Mother's Day Trip! New House! Visitors!

For my Mother's Day gift, my husband bought me a ticket out of town figuring it would be a nice break and get him out of flowers, breakfast in bed, and shopping. Kennon and I flew to DC to attend a reunion with some friends from Buffalo. Kennon got to come because we were having the girls reunion at Christy's house and her daughter Ciela was Kennon's good friend during the dental student years. 

This is the group that made me loose a whole night of sleep once a month at book club. We used to talk and talk and get so tired that we couldn't get our booty off the couch and into our car so we just didn't till way too late. This weekend we had three nights with no  nowhere to drive once it got late so the party just went on and on. I came home Mother's Day so exhausted after having the least amount of sleep I had probably had since the last Fielding Family Reunion. And within a couple days I had a bad cough and had my first illness since 2008. Seriously I haven't been sick since then but 3 nights with little sleep was enough to bring it on. One night I retired to my bed early at the sensible hour of 12 a.m. determined to get some sleep. But all these women came and piled in too.  There's Steph, Briste, Kristen, Erica and Christy from left to right. I had the little slot on the foot of the bed next to Christy. When the first one got too sleepy and drug themselves off to bed, I was jealous and mentioned to them as they left the room, "Would you mind shutting off the light on your way out?" Everyone totally hollered at me for that though and the light stayed on. I tried again later when someone else left the room but once again I think they thought I was joking or something. Finally sometime after 3 a.m. the last of the late nighters left my room. For the last hour there had been a pillow over my head. It's a wonder they even wanted me at this party huh? Well see if I get invited back for next years reunion. 

The thing is it's not like we could sleep in either. There were a lot of kids in that house and they were screaming and running past my room by 7 a.m. every morning. 


It was tons of fun. I loved seeing these women and catching up. I am sure that it will all be worth it and I will be SOOO grateful I went. . .once I get over this darn cough that now keeps me up every night.


Yet Another tick 
So I got home on Mother's Day and only had one present left to discover. Marcus had a tick stuck in his head. On Friday when I talked to the man at home taking care of kids, I pleaded with him to please bathe the kids nightly and check for ticks. He said he did. But somehow on Sunday during Sacrament meeting while Brent sat up on the stand Savannah found a tick sucking on the back of my little boys head. Brent spent the next two meetings driving around trying to find a tick spoon finally settling on a pair of tweezers and then trying without success to remove the tick. When he finally did get it out the head broke off and remained inside Marcus. So this is how I found out when they came home from church. We tried to numb it with ice cubes for awhile and then dig it out but that wasn't working that well. After a while Brent took off for some medical supplies at the dental office and an hour later thanks to some antiseptic the tick was removed. So apparently I can no longer risk leaving my children over the weekend or they may have Lyme disease by the time I come home. The main reason I was concerned is because Brent was pretty sure he must've picked it up on Thursday because that was the day that he had been at the neighbor's house playing in the woods. And the tick was all engorged with blood so that is a pretty good sign that he had been there long enough to feast. 
Luckily so far, out of the three ticks we have had all of them to our knowledge have been the right kind of ticks. They are large ones and therefore not the small deer ticks that carry Lyme. I love the woods but sometimes you have to ask yourselves. . . Is it really worth it? 
Brent had a really busy weekend though. He attended one track meet, one daddy daughter formal dance, the ward building spring clean up, cleaned the office for his out of town cleaning lady, bought a birthday present and dropped off Camille for a party, and attended a very long home inspection. All that and there wasn't a single dish in the sink when I got home. Though no one can exactly remember what they ate. . . but that is a different issue. The home inspection went better than expected and while I was gone we decided to go ahead and buy the house after all. 


Homeowners again
So it is a done deal. We paid and it's ours. We are still waiting very anxiously for the keys however. I don't know how it is that you can write a check for a house and four days later you are still asking permission to get inside that house. They told us we can't even mow the lawn yet. Buying a house from a bank has really been a pain. It's like they didn't want to sell it and did everything they could to prevent it. But we were persistent and now have the huge project on our hands. Saturday night about 7 p.m. was the first time we had time to do anything and although technically we were trespassing according to the bank we mowed the lawn and started in earnest on the yard. We had worked for about 20 minutes pulling weeds and raking stuff up when suddenly I hollered out, "WAIT!" We never took our before pictures. So the weeds were thrown back down and we walked away though it killed us. 


 I am so excited about this project. As we walked around the yard I really felt happy. It seems like a great place for us to be. It's going to wear us out for the next couple months but I think we will be really proud of what we will accomplish. 

Meg and Jake come to town

 We signed homeowners papers on Friday morning and then spent the afternoon in downtown Portsmouth with our guests -Brent's niece Meg and her husband Jacob from Phoenix. I think it is awesome that we can take our visitors down to have fresh seafood on the harbor when they come to town. For me it never gets boring to live near the sea. I am not sure if it is the constant sight of sailboats or the fact that I think seafood is one of the best things ever, or maybe it's just that it is so different than living in the desert I grew up in. I always loved as a kid crossing the mountains and visiting Seattle and having seafood down on the wharf at Pike Place market. We only did it three times maybe but it was quite memorable. Now we can do that just 15 minutes from home. . . without the traffic.   We really do live in an awesome place in the woods by the sea. I'll just keep crossing my fingers about Lyme disease. 

First Camp out 2011

We came home to children that were really enjoying the warm weather and were convinced that Dad needed to set up the tent for a camp out. Brent told Marcus if he could make real tears he would do so. Here is him giving it his best shot. Kennon had to help out. Unfortunately she can make the kid tear up in 5 seconds flat. Dad had to set up the tent. 


We cooked hot dogs over the fire in the back yard and then it was time for the big camp out. Only our three younger children wanted to sleep outside it turns out. So we let them. I had Brent go get Marcus and bring him in about midnight. But Caroline and Camille slept out all night. 


Downtown Boston Tour

Saturday we went to Boston with Meg and Jake to see them off. We walked part of the Freedom Trail but got little out of it without a guide. 

Riding the swan boats in the Public Gardens.

Marcus Always chases birds. He really thinks that he is about to catch one the whole time.

Jacob had a pamphlet and was forced to lead us around and play tour guide. Brent and I were embarrassed that we were such terrible hosts. I told Jake next time we visit them in Phoenix we will give THEM the grand tour. We kept getting stuck behind the Rainbow Parade taking over the downtown area . . . and had to answer lots of questions from our children about why there were men marching along wearing high heels and lipstick, and how come so many of the ladies had Mohawks. So I guess it ended up being an educational day after all.