Something Smells Stinky

We have had 3 straight days of rain this week. This video is from the first day. Every one seems pretty pleasant, although someone smells funky according to Sophie. You should see us all today...and it is going to rain all day tomorrow also. Yeah for spring in North Carolina. My neighbors probably think I am crazy because I let the kids play outside today for an hour in the pouring rain. I don't care. No one cried or whined the whole time.

Geocaching

Sophie, Luke, Jen, Noah & Grace

We went geocaching on Monday for the first time. Jason bought a GPS a week or so ago. We have wanted one for a long time. Having to plan the scouts 20 mile hike without walking one step farther then they had to while linking several trails around Greensboro prompted Jason to just go ahead and buy it. There are tons of geocaches around Greensboro. We went to a lake about 15 minutes from our house and tried to find 3 of them. The first one we never found, the second was really cool, and the 3rd was about 1/2 mile off the trail. Grace and Jason went and found that one on their own.

Everyone had fun but Grace LOVED geocaching. Throwing rocks in the lake after hiking was even more fun for the boys then finding "treasure" in the woods.

Geocaching is using a GPS to find locations other people have created. They are posted on a website. Some are small boxes with things inside to trade, others just a marker. The one Grace and Jason found was a hat exchange one. For those of you who geocache, is it not cool to leave candy? We left some jelly beans still packaged but wondered afterwards if it was a good idea. Racoons are pretty dang good at getting containers open and we think we might have ruined the cache. Oops!

Puppy Love

My friend Michelle recently moved to Saudi Arabia with her husband and 3 boys. She posts all about their latest adventures in learning about Arabic culture on her blog this weekend. I had to laugh because my post for the weekend is also about a new adventure I had in experiencing an important part of Southern culture. For the first time I deep fried something. Not just a little oil in the bottom of the pan to keep things from sticking, but 4 inches of artery clogging, cholesterol raising, delicious making oil. I made hush puppies for our Sunday dinner. I felt adventurous as I entered this new world of hot greasy food. It is not a myth that some Southerners fry everything. You really can get anything you can think of fried here. I learned that deep frying makes an enormous mess, is dangerous and hard to do. The oil kept getting too hot, then too cold, and it splattered everywhere. I had to add oil 3 times as I was frying because the hush puppies were soaking it all up. Mmmm...how delicious is that? They turned out great, but don't think I will be making them again soon. Well, unless I decide to totally convert to Southern, go to Wal-Mart and pick myself up a deep fryer.


PS - Hush puppies are basically fried cornbread with onions, a little sugar and a lot of grease.

Snow!

So, it snowed here. It is so beautiful, we got about 4 inches. That is an enormous amount for the South. Here is the stinky part...no sledding! I guess it is too cold or something. I have never been sledding when the sled just would not go. Really. I had 4 cold, frustrated kids outside. Can you tell by their faces in the picture? But then we found a huge patch of ice and slipped and slid for a while and it turned out ok.


Luke had fun though. He kept picking up snow, throwing it at who ever was closest and saying "Snowball!"

Forgiveness Zombies

Forgive! Or the Mormon Zombie children will MAKE you!

Grace colored this picture at Primary a while ago. I laugh whenever I see it. We got the day off today, no church! I have to admit it was really fun and relaxing. We have snow, rain, ice mix. Just hoping the power doesn't go out. That may be my punishment for being so gleeful about not having to do all of the work of Sunday today.