It has been over a week since I last posted, and I am starting to get into trouble with family and friends who think I disappeared :).  It is nice to know they care.  Things have been crazy, but not really any crazier than usual, it has just been harder to find time to sit at the computer without Derek wreaking too much havoc.  So here are some random thoughts and things from the past week:

• I finally started the quilt I am making for Lily's bed – YEA!  I got all the fabric for it last summer when I was in Idaho, but am finally doing it.  I only have 5 more squares to put together before I can start putting it all together.  (This is the main reason I can't get on the computer, as my sewing machine is set up in the same room, and so if Derek is awake, I have to avoid this room to protect it.)
• Yesterday I started getting a cold.  It came upon me so suddenly, that one second I was fine, and the next I was stuffed up, coughing, and had a sore throat.  Crazy!  I have never had a cold hit me that fast.  It probably has something to do with . . .
• I have been getting no sleep lately.  I haven't really slept well in 4 years, because of my children.  Lily sleeps like a dream now, however it took surgery to get her there.  Derek is having the same symptoms she always had and is getting progressively worse, and so we are off to the doctor tomorrow to get a referral for him to see if he also has sleep apnea.  Something has to be done for all of our sakes.
• I have finished 3 really good books in the past month: The Count of Monte Cristo, Mary and Joseph by Robert Marcum, and the newest Star Wars book, Exile.  (Yes, I am still reading Star Wars books 🙂 – I just got hooked, what else can I say?)
• Lily, my sweetheart girl, went with Kevin on splits with the missionaries last night :).  I guess she was super sweet, and even sang "I Am a Child of God"  for the woman they were teaching – which convinced the woman to come to church so her grandkids could learn to sing songs like that too :).  I guess you are never too young to be a missionary!
• I have been having lots of fun experimenting with my new flash.  It is amazing all the things you can do with it, and I think it will take me a long time to figure it all out, but until then, I can still use it with my automatic features :).  It sure works well!! This picture of Derek was taken in a pitch black room, and I didn't edit it at all!

• Derek has been trying to talk all the time.  He is constantly jabbering something, and occasionally we can even understand what it is he is saying :).  He is also trying to transition from one nap to two, which is never fun.  Oh well. 
• It is spring in Savannah – we have had 80 degree weather the past few days – and unlike the gorgeous fall and winter weather we have here, the spring weather brings something nasty along with it.  Something creepy, crawly, buzzing, or flying – namely BUGS, and lots of them.  They are coming out in force, and the worst one of all is the sand gnat!  These teeny tiny gnats are everywhere in the spring, and they bite.  Last year we would come inside with little bites all over us.  I guess this is the price we pay for not having to deal with snow and ice :).
• Lily is really starting to swim at swimming lessons!  It is so exciting to watch as it is all clicking into place.  She only has 1  1/2 months left of lessons before we take the summer off, and so I hope she gets it down even more before then.  She has been such a trooper, especially working through all her fears.
• Kevin got to come to church with me for the first time in a month, and it was heaven!  (It was so much easier doing my job as Primary Pres without having to chase Derek the whole time.  Plus, Derek is such a distraction to all the kids.)  And being the wonderful husband he is, he even filled in last minute when our pianist couldn't make it :).
• Derek's thievery has reached new heights.  He can now unhook my watch in about 2 seconds – one handed, I might add. Here he is trying to empty out my purse.  The greatest is watching him run down the hall with something in his hands that he knows he isn't allowed to have :).  He is just so curious and has so much energy I can't keep up with him.  In fact he is much like Curious George, the monkey – he even looks like him!    And here is my little monkey licking frosting off the beaters :).  He is just too cute for his own good.