: (yelling)
Max:  Get out, get out!
Karson:  Don’t ruin our fort.
Savannah: Go bye-bye Jasmin.
Jasmin: Max
Max:  Ok now why are you lying to me?
<Talking that I can’t quite make out.>
2:09
Max:  Oh my gosh!  I can’t find my darn DS. (screaming) How come it’s not where it’s supposed to be?
Max:  I’m going to ruin the fort!
Savannah:  No max don’t!  Mom!
Savannah:  Max
(Max begins to count)…1…
Savannah: Max
2…
Savannah: Max!
3…
Savannah: Max!!
4…
5…
Savannah: Max!!!
6…
Savannah: Shut up!
Savannah: Max!
7…
8…
9…
10…
Max:  Destroy!
2:12
Max: Destroy the fort!
Savannah: you destroyed it!  You’re so mean!
Savannah to Karson:  He destroyed it!
Karson:  (Screaming)

A few more minutes after this account, Max and Savannah came to me slapping each other.  After some mediation from me, they decided to work together and make the fort better so they could all fit.  And now they are “taking their rests” in the fort.  I guess it all turned out all right. 

I didn’t realize I hadn’t written a post for so long.  I’ve been on Facebook, updating frequently on there…and I guess I lost track of my blog.  I will have to be more attentive to keeping it updated.  Sorry.  I know I’ve lost a lot of readers over the past year because of my lack of posts…but for those of you who still check me out occasionally, thanks for your loyalty.  I will try harder.

So, last week we took Pirate Island (you can be a fan on Facebook, too) out to the Eaton County Fair…Charlotte, Mi.  We had a great week.  Laid back and fun.  Doing the shows are so fun. We each have our strengths and areas we like to help with…I am more behind the scenes…which is perfect for me.  Savannah ran sound for every show.  She is so great at it.  We modified our sound system, so all Savannah has to do is push a button at the right time…and she does it perfect almost every time.  Karson and Max are helpful too, though not as dependable…as they are still young, immature…but it’s ok.  They did learn some jobs and helped out a lot with set up &  tear down.

We took a new babysitter with us.  Abby took great care of our kids.  We were glad we had her with us. The kids really liked getting to know her.  Jasmin really liked her, and often cried for Abby when she didn’t like what mommy had to say.

We also got to have some friends visit us.  Since we were close, that made it possible for them to come.  We had a great time hanging out and the kids loved riding rides with their friends.  We were glad we had some company…it makes it even more fun.

This week there is a lot I have to do.  Mainly is repairing the paint job on the show.  Hopefully tonight we can take off the aluminum strip around the marquis and then I will have to strip and prime it with a special primer and then try to match up the paint…which I think will be the most challenging part.  There are also some parts on the trailer that have chipping paint…It’s along the top, where there was a strip of aluminum and the front which we now know is plastic…and I think I will just take the paint off that and not repaint it since it is just a small section.  I don’t think that it will look too bad, but I also don’t think that even if I primed it, it would stick well, since it is plastic.  Other things I have to do are sew covers for our mattresses in the living quarters…not extremely important, but needs to be done by August, so this week is when I need to do it.  I also need to sew a few more mermaid costumes.  I made 7, but I need more for adults and little tiny kids. Then, there is finishing cleaning out the camper, which is almost done. Laundry, which is almost done…but around here, has to be done every day.  And then little errands we need to take care of before we go back out.

In the back of my mind I am thinking about school.  I need to start planning.  I need to get a few things.  But I will probably put that off till later in the summer.  there is a great teacher store in Gaylord…which we will end up, end of August…and the last week before school starts, my parents are taking the kids (all 4!) so I will have some time to get stuff I need…though it will be at the last minute.

I have also decided that I am going to need to spend some money on school clothes this year for the kids.  The boys have holes in just about every pair of jeans…and the ones that don’t are looking pretty worn out anyway.  Savannah has grown out of all her pants.  Last year I think I just bought each of them one outfit. I am hoping I can find some good deals, but I don’t really have a lot of time to shop.

Creatively, I am doing very little.  Busy with the show and the kids…pretty much occupies all my time and energy.  I haven’t drawn, though I had made it a goal. I guess I can still keep it as a goal…maybe I’ll get to it.  I don’t know.  I am working slowly on a locker-hooking rug.  It’s pretty fun. I actually cut up a bunch of old clothes to use in it.  I will probably use it in the camper when I am done…or if I am done.  It’s going to take a while.  But it’s like crocheting or something, where you can put it down and then pick it back up when you have a few moments.

