I think I'm finally getting better. I've been sick to some degree for a month now and today was like a ray of sunshine. I coughed less than I have in awhile and my back was amazingly calm today. When I did cough I didn't feel the sharp pain in my back. Halaleujah.
So what was different? Well, I did quite a combination of things. I slept with a heating pad on my back. Took pain killers and anti-inflammatories. And what I really want to point out is that for my cough I tried the Vapo-rub trick. Remember when I mentioned that a couple months ago? The night before I had a horrible night coughing-woke up exhausted. So last night I rubbed vapo rub on my decollette (not exactly my chest ha ha) and on the soles of my feet and then put socks on. I slept great and coughed very little. For the second time I have proven that the vapo rub method works. At the very least; it seems to help. So anyhow, remember that tip when you've got serious nighttime coughing at home. I've tried it on my sleeping kids (the vapo rub on their feet freaks them out) and it has helped them too.

Since I felt so much better today I spent a lot of time outdoors. Doing the usual. Throwing the piles of snow into the street so it will melt in one day instead of a week. That kind of hurt my back but I'm getting skilled at doing all kinds of things without those exact muscles. It's fun to think about spring around the corner. I'm ready for plants, green leaves, eating outside, Lagoon, screen doors open, sounds of nature, shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, family visits........ can't wait.

Well, Brigham and Laci decided today they wanted to go for a walk and collect things to bring home. Brigham wore his backpack and as we walked through the neigborhoods they would find things to collect. It was actually junk. Like broken pieces of plastic. But they loved it all and Laci was constantly unzipping Brigham's backpack to shove some useless garbage in it. However, they actually did find one "treasure". They found a fairly recent dvd in a nice case just lying in the street. It was not a title I recognized but it wasn't exactly a B movie. They were thrilled with that and took it home as a present for dad.
Today the airforce was busy doing practice runs so we watched as many jets flew directly over us. We'd count how many missles were strapped on. They all had six each. It was fun to explain to him how the different sized missles served different purposes. I really didn't know what I was talking about since my knowledge is based on what I've seen in movies and t.v., but I'm always trying to convince my kids to be awed by the jets. I think my brother John is the only other person I know who gives a darn about them. Two or three of the huge carrier planes flew over us today. You always know when they're taking off because the roaring is so loud. I'm completely mesmerized by them. Yup, I'm the only one who gives a darn.

We sold our trampoline two days ago. It won't fit in our terraced yard. That was kind of sad to see it go. It was the nicest trampoline I'd ever seen. I think Nephi was a little relieved he won't have to reassemble it. A young mom drove up from Orem to buy it. She was really nice. Man, I hope all the parts are there. It's a little scary since we moved it disasembeled and then sold it to her that way. It's impossible to know every part is there even though we feel pretty confident about it. I hope I never hear from her. We've also decided it's time to sell our Burley bike trailer. It is NICE, but Laci is getting bigger and the hills around here are crazy. I can't imagine we'd use it much now. Our family's plan is to sell those two items and then we'll have the money to buy a small swingset. There's a store in town that sells commercial quality swingsets/playground equipment and they have a compact little set that I think will actually fit in our yard. It has two swings, a slide with a small platform, and a fireman's pole. It's the only set up I've seen that appears to be configured right for our yard. So the kids agreed that if we sold those two items then we'd use the money for that. This plan took away the sting of losing the tramp. (However, I know my kids, they'll be mourning it's loss come summertime.)

parent teacher conferences tomorrow....
Happy Ash Wednesday ( just kidding! I saw that on the calendar. What is that?)