Yumi's here!
For the past few weeks I've been answering the question of "how many more days till Yumi comes?" Finally the big day came yesterday. After spending a couple of days in Detroit for business, she came to visit us for Golden Week, and is staying until Thurs. Yumi Nekemoto is a Japanese member who was given special permission to attend our military branch in Iwakuni so she wouldn't have to drive an hour to church. She was Emma and Sarah's primary teacher, and a dear friend of the family. We are so thrilled to have her visit!

The girls are always begging to wear their Kimono's to church, but since it's a major production getting everything on them, I usually say no. But this morning when Emma asked, I thought, great, I'll just have Yumi help them and everything will actually be on "right" today. I snapped a quick pic as we were flying out the door. And hey, just for the record, we were ON TIME this week.

Adam took the day off work tomorrow, and I'm letting the girls play hooky. We're going to hit Boston....something inside though, it's supposed to be rainy.

Almost a catastrophe....
Yesterday was great weather yet again, so we grilled and ate dinner out on the deck. After dinner I assigned everyone little jobs, trying to get the dinner mess all cleaned up. Isaac was assigned to "use the spray (409) and washcloth that are already outside and wipe off the table". They were both sitting right next to the table, we'd just wiped it off before we ate. He came back a few minutes later with this in hand asking "is this what I'm supposed to spray on the table?" The girls busted up laughing and I timidly said, "no....did you already spray it?" "Yes" he said, "but just a little". I dashed out to see the damage...not too bad, just a yellow wash cloth and one small spot on the table that can be sanded off. So glad he double checked before he SPRAYED MY ENTIRE TEAK PATIO TABLE YELLOW!

Spring Break Survival...
Monday was the first day of spring break for the girls. I had nothing on my schedule except unpack and do laundry. The girls complained all day that they were SO bored and wanted to do something fun. I tried to plan a few things (trips to the park, beach, picnics) but nothing sounded fun to them. Later Monday night I got this crazy idea that the kids could help me build the tree house that Adam and I had promised them this week. I've been wanting to get going on it so the kids can actually use it while we live here, but it wasn't super high on Adam's 2-do list since things like re-roofing the house seemed a little more important. So I googled some ideas, figured out what I wanted to do, ran to H.D. and got my supplies. Then Tues. morning I actually got up before 7 and got started on my day. By the time the kids got up I was ready to start, they were very happy little helpers to say the least. We worked hard all day yesterday, again this morning, then a trip to the ER--stitches for Jacob, and then came home and finished up the job....

We had such nice weather through out it all, and had so much fun!! I've seriously not seen my kids to happy and engaged in a long time. It was great.

We just got some rope for a rope ladder tonight, tomorrow we'll get that up and really be done. (the girls think we're still putting up a roof....but we're done!)
I'm just happy I don't have to hear, "when are we going to build the tree house" one more time!!!

So back to J's head, today as I was putting the LAST screw in before roping the railing, my bit fell out of the screwdriver, so I had to run down to the basement and grab another. While I was down there Jacob decided to get down himself and hit his head on the wagon wheel you see in the picture. It was bloody and gaping, I HATE doing the initial assessment, but I was brave and kept myself together. I called Adam, but he was just about to teach a class, so I found a friend to take my kids to who was right on the way to the hospital. It worked out great, I was thrilled not to have to take all 5 to the ER! And hey, it gave Jacob and I 2 hours of 1-on-1 time together. (I guess that's what it takes around here) The wagon wheel is NO longer a deco against the tree, and the rope will be up tomorrow!!

BTW, J was SO brave, didn't even flinch at all. I think he got about 5-6 stitches, but I really was trying to not watch. Tonight though he asked me what stitches are, and I explained them to him (relating it to Isaac's build-a-bear turtle I had to sew back together after Duchess chewed it up last night), he was pretty grossed out. No wonder he was so good at the ER, he didn't know what they were doing to him!

