meanwhile...

While Clyde and the girls were off to Myrtle Beach for Daddy/ Daughter weekend, the boys and I went to Pop Pop and Bubbie's farm. After we kissed the girls and Daddy good bye, the boys and I lent a hand anything and everything that they needed help with. Pop Pop took each of the boys on a tractor ride up and down the driveway, which is long btw. We helped make dinner and had a fun night with them. We were all asleep by 9:30 and so it came to no surprise that we were all up @ 6:30. We took Uno with us, so that we didn't have to have her cooped up inside our house, in her crate. She was right on schedule with her wake up call..."hey- I have to pee" bark. We ate breakfast with Bubbie and Pop Pop, then Pop Pop took the boys to Weston's...a local seed shop. He wanted to get a few more seeds for their garden. He then took the boys to Wal-Mart and got them a yoohoo and some gushers. They came back all smiles after spending a few hours with Pop Pop. Once the fellas got back, we all went outside to plant some seeds in the garden. Their tomatoes are getting tall and hence needed some support. Dad and I carried part of a wired fence and placed it between the rows of tomatoes. Then he took some wooded steaks, hammered them into the ground to support the fence. Then Mom, Josh, and I used the twine left over from the bails of hay and tied the steaks to the fence. We put in 2 fence wires to support the tomatoes. Then Josh and I planted some onions. Josh had a blast poking holes into the dirt and putting the onions in. We also helped plant some watermelon & cantaloupe. The cute thing about the watermelon was the way that it was written on the bag..."wartermelon." Southerners... :) While we went planting and moving the containers about, Dad started to cut back some weeds and saw a copperhead snake. It was a bit of a baby, but dangerous nonetheless. He killed it with the sharp ho that he was using. He a few minutes later had something in his hand, which I thought was the dead snake, so when we went to fake toss it at me, I jumped back quite abit...it turns out that it was an ole horny toad. He got a good chuckle out of that. har har... After the planting was done, then we walked around the beds and gave them some yummy fertilizer and Mom gave them a good soaking of water. Dad had planted some grass and once it was mowed, the clippings needed to be raked up, so that they wouldn't kill the grass underneath it. I grabbed a rake and began to rake the back part of their garden. Mom and I raked it and when we were nearly done, she moved to a new spot behind the green house to rake it and saw another copperhead snake. I ran and got her the ho and she killed it, but once she had killed the one and threw it's corpse over the fence, we noticed that she had actually killed two of them because their was another dead snake body. She said that she kept seeing the tail of one and kept chopping at it, but it ended up to be two. spooky. While we were working on raking the grass, Dad started tilling up another part of their garden. The boys were running around jumping from tractor to tractor, pretending to drive and then running in and out of the barn to play with the horses. They had a blast! While Mom and I were making lunch, Dad and his tractor, went to the back of the barn, loading it up with horse manure and put it in the new garden spot. We watched him go back and forth 4 times or so. After lunch, Mom and I went to the new spot and spread the manure over it. Let me just say that it was ripe and quite stinky. Ahh... farm life! I am so grateful for running water and soap. Once we were cleaned up, we fed the horses again for their evening meal. My older brother, Doc, came to deliver some wood of a tree that he had cut down and asked if the boys could go home with him for a bit. They were thrilled to go play with Jackson. Once it had been over an hour, I loaded up the car, kissed Mom and Dad and headed to Doc's house to get the boys. We had so much fun with Bubbie and Pop Pop! Anyway, when I arrived @ Doc and Tara's house, I found the boys running wild through their back yard and Jacob along with Jackson were soaking wet. Dad had given my boys a squirt gun earlier in the day and they had fun squirting each of us. Jacob had squirted Bubbie while she was watering the garden and she hosed him down completely, to his joy! So, when he was wet all over again, it was just funny. It was really nice to see Doc and Tara along with their babies. I told Josh and Jacob that it was time to head home and they were very angry with me that we weren't going back to Bubbie and Pop Pop's house to spend the night again. I hadn't packed us any church clothes, so had we spent the night, we would have been a bit rushed for this morning to get ready for church. They didn't understand that and again were very upset with me. We made it back into our neck of the woods all fine and the boys crashed. They even slept in this morning. That is a first for them. Jacob was ok when we got to church, but once Primary rolled around he was miserable. He had begun to run a fever and was very upset saying that he was sick. So, in fear that it could be something a bit more communicable, we left church early today. Once the ibuprofen kicked in, he was fine. We came home to the wonderful smell of the pot roast that I had crock-potted before we left for church. I love the traditions that we have begun with our children. Rock on Father / Daughter weekend, along with a weekend @ Bubbie and Pop Pop's for the boys and I. What an awesome...planting, manure spreading, snake killing, horny toad catching weekend!! I love my family!!

***Health Update*****
So, after Jacob needing to leave church early, and then again waking up with a fever on Monday morning, I made an appointment to take him to see his dr. We saw the PA and Jacob has strept throat and Penny, who has had nappy green snot for a long time, has a sinus infection. :(