is it bad that a lady from wal-mart called yesterday and told me that they had my wallet--the one with all my money, my credit cards and my debit card inside--and i did not even realize it was gone?

i could care less about disneyland or disneyworld or six flags or anything involving amusement park rides and standing in line.

but i really, really, really am jonesing for sea world. i have ALWAYS been fascinated by whales and dolphins and can't wait for the day i get to swim with them. because i will. and i may never get out of the water again.

both boys know that we are going to sea world as soon as little j hits the magic 48 inch mark, so he isn't left out of any of the waterslides or rides there.

we measured him on saturday, and it looks like we'll be going to sea world in about two inches.
i'm not sure how long it takes a kid to grow two inches, but i'm going to start saving up. shamu, here we come.

this is the speech big j put together for his class on earth day. as you can see, he may grow up to write infomercials! or car ads! or persuasive documentaries! ah, who doesn't love the exclamation point? at any rate, i got a kick out of it...especially the clip art of the kittens playing with the ball of string and the tree. you can't read the bottom paragraph very well, but there's a sentence that says "Remember, trash is for people who have ham for brains."

he did take his report to heart. I went to pick him up from school and he said "cars pollute the earth. i want no part of it" and we walked home. this morning we rode our bikes.

it's kinda nice to have a little tree hugger in the house.

well, i guess a windy weekend is good for something, right?

so we're in the process of designing the plans for our new house. it's not as scary as i thought it would be, mostly because we are using a draftsman who enables us to see it all in 3D, with realistic finishes and colors and room dimensions. it's super cool to be able to "walk through" the house before a hole has even been dug.

anyway, i was thinking about all the different spaces last night as the boys and i were watching a movie. we were sitting on one end of the couch, all three of us squished in a pile. i had a cat on my lap, a cat behind my head and a dog at my feet and two boys pretty much on top of me. i bet the six of us took up about 3 square feet of space. when the husband is home, it's about 4 square feet.

4 square feet of living space. think of the cost savings!

i am not writing this to brag. i am only writing this because i promised i would not leave that picture of the husband up for too long.

last night the boys and i went bowling with a birthday party.

i bowled a 149, which is TWICE my normal bowling score. i am attributing it to all the push-ups. as part of the 100 push-up challenge, i can so far do about 60 military-style push-ups. who woulda thought?

and ok. maybe i am bragging just a little bit. :)

sorry to do this photo to you again, ladies. i promise not to leave it up long.

but here's the thing. the husband is being inducted into the mitchell high school hall of fame. (i would not know this if i wouldn't have fielded a phone call). apparently, he's being inducted because of his stellar athletic career in high school and college as well as his high academic achievements and a bunch of other stuff. he's embarrassed, and really doesn't want to tell me anything about it.

today he emailed me asking if we had any nice pictures of him to submit for the ceremony.

you know what i'm thinking. you KNOW what i'm thinking.

we got some bad news about the hound this weekend. last summer the vet took some x-rays and told us she had hip dysplasia, a common hip problem in labs. they told us there wasn't much we could do outside of pain meds and possibly a hip replacment. over the winter, we gradually watched her back right leg deteriorate. she rarely uses it, and just kind of drags it around. lately, she can't get comfortable and seems to be kind of sad. otherwise, she's still such a good girl.

so we made the decision to go ahead with the hip replacement. we took her to a different vet to get her hip digitally x-rayed so that the scans could be sent to iowa state university, where she would have her surgery. they got back to us on friday with this news: she never had hip dysplasia. she has had a BROKEN hip for over year, and now the nerve endings and stuff are all damaged. poor girl. i can't believe what a trooper she is.

now, unfortunately, all they can do to ease her pain is amputate the leg. they are going to take one more look at some new x-rays we had done on saturday to make sure, but they don't think she'll have the use of the leg even if they repair the hip. we feel horrible. i do think that she will get along pretty well on three legs, anything will be better than where she's at now. she might even get to hunt again, which would just make her life complete.

sigh.

some friends here have started exercising monday through thursday at 5 am to a tape called "TurboJam." it's kind of boxing meets dancing.

i have NEVER been an early riser, if i could help it. but i decided to get up at 4:50 on tuesday so i could join the TurboJam Club. the exercise felt great. even went for a walk afterwards.

by 3 pm, i was feeling like i pulled an all-nighter in college. i just need my sleep. i wish i didn't. i wish i could scoot by on about 5 hours. i'd get so much more done.

i dropped out of the club, trading in tight abs and a firm butt for a nice soft pillow.

good luck to the rest of you ladies. i'll be dreaming about you.

this is a shout out to our good friends the halvorsons and the huls. thank you for sharing big j's first communion with him, saving the day from an entire family that could not make it due to the blizzard. i don't even think he noticed that there was no "party" in his honor.

ps: ping pong is on like donkey kong. losers have to wear the jump suit.

talking to little j today, and he wanted to know why his big brother gets a party for his first communion celebration this saturday night (not really a party, just church and some food at our house when it's over, but any time cake is involved, it's a party for little j). i told him it's kind of special because big j is inviting Jesus come into his heart, and that it will be his first time taking communion.

he says, "oh. now he's going to be able to drink the wine of Jesus' blood and eat the crackers of His body?"

close, little j.

but that word "cracker" just makes me want to giggle.

ok. i drink a mountain dew and i'm jacked up and shaky for hours. i don't drink a mountain dew and i'm like a dead turtle.

caffeine or not to caffeine? that is the question.