Yesterday I woke up in an off mood. Couldn't possibly be that is was 5:30 and Dominic was ready to go. I got some cleaning done and just didn't feel like venturing out to do much. We played outside for a while and enjoyed our new swing set. RJ's brother gave it to us and the kids love it! We were supposed to attend a birthday party at 1, but I skipped it. For some reason, I just wasn't in the mood. I did manage to venture out with the kids to Wal-Mart in the afternoon and then to the park for an hour. The weather is just awesome here. We grilled out for supper and worked on Mackenzie's birthday invitations. Today I felt the same when duty called at 6:00. However, RJ did not work today so that was great. I took Mackenzie to Sunday school and afterwards we went and got our state taxes done. I have never had to pay state taxes, not that I have ever gotten much back, but this year we owe $400. Yikes! I am going first thing in the morning to change my withholdings for this year. Then to celebrate our empty pockets, we went out for lunch. I have to say, so far, my children are great at going out to eat. We really enjoyed ourselves. We came home to something very very strange. We have a creek that runs along the backside of our house. There are tons of animals - birds, squirrels, etc. We saw a huge groundhog very close up. In fact, it was sitting on our back steps. HUGE! It looked very lathergic. RJ was able to get pretty close to it without the thing moving. I have no idea how long it had been there. We were gone for 3 hours and I am not sure if it was there when we left. We watched it for a while and then called animal control. They sort of laughed at RJ when he called, but they couldn't help. They said to call the police department. RJ did call and an officer came out about an hour later. The thing barely moved when I accidently slammed the door shut. RJ and Mackenzie watched it until the officer arrived. He said we could "dispatch" it, which we would have to do ourselves and RJ and I agreed that didn't sound like something we wanted to do. We decided to move it to the creek and see what happened. RJ and the officer got a box and shovel and as soon as they touched it, it took off to the creek. My best guess is that is just needed a rest. I am sure it is sick, but it ran very fast when it needed to. I hope it is safe now. I was afraid to let the kids out to play with it there and we had my moms dog this weekend and I was afraid to let her out on that side of the house.

We grilled out again tonight and RJ took off to go a church function. I am off to tuck Mackenzie in for the night. She is starting a new reading program at school in the morning and has to arrive 1/2 hour earlier than normal. Good night. Hug your little ones.