I have been so useless these last two weeks. I started reading Gone with the Wind again about two weeks ago and met with my book club to discuss it this past Wednesday. One of the gals there was joking about the length..."Why is my house so dirty?".... Oh GWTW. I can relate. Especially the last 300 pages, I could do nothing else but read. I finished it on Friday and I'm still concerned and worried for Scarlett and Rhett and the whole clan. Why? If I knew them in real life, I wouldn't like them, I would think that they were morons. It's a classic and Margaret Mitchell is a genius--It's also a huge time commitment.


Addie had her lip lasered last week. Many people asked why --they had never noticed a birthmark below her nose-- or they did and thought it was a dry skin from a cold. We had a pediatric dermatologist look at it and she said when Addie gets older, the port wine stain can thicken making it a risk/concern for skin cancer. That was the ticket for the insurance to cover it and BAM. Painless and a little daunting the whole procedure took about 11 seconds. Ahhh modern technology. It's been almost two weeks and the bruise is almost gone. So this is the question Addie asked this morning . "Will my birthmark still be there?" I told her it will fade away. She was concerned--"I won't have it anymore?" I said, "nope" She asked why? I wanted to launch into -- you know so people don't think you've got a runny nose all the time and believe me, when you're older, you'll thank us. I just mumbled the cancer bit and reviewed the whole birthmark thing in my head. All the Kindergartners have known about the birthmark this whole year and ...it was kind of special and unique to her. A bit of her identity was zapped away. Oh what have I done? She'll be glad right? Well I can't go back. But what of that? It's considered a fixable flaw by Dr. Vanderhott, when 6 year olds don't see it that way.

I've been away awhile- Vanessa told me about thepioneerwoman.com blog. I have been lost in a world so removed from my own. I think this is why Marisa wants to move to the country. If you have and extra 10 hours to read her romance with Marlboro Man, it's so drippy and full of words--you'll love it, or hate it. And the recipes..... So easy and pictures, pictures, pictures. I want to make the chocolate sheet cake so bad. I'll eat the whole thing myself though. Anyone, quick, invite me to something and I'll bring it.

I'm not doing any spring cleaning except kids clothes: the season sort. There are a few closets I've contemplated organizing. I should do before and after shots so I really do it. Laurie, your whole day of cleaning and organization had me so inspired. Just go as fast as I can and get it all done right? Maybe when it rains this week.

I've been digging into the front flower bed last week. The poor thing has been ignored for two babies now. The Irises and lilies were so overgrown. I had the brawn (James) do some major cutting back. We planted some strawberries last week too. And then it snowed. We ordered them through some distributing connections, 25 plants. It came with all the plants together and it was the size of a pound of sausage wrapped in wet newspaper. Let's hope they make it. The raspberry "bush" was a stick the width of spaghetti and about 2 feet tall. Fingers crossed. Berries, because it's a garden item that no one gets sick of eating.

I'll try to post some pictures from Addie's procedure visit, right now the camera card is not being read. Blast.

Also--if you want a free 12 year old Sunday school class to teach, you can have 'em. I'm looking for any tricks or gimmicks that make them listen and not hit each other with various scripture bag items. I know...pipe dream... Oh, maybe a pipe......