I don’t have any pics to post right now…haven’t downloaded them from my camera.  But you could go to our Flickr album and see some recent ones…mostly taken with the camera phone.

After two days of serious frustration with my 3 oldest kids, Sam and I decided to have a family meeting and present a schedule for the summer.  It’s pretty funny, because we didn’t really discuss the schedule before our meeting…and maybe it’s just the way my personality is, but I just love that he made it up and that was that.  It seemed great to me…so today is our first day on the schedule.  Of course, I have to be a little flexible with it, and it does allow for some flexibility, which is good.  I am telling you that this is the way to go.  Today I had so much less complaining and much better attitudes.  There was no argueing when it was time for rest time, and I love this 45 minutes I get all to myself.

So here it is:

So here is our tentative schedule…
Up and dressed at 8:00.
Breakfast, 8:15
Clean up and then play outside.
Snack, 10:15
Homework, Journal, Reading and Chores
Lunch, 1 kid assigned to help prepare & clean up each day on rotating schedule, 12:00 - taking Kate Gosselin’s idea of a picnic lunch when we can…LESS CLEAN UP
1:15 Rest time - ON BEDS, sleeping or reading or listening to music
2:00-4:00 Free time which may include playing, art projects, extra jobs, DS. - Quiet Zones in effect while baby is napping.

4:00 - clean up from playing, get the house ready for Sam to come home
6:00ish - Dinner
7:30 - Baths and bedtime routine
9:00 bed (8:00 for baby)

I love that there is a lot of play time, so we could go do something fun or run errands, like this morning, after we were cleaned up from breakfast, all they had to do was get their shoes on and we were out the door to go to the credit union and got there even before they opened.  It wasn’t so fun sitting there for almost an hour in one of the offices while we opened accounts for each of the kids.  We gave them money for their grades on their report cards, and their school participates in a program with the CU where they will be able to deposit $ into savings at school.  It wasn’t much fun, but they weren’t too bad, and afterwards we went to Target and got popcorn combos or slushies and everyone got a pair of flip flops for the summer.  When we got home everyone wrote in their journals and then we got lunch ready.  I thought it was a good morning (even though I was a little stressed at the CU).

I have printed up the schedule and posted it on the refrigerator so they can keep me on it, too.

I probably should mention that we have used the stoplight discipline system all year.  This is something that they do at school, and we continue it at home.  Bad choices mean consequences and it goes like this, 1 warning, then yellow light, another warning, then red light, The kids try to stay on Green light all day.  Red light gets spankings, Green lights all week earn rewards.  This goes for anywhere we are.  So I made each kid an envelope with a hole cut out, and papers inside (red, green and yellow) to change accordingly if needed.

So that’s about it, oh and I am having the kids track on a calendar their days and which light they are on.  They will color in the square appropriately for how they end the day.  That’s how we will track for the rewards.

And I am also going to try making up some clothespins to clip on the bottom of their envelopes for positive behaviors they accomplish each day.  It should be a nice visual reminder of their responsibilities…I am hoping.  And these are easy enough to take down and take along with us when we go to the fairs and camp this summer.  I will try to post a picture later for you.

Rest time is over…see ya

I finished up work last week.  Spent a couple of nights at school till 1AM trying to get my room cleaned up.  I finished up on Friday afternoon, but I have to take in some paperwork & stuff tomorrow morning.

This weekend was a whirlwind of cleaning and entertaining…Max’s birthday party.  It was fun.  It took a lot to clean up the house.  It was so trashed - because I have basically done very little to maintain it the last 3 weeks.  Next year I will think about hiring someone to help me clean those last 3 weeks…I just need a little help with that since my attention has to be so focused on work.

Today, I felt like I had a chance to relax and breathe.  This afternoon I took a short nap.  I cleaned up stuff around the house, did some laundry…spent time with the kids.  I had them write in their journals, Max and Karson practiced their sight words and we all played a rhyming game that had to be ended because the boys were trying to rhyme male anatomy and bodily functions.  What is up with boys this age?  I seriously think that is all they think about!

