My Blog is Back!!!

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail asking why I had taken my blog down. I figured she was having some computer issues and promptly went in to my computer to take a look at it so I could tell her that she must be technologically challenged only to notice that she was correct and I was mistaken. She was not technologically challenged, I was. Apparently you can not delete an old g-mail account if it is linked to your blog or your whole blog goes down with it. After major panic, a broken heart, many MANY e-mails and posts on forums to Blogger, I got it back. I still don't know how or why it is back, but I don't care because it is back and I am happy. I didn't realize how much valuable info I had on here and how much I would miss it until it was gone. I guess that is how things go in this life. Once it was back I promptly ordered a book with all the photos and posts of my blog to date so that if, God forbid, that happens again, I will at least have the last 3 years of memories written down. Thank goodness for Blog2Print.com.

As far as an update goes, we have been busy here in the Carpenter household.

Easter came and went and it was fun, relaxing and rather uneventful; just like I like it. We were supposed to go to visit my great Aunt and Uncle in Green Valley, AZ on Easter but my Aunt was not feeling very well and asked that we reschedule. We ended up doing a small Easter Egg hunt and Surprise Birthday celebration for my Mom on the Saturday before Easter. On April 3rd, my Mom turned 57 years old. We decided for her birthday we would all grab an instrument that we could play and learn the Happy Birthday Song for her. When she walked into my sister house we all broke out into song. We had 2 guitars, 3 violins, a flute, a trumpet, an accordion and probably a few pots and pans as well as some very beautiful voices. It sounded quite terrible actually, but we belted it out anyway and she cried with joy. We wanted her to know that all those years of lessons had paid off. She said it was one of the best birthday presents yet, so we must not have sounded too bad.

April Fools Day was fun this year. I decided to play an April Fools prank on my kids and my sister kids as well as our husbands so I made them a special April Fools Dinner. Their dinner consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches with soup. grape Kool-Aid to drink, and cupcakes with blue icing for dessert. The catch was that the sandwiches were actually toasted angel food cake with yellow icing in the middle. The soup was actually pumpkin pie soup with whipped cream on top (instead of sour cream). The Kool-Aid was actually grape Jello in clear drinking cups and the cupcakes were actually meat loaf with blue mashed potatoes on top. The kids faces were priceless and the hubbies were very kind at first trying to be polite in spite of my terrible cooking. Once they know what was going on we all had a good laugh and then ordered pizza for dinner.

On the 18th of March, EK took Ethan and Kaiya camping with Papaw to the lake. They all got their own fishing poles and got to learn how to fish. The only thing in the lake where they were camping was trees that were covered up by all the water, but the kids didn't no any different and had a great time. Porter and I put up a tent in the family room and did our own version of camping with hot chocolate, pop-corn, and  the Curious George 2 movie. We all had a great weekend and I know the kids can't wait to go fishing again.

Ethan's birthday was the 15th of March so we decided to go to Legoland in California as a surprise for the kids and also for Ethan's birthday present. We didn't tell them where we were taking them. We just loaded them in the car and started driving. It was a 6 1/2 hour drive so there were lots of questions that we had to answer on the way to keep them guessing. We arrived in Carlsbad, CA after dark, got some dinner and then went to our hotel and went to sleep. The next morning the kids were up bright and early super excited to find out where they were going. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed out. The kids were very surprised when they found out where we were and we had a very fun day at Legoland. I think Ethan had a good birthday this year.

Kaiya decided at the beginning of March that she wanted to get her ears pierced. I had told her in January, for her birthday, that she could get her ears pierced, but she decided she didn't want to. I told her that it was okay and if she ever decided she wanted to get them pierced she could let me know and we would go get it done. Well, on March 2nd, she came to me and informed me that it was time. She was ready and wanted them done that day. So, while Ethan was at school, Kaiya, Porter and I headed to the mall to get her ears pierced. She was super brave and got some very cute silver diamond earrings. She only cried for about a minute, maybe less, and that was it. She looks so cute with her sparkly ears and shows everyone she sees her new accessories.

In February, EK and I ran the Ragnar Relay again for our 3rd year in a row. It is a great feeling to be able to know that our team of 12 runners ran 205 miles from Prescott, AZ to Tempe, AZ. The race this year will probably be our last Ragnar though. About halfway through the race, an 18 year old runner on another team got hit by a car and died a few days later. EK and I decided that although we love the race, we won't be running it anymore because we don't want to run the risk of leaving together for a weekend race and then having to come back to the kids and tell them that their Daddy or Mommy will not be coming home. It broke my heart when I heard of the accident and I can't even imagine the grief the boy's family must be feeling. We don't want to put our families through that same thing, so we will choose activities that are a little less dangerous.

Last but not least, in February we returned home from eating dinner at my Mom's house to find our yard filled with tons of pink flamingos. EK niece is dating a boy that is trying to raise money to go to New Orleans to do a service project for his church, so his Mom and Aunt came to our house, put the flamingos in our yard and left a note. The note informed us that we had been Flocked and if we were willing to play this fun game, we could pay the $20 flock removal fee and tell the birds where to go next. We paid the removal fee and sent the birds to Bill and Sandy's house next. It was fun to hear the neighbor's reactions when they saw the birds in our yard. I am pretty sure they thought we had gone full white trash, but luckily they were removed the next day.

So there you have it... I am so happy to have my blog back and I think loosing it was enough of a scare to make me want to update more frequently. I will have to sacrifice my pointless Facebook posts so that I can have memories to read for years to come. I think I can do that.