Couches and Houses

Last Saturday, we had a "family work day"...let me explain...

We had been up in PA for 2 months for Adam's summer job as the basketball and athletic director at Trails End Camp near Lake Wallenpaupack, PA. The camp is only 2 hours from my parents' house and where I grew up, so we got to see lots of family and old friends. We had a great time while we are up there, but it's quite an ordeal to get up and back. You know how many extra bags you take on a weekend trip now that you have kids, well, take that times 8 and that's how much stuff we had to pack, unpack, and then re-pack, and unpack (and repeat that 4 times on a smaller scale each time we went between camp and my parents' house for a week at a time). So when we came back to NC, other than furniture, we were pretty much moving back into our house all over again. (and mind you, we were only in this house for 3 months b4 we left for PA). All that goes w/ moving as well, like emptying your pantry and fridge, etc. So if you need any tips on moving, I consider myself an expert as we have lived at 4 different addresses in 2 1/2 years, and have gone to PA for the past 3 summers.

All that as background as to why we had to have a family workday last Saturday...

The outside of our house was a MESS! We have probably 50 trees surrounding the house. Oak trees...horrible for allergies, produce tons of leaves in the fall and tons of stringy, polleny stuff in the spring. All 4 of us put on some yard work gloves and got to work. The boys and I picked up 4 wheel barrowfuls of sticks...well, we can't really call them sticks b/c they were big...more like branches and even tree limbs. You would have thought a major storm had come thru--unless of course you're used to living the woods (which I am not). While we did that, Adam tackled the gutters. We have a MAJOR bug/mosquito problem, and were advised to check the gutters for standing water that can cause more bug issues. Sure enough, tons of oak tree "gunk" and soggy stuff and water. What a mess!! Then I tackled the weeds in the one flower bed that we had worked on back in May--you couldn't even see the flowers we had planted. I was amazed that being gone just 2 months turned the outside of house/yard into looking like it was abdoned and overgrown! We had made arrangement w/ the neighbor boy to mow the "lawn" (here in NC hardly anyone has a nice lawn. It's more like dirt, spotty crab grass, and red-clay dirt). I can only image how it would have looked had he not mowed the lawn a few times and moved away some of the very large branches in order to mow.

Oh and this is just a rental house mind you. But we do have to live here, so we need to try to do what we can to keep our kids from getting too many welts and crazy reactions from these crazy bugs! (see picture of Levi's ear in past post).

So back to the title of this post...Couches...after all the manual outside labor, my feet, legs, back, were worn out by the boys' naptime. I put my feet up and laid down on our couch. And then it hit me...I had NEVER lied down on this couch since we moved into this house in March! Seriously. I had sat on it. I had read stories to the kids on it. I had folded laundry on it. Wow--it was REALLY comfortable! I should do this more often...wait...when?? ha ha!! I usually sit in the recliner when the boys are sleeping b/c I have to log into my computer and do my work for my job. But I think I will be treating myself to 5 min. w/ my feet up on my couch now that I have expirenced the comfort and how it feels to actually RELAX! ha! :-)

well, this is getting long, so I'll close w/ some pictures.
Ocean City, NJ. Wyatt at Camp. Adam and my birthdays