The BIG apple.... We left w/5 kids and we came home w/5 kids, the weekend was a success. It rained and thundered all night Fri. night at Bear Mnt, and I lay away dreading the race that lay ahead, but it stopped by morning and was just misty, perfect for a run, except for the MUDDY MESS it left behind, but it was still a lot of fun. The race was more of a RUN-hike than a normal 10k (I'm fine w/running down, but up the mnt?) than I'm used to. I'm sore in places I didn't even know I had muscles, but it was fun nonetheless. And hey, it was sponsored by North Face and I've never gotten so much free gear before.

After the race we cleaned up and headed to the Big Apple for the remainder of the day. We started by finding the Navy Lodge on Staten Island, then taking the ferry to Manhattan. We walked to Ground Zero, which was very humbling, then took the subway to Times Square. There we found the biggest Toys'R'us in the world w/a ferris wheel inside and everything. Then on to 5th ave where we found a huge Build-a-Bear and the American Girl Doll store. The boys got to make their first build-a-bear, and the girls got their dolls' hair done at the salon.

It was a late night getting back, by the time we finished all that up, along w/meals, about 50 bathroom stops, the subway back, a 30 minute wait for the ferry, then the ferry back. Luke was so wound up by the time we got to our room, he didn't go to bed till 1am! We slept till 930 the next morning, then my adventurous husband drove the Suburban into Manhattan, found parking, and the boys and I went to the Children's Museum while he and the girls found Central Park. The girls relayed the entire movie "Enchanted" back to Adam while strolling through.

Jake could only take so much before he checked out on Times Square.

Luke back pack was intended for Luke, but he insisted on walking quite a bit of the day.

We didn't get any "rich snob" comments, but we did turn more than one head. Sat. night when we got on the subway, we walked down the entire train car looking for a few safe, empty seats to sit together, after we sat down on the other end Adam looked back and every head on the train was looking at us.

I put more pics on the slideshow to the side for anyone interested. Couldn't figure out how to put the slideshow right on the blog entry....anyone?

Satan's Blog....
Adam and I gave the blog a new look last night w/yellow and orange flames on an black background...the kids loved it. My brother Will commented though that he thought he was reading Satan's blog...so I toned it down a little this morning.

Yesterday I sanded, primed, and painted 72 ft of crown molding, and left them in the backyard to dry. At 4:11am I awoke to the sound of rain...Adam and I shot out of bed, threw clothes and shoes on and hauled it all in to the basement. After all the excitement, I lay there for a LONG time before falling back to sleep, and am feeling awsome this morning. Is it too early for a diet coke?

Just for your P.O.M., Adam put the side on the trampoline Tuesday night...good job honey!

Batman...
Jake reminds me of Sarah at this age, she would wear her Snow White dress EVERYWHERE, Jake is our Batman. He wore it for 3 days/2 nights straight this past weekend!! Every day I'd try to get him to change, just long enough for me to wash it, but he's a strong willed child and I'm losing energy these days for those kind of battles, so my 3 year old won.
Yes, I'm sure you all noticed, we get the BAD PARENTS award, no sides on the tramp. I bought them, they're in the shed, just waiting for someone to break an arm first before we put them up.

I made cinnamon rolls Sat. morning....new conference tradition I just started, mmm, I didn't have to make any other meals all weekend, we just ate cinnamon rolls w/a lot of cream cheese frosting on top!!

I should have taken another pic later, it got at least twice this bad before he was done. Adam got all of the crown molding for the bedrooms routed Sat. morning, yeah!! Such a mess, at least it was contained in our 150 year old basement though. (It really does look 150 years old...anyone that's seen it will vouch!)

I probably already emailed this link to you, but if you just deleted it w/out reading it, I'm giving you one more chance...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403217_pf.html

LOVED IT! We're headed to NYC this weekend for a 10k and some sightseeing....guess we'll do a little "showing off" with all FIVE kids.