Blogs I LOVE!

My darling sister-in-law listed my blog as one of her favorites and I was so touched! Sometimes I feel that my blog is more a place for me to ramble about my days and share things of little consequence to anyone other than myself. It was great to know that she liked it and sympathized with some of my "experiences." You have to go and check out her blog at http://hollihas4monsters.blogspot.com because it is seriously one of the cutest blogs I've ever seen. I would definitely nominate hers as one of my favorites, but I'll do 7 others since someone else already nominated her.



The rules: 1. The winners put the sticky sticker of uber stickiness up on their blog to say "Look at me! Look at me! I'm COOL... or at least someone else thinks so!" 2. Then they get to link back to me. 3. Then they get to nominate 7 of their own winners! Spread the love! 4. Then leave a little note on the chosen blogs so they aren't left in the dark.

Here are my picks:
1 & 2: My sisters' (Michelle and Kylie) blogs. http://brianmichelleparkerfamily.blogspot.com and http://kyliejeddcherry.blogspot.com. I would have included my sister-in-law Afton as well, but she was nominated by Holli too, so I hope she'll understand that she was included in this group as well. I love reading the blogs from my sisters and sisters-in-law - it's so fun to see all the day to day stuff that is going on. Even though we get together often, it's still fun to hear the little details about their days. They are all truly my best friends!
3: Carrie Morris http://makeitcountmorris.blogspot.com. I can always count on her for a good laugh and for some thoughts on things that I never would have thought of.
4: Monica Sue Murdock http://aint-life-fun.blogspot.com. What can I say about Sue's blog other than the fact that I get so excited that I can hardly stand the 2-3 seconds it takes to load up? She is my hero and is so much stronger than I am in so many ways.
5: Kelsie Peterson http://sillylittlewhitegirls.blogspot.com. You won't be able to see her blog since it's private, but let me just say that she's got twin girls that are 1 and they are the cutest things! I just love looking at her blog and seeing what fun things the girls are up to.
6: Thelissa Powell http://thelissasthoughts.blogspot.com. Even though others only update their blogs once or twice a week, I can always count on an almost daily post from Thelissa. I love her spunk and the way she knows how to perfectly explain a sitation.
7: Trisha Paddock http://trishasnews.blogspot.com. I love Trisha's blog because of lots of things. The thing that I always look forward to is the beautiful header picture. How could you not love a picture of a beautiful sunset and a dock - so peaceful! Kelsie, Thelissa, and Trisha served in the same mission as my husband and I've met them through him. Even though I don't see them often, I'm so glad that we share the "blogging bug" because it helps me get to know them so much better and I consider them dear friends.

I LOVE BLOGGING!

Hide and Seek

Lately, we have been noticing a little problem over in the front side of our yard. On Thursday, I was out playing football with Zach and when I missed one of his throws, I turned to get it. As I was walking toward the ball, something caught my eye over in the very corner of our property. When I went over to look, I discovered this:



Jeremiah had mentioned it had been a little soggy in that corner the last few times he's mowed the lawn, but we hadn't seen anything like this. It appears it had been that way for a few days and the people the neighbors have mow their lawn have dug into the grass with the lawnmower wheels. But apparently they didn't say anything because the neighbors had no idea there was a problem out there.

Well, after a little detective work, we pretty much came to the conclusion that the problem was with our sprinkler system somewhere. Luckily, my Dad told me to make some maps of the sprinkler lines when we were putting it in, so we pretty much knew basically where everything was. Since the front yard was soggy about 2/3 up our front fence and not at all in the back, we were sure the leak was in the front. Luckily, there was only one trench in that area, so once we found the pipe, we (I say we, but really it was all Jeremiah) dug up and down the line a bit and were sure we'd find a leak.



Of course we didn't. Thinking that was the only place it could possibly leak from, we decided not to water for 24 hours and see if the "problem area" was any less soggy. After waiting that long and worrying about it all night, Jeremiah came home from work and the spot was "less soggy." After digging up a bit more of the front yard and realizing it just wasn't in that location, we decided that maybe it might be leaking from the same line, but just on the other side of the fence. So Friday, Jeremiah dug up that side of the fence, trying to find it. Since we didn't have a gate on that side and we got tired of walking all the way around the house every time we wanted to go from the front to the back, we also decided to take a part of the fence down.











After much frustration and lots of saying "where in the world is it?" we did finally find it. Turns out the sprinkler we have right there had the problem. One of the clamps on the pipe and connection piece wasn't working right. So after putting on a new clamp and making sure the leaking had stopped, we thought it was ironic that we had to dig up that much of the yard just to fix a little clamp only 3 inches in diameter. Needless to say, it was quite a mess and I'm sure our yard looked extremely strange to anyone passing by.



Even though it could have been worse (i.e. we could have had tons of lines in that area that we would have had to check), it's hard to imagine since it was already such a mess. It's funny (at least now it is) because we were just getting our yard looking the way we wanted it and then we had to go and tear a section of it up. Oh well, such is life I guess!