**this just makes me happy**

every year for the past 40 years Mr. & Mrs. Volke from East Germany have taken the time and effort to create and display this in their garden....

just because.

one of the blogs i have been reading lately is em*il*ie

she is a very talented scrapper, artist, and mother who is very funny and warm. i am really loving her blog. i have to share part of her post from a few days ago. with bailey graduating and cj about to get his driver's license it was nice to be reminded of what it was like some days when they were little kids. here is an excerpt from that post:

Holy Embarrassment, Batman!

So, we live on the third floor and we have a small balcony.

Once in a while I let my kids play out there when I can watch them.
But it came to my attention yesterday that clearly, I don't watch them as closely as I should.


I received a formal letter from our apartment manager saying that they had had complaints from a few tenants that our kids had thrown some items off of the edge of the balcony. She said she was holding my items in the office and I should come and pick them up.


I was kind of steamed. I was thinking, "C'mon people! So my kids threw a straw or a small toy off the balcony. Let it go!" So I head to the office to give a fake apology and pick up the items she mentioned. And, oh man...my fake apology turned real.


Here are the items my children tossed from three stories up...


- four mis-matched shoes
- one African maraca
- one Napolean Dynamite DVD
- one empty vhs case
- one Disney Princess pillow
- two pieces from our Play-Doh fun factory
- one Halloween board book
- one toddler plate shaped like a Hippo
- one LDS Temple shaped cookie cutter
- one spool white thread


And all of this added up to one embarrassed Mommy....me.

things here at home are just fine. we finally got wireless internet which makes bailey happy because she can use her laptop in her room, makes cj happy because his iTouch is way much cooler now, and makes me extremely happy because i am now rid of the unsightly black patch cable that was running from the modem in our office down the hall to cj's room for his xbox 360 live. funny how i got the least out of it but feel like i got the most if you know what i mean. ooops...my ocd is showing.

it's so nice to have some sunshine. i hope we start having more sunny days than raining, overcast days now. that does mean that i get to start the post-winter clean up. yay.

well, i have to go check my facebook. which explains my reason for such neglect here. i guess i don't multi-task very well.

peace.