It's Officially Official!

John has accepted the Head Coaching Position for Arlington's Junior High Cross Country team! This means instead of being a volunteer he is now a paid coach! He is so thrilled! I am thrilled as well for him he has already put in 3 years as an assistant coach and now he has an official title! Can we say snowball??

OUR NEW PORCH!!!!!!!

This is what our porch used to look like (John barely got out there to take a before picture)

I think it looks better gone then it ever did up


The guys who worked on our porch got all this done on a Saturday

The colonial style railings are almost complete

The rails are done and the lattice is up!

I started priming on Sunday and finished priming on Wednesday. I took Thursday off (it was 85 perfect weather for painting) started painting at 8:30 in the morning and didn't finish until 9 pm ask John he'll vouch for me! I stopped for lunch and dinner and that's about it!

So this is what 12 hrs of painting looks like!

I LOVE IT!!!!!! We bought wicker chairs for it too and with the porch swing it looks so nice! It ties it all together so nicely! We are so proud of this improvement! It took 4 months of no stop saving to get this complete! It feel so good to have it done!

UPDATE

Sorry I haven't updated in a while I have been busy painting my new porch (I will post pictures when it's done)!! As of Saturday we are hive free!!! All of the sudden they just disappeared! She was very happy when she stopped itching! She was so miserable I felt so bad for her!

John has already started preparing for the upcoming Cross Country Season. He just bought new running shoes last week and has been busy breaking them in! Cross Country camp will start the last week in May and he wants to make sure he can go out and run with the kids and still keep up! So he's been running about 4 miles a day and will slowly build it up to 7! I think he's crazy! But he loves it!

Elizabeth's Mysterious Rash

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from Elizabeth's school saying that she had broken out in a mysterious rash. I rushed to her school to see what as going on and when I got there I was speechless! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see her like that! Her lips were so swollen they started to crack. I called the Dr's office and told them we were coming in and needed to see a Dr. right away. As soon as I got there we were led back to an office where the nurse was so surpised by what she saw she immeditaly asked if she was breathing fine. Luckily she had no problems with that she just itched like crazy! While we were there we ruled out the obvious, no unusual foods, no new medicines, school lunch was the same types of foods she eats normally and never had a problem, no new cleaning products in the house nothing had changed. According to the Dr the most common reason for someone to break out in hives is a reaction to new medicine and the 2nd most common is new foods, then he said that 50% of cases like this the don't know what caused it or why. So here we are with a child who has broken out in a severe case of hives and we don't know why. He prescibed an oral medication and Cortizone 10.

It started at her head and worked it's way all the way down to her toes. It looked like it was flushing it's self out but by the time it got to her toes she started screaming. It was the worst experience of my life! She was screaming it burns, it hurts so bad make it stop. I had no idea what to do so I went to the kitchen grabbed a baggy and filled it with ice and made her put her feet on it. It seemed to help. She soon fell asleep on the couch and I carried her to bed. I didn't get much sleep last night. Every hour or so she woke up b/c it started itching again. So I would apply more Cortizone 10 and we'd go back to sleep. When my alarm clock went off this morning I turned on the light to see how she looked. It was all over her face. Her lips were so swollen they were bleeding and on the cycle went. She has been without a sign of a hive for a couple of hours now, but I just did another check of her and it's starting at her ankle now. The cycle continues. The doctor said by Saturday afternoon it should run its course and she should be fine but if not we will go back to the Dr on Sunday.

Let's pray she gets better soon! I feel so bad for her! I will keep you all updated!

Easter

On the hunt!

No John didn't get his own basket too! He's trying to get the shovel off of John's bucket! Look at them already scarffing down that candy! Couldn't get it in fast enough.

The coveted Bedtime Stories movie!

The Easter basket!

They had such colorful eggs! They were so proud of the work they did!

Our very first egg dyeing experience! He did very well I was so impressed!

This is Elizabeth and John all dressed up in their Easter finery! Don't they look adorable?? The dress Elizabeth is wearing is from Grandma and Grandpa Colorado. That so grown up shirt John is wearing is also from Grandma and Grandpa Colorado!

We went to Grandma and Papa's for the most delicious dinner (of course)! If any one knows my dad they know that he will spend hours in the kitchen until what he is making turns out to his satisfaction and trust me he didn't disappoint! I was assigned the dessert! I made a cake called Grasshopper Cake. It had real whip cream (which I made), homemade chocolate cake (I made that too) and chopped up York Peppermint Patties! Now make it three layers! Delish! If I may say so myself I am a fabulous baker (even though I don't like to)! It turned out really well! The only complaint was from Taylor she didn't like the mint! You can't please everyone!

Giving it a try

Ok so I am finally getting with it and starting a blog. I figured since most everybody else in my family has I might as well too! :)

I will try to post regularily so I stay up to date! But I warn you I make no promises!

I will post more with pics later!