Savannah, Max and Karson are going to Kids Kamp this week at Trinity Wesleyan Church.  Jasmin is going to the babysitter’s.  I am looking forward to having some time to myself.  Though, I do have to spend a couple hours at the dentist tomorrow…and I am not looking forward to that AT ALL.

I have a lot I want to do this summer.

• work on stuff for school next year…both art and kindergarten (I’m doing the same thing, in case you didn’t know.)
• get the Pirate show ready which includes repainting, painting and decorating the inside, and getting the costumes ready to go.
• paint…um…this is low on my priorities…but I would like to paint the living room, the front entry way and the back mud room…and maybe do some touch-ups in other rooms, and then there are the window frames outside that need to be scraped and repainted.
• have a garage sale…this really needs to happen.
• work on reading and math with the kids.
• lose weight, eat healthier & get a tan.
• keep my lawn looking as good as it does right now (thanks to Mark, the lawn guy).
• Journal and draw daily - which will be tough, since I am totally not in the habit of doing this.

It’s good to have goals, right?

These past 2 weeks have flown by.  I have given more tests than I think I have ever taken in my whole lifetime!  But I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment at finishing something I had no idea how to do a year ago.  I will miss my kindergartners.  They were a great group of kids…and parents.  Next year I am slated to do the same job, morning art and afternoon kindergarten.  Sure I am disappointed that I won’t be going back to teaching all art…but I am extremely grateful to have a job and to be doing the same thing as I did this year…and not having to learn something completely new, again.

I am in the midst of planning a birthday party for Max who is turning 7 next week.  I cannot believe he is already that old.  Bad thing is that this is ALWAYS the worst possible time to plan a party when you are a teacher.  When I was pregnant, his birth day couldn’t come soon enough…but now, I don’t think I would have minded if he would have hung out another week.  But I feel bad for Max, because seriously, his whole life, he has gotten jipped on pretty much every party.  It’s easy to do that when they are little and they don’t understand what a birthday is, and you can just call up your fam a couple of days before and say come on over and they actually show up with presents and food and everything.  But now, Max has friends and parties are a little more involved.  Last year we invited friends to Fun For All Kids…a place with a bunch of inflateables (which is now closed down).  And it was a good party.  Easy on us.  The kids had a blast.  But this year Max wants to have an Art Theme party…which of course I think is cool…and I can’t be lazy about planning this one…after all, I am an ART teacher.  So I asked my friend Sara (who designs stuff like this - check her out on Etsy!) to whip up a cool invitation for it. And it is REALLY cool.  Thanks Sara.  So I got the invitations out, but haven’t done much since then.  I have a ton to do around the house.  We are having a lot of guests…and I was planning an outside party, but it may rain, so we may do our grilling in the garage and I will need to be creative with how I do the activities.  I’m still trying to recover, I think, from staying up till 3 and 4 in the morning for 2 days in a row.  But my kids have some great little memory books to remember their year in Kindergarten. 

My kids’ last day is Thursday.  Bean does their field day on the last day of school, so since I will officially be done with work tomorrow, I get to go.  But then afterwards, we are grabbing lunch and heading over to my room to clean, clean, clean.  I have to clean up both the kindergarten room and the art room.  It’s a lot to do, but since I didn’t have to teach kindergarten today (because we had an early dismissal), I actually did get quite a bit cleaned up.  I feel good about that.

The pictures were taken a few weeks ago, after buying a container of glow sticks (the kind you make into necklaces & bracelets) from Michaels and using our night setting on the camera.

It’s been an interesting weekend.  Friday it rained.  We all came home from school and sacked out…around 7:00 we decided to go get something to eat.  I was carrying Jasmin down our steps.  Not remembering to be careful because they get slippery when they are wet, I somehow slipped and we fell down.  I landed on my knees and the back of my hand, Jasmin landed on her back and smacked the back of her head on the pavement in our driveway so hard.  It was scary.  She didn’t lose consciousness, but after we got her calmed down, which took a long time, we decided to still go eat and as we were driving she was falling asleep.  So I had Sam drop me off at the Express Care for kids to get her checked out.  I was thinking I probably would have to take her to ER to get a CT scan, but the pediatric dr. at the Express Care seemed to think, after checking her over, that she was doing fine but to watch her.  It was nearly bedtime when we got  home, so I got her ready for bed and put her to sleep after giving her some tylenol.  I woke her up a few times during the night to check her.  She seemed normal.  I think she’ll be ok.  I was a little worried because she didn’t bleed or get a bump or anything…and I thought that might be bad.  It is an awful thing to think that I could have hurt her.  I know it was an accident, but all I kept thinking was how I should have turned or something so she wouldn’t have hit her head.  We didn’t sleep very well, and it didn’t help that the two movies we rented to watch this weekend were both about dying!  (Seven Pounds and Marley & Me).  I cried so hard at the end of Marley & Me…because it totally was what happened with Cooper.  I miss him still.  Not that I want a dog right now.  I told Sam he shouldn’t watch it. (I watched it with the boys)

