Update

I am so tired of having all my widgets deleted when I change my background. I spent the last while putting them all back in. I think I missed a few links to other blogs too! I tried to save my link list, but I missed a few of them. Oh well. Does anybody know of how to change the template without changing widgets? I'd really like to know!

Ashelynn wrote a short story for a writing competition called "Young Authors" in Feb. We found out about a month and a half ago that she won first place for her story in the kindergarten division.

We were so proud of her! Her story was called "The Frog and The Dog" Here it is if you'd like to read it!

The Frog and the Dog

Once upon a time there was a frog and a dog. They were best friends. They liked to play on the park. On the park there were swings and slides and stairs to get on the slides. frog and dog liked to climb up the stairs to go down the slides and swing on the swings. They had so much fun together.

Then the dog said, “I want to go swing on the swings.”

“OK” said frog, “After we swing on the swings, can we play on the slides and climb the stairs to slide down the slides?”

“Yes,” said dog. “We can and we can ride on the merry-go-round at the carnival tonight.”

“OK” said frog, “And at the carnival tonight we can also go to the fire fighter’s play place.”

“And,” said dog, “We can slide down the pole in the fire fighter’s play place.”

“Before we go to the carnival we have to go home to eat dinner and then we can go to the carnival,” said dog.

So they did. The End

I typed it word for word from her. After the school ceremony we found out that her story had taken second place for the whole school district for Kindergarten. We went to another awards ceremony for her and she got a little trophy. She was so cute about it and was so excited!


She had her last TaVaci concert this month too. She loved to preform, but didn't like to go to practice very much. Next fall she is going to do dance instead. Here she is with her teacher.
Mother's day was nice. The kids had cute crafts for me and Bryant was brave enough to fix dinner. A very good dinner I might add. We had macadamia coconut crusted Mahi-Mahi. It was great to not have to cook or clean up!


I also finally joined a card group. I know I was invited countless times to go to the Village Green group, but never went. I figured it was finally time, but my skills are very lacking compared to the group that I am in! Here is the first card I've ever made. Its pretty plain!

I"ve been trying to potty train Bryson for the last 2 months. He is so hit and miss. He still has accidents everyday and only really tells me when he has to go about once every other day. He wants to do it and was asking to go potty since February. The first week we started went great and now its not so great. I've lost my momentum with it and I must not be pushing it enough. He goes most of the time when I put him on the toilet, but oh its frustrating when he is still having so many accidents. I know he'll get it eventually. The other day I found him in my bathroom and he had gotten into my make-up. Great lip stick application don't you think?

We just finished our 2 latest projects, with a great deal of help! Bryant with the help of both of our dads, built a great new swing set for the kids. He had to rip out the old homemade wood one that we had in the yard. To do that he had to jack hammer out 6 very tall, heavy, and very cemented, old wood posts. Then he planted new sod where the old one had been and began putting the new set together. It probably took him, with help, 18 hours! He must love the kids!

While he and both of our dad's were putting it together my mom, brother, my brother's roomate and I re-stained our deck. That is a job I never want to do again! We all got sunburned and it took us all day! Then 2 days later I had to put a second coat on because it hadn't been done in so long that the wood soaked up a lot of the stain. I told Bryant that the next time it needs to be done, its time to sell the house or replace the deck with a vinyl one! We still haven't finished cleaning up or putting the outdoor furniture back on the deck because it got cold and rainy the day after I did the second coat. The best part is that when I was using a sprayer to do the lattice around the hot tub I sprayed the house! Oh yes, I was using drop cloths, but the sprayer went far beyond the covered area of course. Then I had to spend 45 minutes scrubbing the house with paint thinner to get the stain off. You should see how bad my hands look now! On second thought, you wouldn't want too! Now I have to clean up and re-plant the flower boxes on the deck, then it will look great!