I should do more arm-twisting

I was so entertained and thrilled to hear your dreams. Seriously, I read them all. Some of them more than once. Y'all are inspiring people with big dreams to do wonderful things! It really did my heart good to hear from you. I was starting to feel like our friendship was one-sided... like me doing all the talking and y'all doing all the listening and that can only last for so long, ya know? So, THANK YOU for coming out of Reader to post a comment! My sitemeter tells me you are there but some of you folks are way too quiet.

Speaking of dreams... The sun reappeared yesterday and I was so glad to see it, as were the children. Thanks to it my ears are filled with water and I can only assume Morgan's are too. I decided to teach her how to do a back dive/flip off the ladder. It sounds much more dangerous than it is, trust me. I'm no olympic swimmer; I almost drowned in an intramural swim meet at Auburn trying to do a simple flip turn at the end of my lane in front of 30 fraternity boys. We call it a "back flip" but really it's just a back dive where you lean backwards and keep leaning backwards 'til your head resurfaces and you've come full circle. We call them "BACK FLIPS" because it sounds so much cooler. Anyway, what better way to teach her than to show her so my ears are full too. I have this dream of Justin coming home from work one day and Morgan showing him a successful "back flip" on her own! Hopefully soon! When we bought this house we came very close to filling our pool with dirt because we didn't want one.... on days like today I'm very glad we didn't. Anyway, their ears may be full of water but their skin smells like Banana Boat and they have Popsicle stains around their lips... do you know how happy this makes me? Water in ears, sticky popsicle ring-around-the-mouth, and the smell of Banana Boat! Mmmm..... well, maybe not the water in ears part.

Back to your dreams, I didn't count but I'd say close to 90% of y'all want a cozy little house with land. As I mentioned, that's a dream of mine too. I always entertain it for months {usually in the winter} weighing the pros and cons then the mosquitoes come out and I completely change my mind. I hate mosquitoes. They eat me alive. If I lived on land then I would want to be out on it, enjoying it, but if thousands of mosquitoes are draining me of all my blood then I won't be able to go outside. I know... very rational, right? I'm also a fairly social creature and I fear that no one would come out to see me if I lived out in the country. I love having people over and if they have to drive 30 miles to get to me... I fear they won't come. I guess you have to adjust your social life if you live in the middle of nowhere... or just be okay with fewer visits from friends. Then there's the driving to "town" to get stuff. I live a very "convenient" .75 mile from Target and 1 mile from Walmart and 2 {maybe less} miles to our church. With this said, I highly applaud the genius developers out there who have taken large tracts of land and rather than putting 400 houses on 100 acres in town they are putting 12 houses on 100 acres so that people can have between 5 and 10 acres {to plant their large gardens, have their chickens, burn their leaves} and you don't lose the sense of community and fellowship that you often get robbed of when moving out of town. But trust me, I know those communites come with a very hefty price tag! When we need a "farm fix" we can usually hit up my parents farm... who live around real farmers, including Dale... who not only grows mean vegetables but also rides his bike in overalls.

We hope to spend a couple weeks at the farm this summer. One of my favorite posts Erika's ever written was about the farm, here's the LINK.

Hornet is awake {and he's supposed to be asleep}... so I'll have to cut this short. But I'll leave you with him...

... and his brown watercolor {hopefully non-toxic} paint.

The sun is scheduled to be out this weekend and we are going to pick some blackberries. I think the mosquitoes are also scheduled to be out while I pick the blackberries. I've already planned my picking outfit and it includes knee-high boots, a turtle neck, and face mask. Should make for great pictures!

PS--- Thanks for all your support of my DREAM! I really think Justin is "thinking" about it! :) I'll keep you posted!