LAUNDRY

Brooklyn is helping Cade clean his room. She told him to go find a laundry basket in which to put his laundry pile. He left and returned carrying the laundry PILE from my closet. (I took our basket down to the laundry room yesterday and haven't returned it yet.) Brook said, "Cade, that's not a laundry basket. We need a basket." Caden answered, "Well, we can just put my laundry in this pile. We need a laundry pile." Brook: "No, we need a basket." Cade: "Well, this is LIKE a basket."

MINUS ONE DOG

We had to give Emmitt away. He shedded (is that a word?) too much to be an inside dog, if we let him out without chaining him up he wandered off eventually, and he Hated being chained up. He sat out there and cried all day. So I gave him to a family in our ward who has a little land, goats, chickens, and kids. Joryn and Brooklyn are very upset with me about it because the family's 11-yr-old boy is apparently quite brutal, which I didn't know until it was too late. So we pray that Heavenly Father will protect Emmitt from Tristan. Surely Heavenly Father won't let the best dog in the whole world be abused! And he really is the best, sweetest dog ever. From what Amanda, the mom, tells me, he is totally loving it out there. I sure hope so. Now our only pet is Lulu, who still insists on pooping in the mud room, and in the bedrooms if we forget to put the gate on the stairs. I hate that gate. Caden can't get over it. I can't carry laundry baskets up or down the stairs without moving it first. And it makes Judd grumpy, which is hard to do. Lulu is a year old now. Anybody want a naughty Maltese?

MEXICO

The view from our window:

I don't know what these are, but they were so pretty we had to take a picture!

I went with my friend Sonja Kofoed to Cancun for a week of "no one to take care of." It was a brand new hotel on Riviera Maya called Secrets Silver Sands. All-inclusive flight, hotel, food, tips... The catch was, we didn't know which 5-star hotel we would be at until we got to the airport. When we found out, I thought "This is the LAST one I would have chosen!" based on the pictures in our magazine. Because, it is totally modern decor, which is not my thing. However, although it wasn't cozy, it was spotless and peaceful, which was perfect. I would go there again. My favorite thing was doing yoga on the beach in the mornings. Everyone should be able to do yoga on the beach every morning! Because the resort is only 6 months old, the staff's English isn't perfect yet, which is fun. Sonja and I decided we would start saying "Ees a playshur" every time our children say thank you. (There was one guy who missed the "ees a playshur" class, instead blurting/growling out "SPLA-A-AYZH" at Sonja when she thanked him for her drink!) I also loved the kayaking - my first time! - and sailing.

What's growing inside YOU?

We are eating some amazing rolls baked by my friend Brooke, with various seeds throughout. Caden asked me, "What are all these little dots in my roll?" I said, "Seeds." He asked, "What will they grow?" I said absentmindedly, "Oh, I don't know." Then, back to answering the "what are these" question, I went on: "Poppy seeds, millet, sunflower seeds, oats..." He got Very excited, thinking I was answering the "what will they grow" question. "INSIDE ME??? COOL!" He then told me how a boy in his Kindergarten class who's not very smart ate an apple core. "And now he has an apple growing in his stomach!"

I'M SO CRAFTY :)

My friend Kari Young helped me make this cute craft. Okay, she actually did most of it. But I painted, picked out the paper, cut out the letters, and watched her do the rest!

BUGS

We have a minor bug infestation problem. Today Caden asked, "What's with all the ants and lady bugs? Yesterday Chance and I flushed four lady bugs down the toilet." He wandered away and I heard him murmer, "It was actually quite humiliating."

(No, he doesn't know what "humiliating" means.)