is it really april?

i can't believe it is already april!!  as you can probably tell from the last several posts i haven't been home a whole lot in 2010.  2 trips out of the country, one 3-day trip with my fifth graders to dauphin island and a week in michigan haven't made for much time at home.  my trips have somewhat ceased and i won't be leaving again until we head to boston for drew's wedding and then on to meet our sweet compassion child, muyvuni.

this is the fastest i can ever remember 3 months going by.  i'm still writing 09 on things!!  we've been going non-stop, which is great, but hasn't left much energy time for blogging.  so i thought i would do a little catch up post all in one.

lots of rain in march = flooded crawl space.  not good.

after trying several home remedies sucking the water out with a vaccuum, siphoning it out with a hose, we made a late night trip to lowe's to buy a sump pump.  we now have a lovely hose running out of our garage across the driveway and way out in the side lot.  we have to turn it on whenever it rains.  alabama foundation specialists are coming next week to give it a more permanent fix. 

our sweet nephew starting playing soccer this season and the games finally started!  i went to his first game a few weeks ago and he was so good!  i know, i'm the aunt so i'm biased, but he did score 2 goals and get an assist!  he came running over to us after the assist and said, "wow, it's a good thing my teammate helped me out."  what a team player!!  4 year olds say the cutest things -- he makes us all laugh, all the time.

{sorry for the quality in some of the pictures.  i'm still working on action shots!}

{the assist}

and back at the house...

let me give you a little background before i go into this story.  we have this riding lawnmower that the previous owners of the house graciously left us when they moved out.  at first, it was pretty good.  reed would use it to mow our wooded side lot, but slowly, it began to go downhill.  a few problems here, a few dead batteries there, etc.  and then one day, nothing.  it wouldn't start.  after months of badgering, we finally got my brother to take the riding lawnmower and see what was wrong.  he and a friend spent quite awhile working on it and fixing it up.  we get it back and try to start it, nothing.  great.  we finally got it working that day, but put it away for about a month.

{enter the saturday before Easter}
it went a little something like this.

{the lawnmower up on the car jack in our driveway -- we had to take off both front tires because they were flat}

{reed had me take the tires to get them looked at - imagine me, walking into ntb with one of these in each hand}

{once i got home from the tire place with fixed tires and reed spent about 20 minutes trying to get the thing to start, it wouldn't fit through the fence gate.  well, after all we'd been through with this thing, it WAS going through.}

he eventually got to cut the backyard and wow!  it looks great!  our backyard is definitely a work in progress, but reed made some serious progress with the lawn tractor and a few hours.  he stayed out so late he had to use the headlights!  i was just impressed it even had headlights and that they worked. 

mom and i spent most of saturday planting flowers and getting the house ready for Easter.  reed and i had both of our families over for a low key, picnic style Easter lunch complete with Easter baskets {thanks mom!} and an egg hunt {thanks dad!}.  {side note:: not a good idea to use chocolate in the eggs in 80+ degree weather}

and last, but not least, matilda.  she hasn't exactly been a model dog when it comes to plants.  as in, she thinks anything we plant was only planted so that she could dig it up.  i am happy to report that it has been 2 days and she hasn't touched the flowers.  i really hope she is finally grown out of this bad habit!!

aside from everything in sight turning yellow, this has really been a great start to spring.  i am loving the 80+ degree weather!  God knew just what i was needing. 

 happy spring to everyone!!