THE PARK POST

 Jackson went with Mike to look at cars the other day, and he almost seems ready to drive. . .   BUT then we remembered he's only 11.  And we are sure glad!!

On Mike's day off last week, we decided to go azalea watching at Callaway Gardens.  We were a little late to see them in full bloom this year, but it was still gorgeous.  We went to the little chapel out in the middle of the forest this time.  It was quaint and peaceful.  It made us wish we had more stained glass in our mormon chapels. They are beautiful and definitely make me think of God.

 I loved meeting and listening to Elizabeth Smart.  She is so poised and sweet.  I wasn't very articulate when I went up to meet her, but I was determined to get a picture with my friend Hannah, so I said something stupid like "Are you Elizabeth?  I just wanted you to know you're not the only Mormon in the room."  She just sort of looked at me like "OK, what's your point?"  Luckily i recovered and said she had been a real inspiration to me.  She spoke to about 1000 people here in Columbus and shared how she moved on after a tragedy and learned to be happy. She also played the harp at the end that was so amazing!! 

 I took the kids to Hilton Head, SC for a few days during Spring break since Mike couldn't take work off.  Unfortunately we picked the worst 3 days of weather possible and it rained and blew the entire time we were there.  After the initial acceptance that the weather was going to be bad and there would be no beach, we went shopping and eating.  By the end they had all cheered up, but it wasn't our greatest vacation on record. 

We had a couple fun activities this past month in YW.  One was our 3 degrees of glory breakfast.  In the first room there was no light, a loaf of bread on the ground and some water in a pitcher and the kids couldn't talk.  The next room they had  a table with fruit on it, a little more light, and they could only talk to the person sitting next to them around the room.  The last room represented Celestial glory and we had decked it out with fine china and a huge buffet and because they were seated in a circle they could talk with their "family."  Then we did a self defense class and had a guy in our ward who is an army combative drill sergeant teach the girls how to fight off an attacker.  He wore a big suit and let them punch him as hard as they wanted to.  It was fun for some, but others felt nervous about hitting people.  Tiara (in the center) was baptized the same night as the YW general meeting and we had most of the yw ...

 Our yard was looking really bad a few weeks ago.  I honestly didn't think we could clean it up ourselves. There were weeds everywhere and I kept telling Mike we should just hire a crew to come in and do it.  But thankfully he reminded me we have a crew that won't cost us anything.  In one day we were able to clean it up and make it look presentable.  The kids each were assigned a little portion around the house to weed and it really didn't take as long as I thought it would.  Plus I think it made all of us feel good to take care of our own yard.  (Well some more than others--Paige said she would rather clean 10 kitchens than weed 10 feet of yard--she hates dirt!)

I let Paige skip school on her birthday this year and we went to Atlanta to go prom dress shopping.  (It's so depressing that there are so few choices here in Georgia and not one with two sleeves on it)  We shopped non-stop for 5 hours.  That is a record for me! We finally found one that was long enough on the bottom to cut it off and use the leftover material for some sleeves.  My friend Carol helped us alter it, so Paige was happy about that. We actually had a great time being together and it was fun to have time to talk.   Later that night we went to Red Robin with the whole family.  Paige is such a great person, and we are so glad she is a part of our family! That same weekend was Easter and unfortunately I am losing my motivation to be the Easter Bunny since all of the kids know that it's me now.  But McKell stepped in and took over the job.  She has a real talent for design and fun!