Anyway, I still don’t know what is going on for next year at school.  They haven’t told us because they are offering an extension for the buy out and hoping some people will take it.  That will determine how many lay-offs and what everyone will do.  Right now all the admin. can do is come up with several possible scenarios…it’s kind of crazy.  I would think we should know something soon.

I am looking forward to this weekend.  We are going away to a campground - staying in a cabin for the whole weekend.  We’ve never been there so I hope its a good experience.  It will be fun to just be away and do something different and I am glad for the extra day off! Only a few more weeks…and I have so much to do!  Time is flying!

As I am typing this, my hands are sore…and I am feeling a little worn out.  I’ve spent several hours this weekend outside working in the yard (while the inside looks like a disaster zone).  My goal was to get the lawn mowed and create some nice play areas for the kids.  They helped out a lot, even though mostly they just wanted to play.  We washed the inside of the playhouse and cleaned out all of the spiderwebs and dead leaves and weeds.  Then we spread out a bag of mulch on the ground.  We are missing the plastic for the skylight in the playhouse, so when it rains water comes in and splashes down on the dirt - because we don’t really have grass growing in there anymore - and makes it really muddy…so I am hoping the mulch will keep it a little cleaner in there.  We took the little picnic table up to the car wash and Sam sprayed it until it was clean.  Now it looks like we just bought it at the store!  We weeded, ripped down vines off the fence and cut back the wisteria vine that grows up the side of our house.  I pulled all the weeds around the swingset, and put 8 bags of mulch around it.  We put together the new sandbox and filled it up.  We swept the patio and part of the driveway that still had leaves from fall.  We dug up all the rocks that border the flowers that grow on the side of our house and replaced them and then added mulch around the plants.  Everything looks so much better, we are even considering having a Memorial Day thing with our friends.  It’s been a while since we have entertained outside, because our yard really requires a lot of maintenence.  Which is weird, because we have dug up and removed SO many plants!!!  You should have seen it before…seriously I think the previous owners must have spent 8 hours a day outside between May and August just maintaining the yard/garden.  Who has that much time?  Certainly not a mom with a full time job and four kids.

So as we were cleaning up around the patio, Sam decides to get rid of the grill.  We already have a new one on the way that we have ordered from Amazon.  We bought this one because the reviews on it were great and we can take it with us camping.  It will be so much nicer to be able to have a grill to cook on while we are out at the fairs this summer.  Our old grill we have had for at least 10 years…actually, I think longer.  It no longer lights with the ignition, so you have to turn on the gas and light it with a lighter…and risk singeing the hair on your arm.  It only will light on one side and the grease cup was missing, so we had attached a soup can hanging from a coathanger wire to the bottom of the grill.  It was a great grill when we first got it, but I don’t even think we have used it for a year!  So Sam says he’s going to put it out by the road with a free sign on it. I am thinking to myself…WHO would want it?  It doesn’t even work! But he insists…and it’s gone with in 5 minutes  - SERIOUSLY!  Then we decide to put our old red lady bug sandbox (that we bought for Savannah when she was a baby) out by the road.  The eyes are missing and it has had rotten leaves and moldy sand in it for a year…disgusting.  I’m thinking no one would want this…but I am proved wrong again…and within minutes it’s gone too.  Sam and I think that this is one GREAT thing about living on 3rd street.  We have saved so many trips to the dump by just sticking our old broken stuff out by the road…I don’t know why people would want it…but someone always takes it…the couch sofa with the ripped seat cushions and broken legs (we had to break them to get it out of the basement), the old water heater (that didn’t work any more), and now the grill and the sandbox.

Anyway, I hope you all got a chance to get outside and enjoy the weather this weekend…I am loving Spring right now!