Standard or High Wall?

***Text in this color authored by Shena***

Work & Play
Feliz Cinco de Mayo everybody! Tequila all around!

During my lunch break I made a quick trip out to Dutch Barns. They build storage sheds, and that is where dad and my neighbor got theirs. The units out there look to be built much better than the ones Lowe’s offers. I think we have decided to have Dutch Barns to build one for us…we just don’t know which style or size yet. Shena and I will be making a trip out there on my lunch break tomorrow to try to decide on a style. We have two different styles in mind, the “Standard Barn” and the “High Wall.” I didn’t really look at the Standard Barn when I was there today because she had seen similar ones in the Lowe’s brochure and said she didn’t like them. But when she saw the pictures of these, she said she didn’t mind. They look to be better built and not so cheap looking. This company likes to build the shed at their place, then deliver it all intact to the house, but we may not have enough room on either side of the house to get their truck to the back where we want it, so we may have to pay an extra $175 to have them build it on site, which would mean we can’t get as big of a unit as we want. It also means we would have to stain it ourselves, and I would just as soon have them do it. I’m sure they can do a better job.

I had to go to Winston-Salem for a seminar on the tobacco buyout that is going on here in the state. Jim may know a couple of farmers who could come into some money because of the buyout and he wanted to be able to help them. Not much to say about the whole situation…I don’t feel like getting on a soapbox right now. I’ll just leave it at this…why do we get ourselves into these things? I can understand subsidizing farmers who produce foods that we need…but why do we subsidize this? Then we get into the situation we are in now…we have to buy off the farmers so that they quit producing tobacco because we can’t just drop them and tell them “figure it out yourself.” Economically irresponsible. No more, I’m done.

After work, we went to Mexico #6 (next to our house) to “celebrate” Cinco de Mayo. Again, something we normally do with mom and dad, but they are tending to more important matters in San Diego. We felt like we should continue the tradition…and for the record it was Shena’s idea. I had thought in my head “today is Cinco de Mayo,” but I hadn’t thought about going to the restaurant. She gets credit for that. Restaurant was hopping. We were there at 5:30, and it was already 2/3 full and was completely full with people waiting when we left. That’s always a good sign!

I didn’t have Elder’s Quorum Presidency meeting because Joe wasn’t feeling well, so I spent the night debating what to do about the storage shed. As mentioned earlier, I think we should get it from Dutch Barns, just not sure which style or size yet.

Llano Update (Cheeto's Brood)
Shena had a doctor’s appointment again this afternoon, and since I was in W-S, she dropped the boys at Hiatt’s. I picked them up on the way home and she said they were good. They like it over there…I mean, who couldn’t love the Hiatt’s? When I got there they were in the backyard swinging with Becky in their swinging chair, with Abbey (their dog) running around. The boys love to see Abbey when they are over there, so they probably loved it that she was out of her cage (which is where she normally is when we are there).

Shena has been going to a disease specialist to try to figure out what these white spots are that are in her mouth. Two doctor’s had told her it was thrush, but the medicines they gave her didn’t seem to help a whole bunch and it kept coming back. They finally sent her to this guy. He ran every test he could think of, and they all came back negative (the funniest one he ran was an “AIDS” test. Not funny because it’s aids, but funny because there is just NO WAY that she could possibly have it. She’s never had any blood transfusions and she gave up heroin years ago (kidding). And I don’t need to get into the other ways it is impossible for her to have it. You all know the story. The doctor kept saying “are you SURE there isn’t a possibility?” When Shena kept saying there wasn’t, he said he was going to run the test anyway. Big shocker…she doesn’t have AIDS. Anyway, he got all the results back today and told her he still doesn’t know what it is. Only thing he can think of is that it is some sort of mono that kicks in when she’s pregnant. He said he wanted to see her next time she is pregnant if her mouth breaks out again. Poor girl. He did say she was very healthy though…which is good. She was complaining the other day that she was “broken” but I didn’t believe it.

Cade had the Incredibles game taken away from him today. He was whiny and talking back this morning. “No Incredibles for you.” He shaped up pretty good after that. And he was in our room asking for it again at 7:00 this morning. I also asked him if he wanted to go to the “Spanish school” to learn Spanish today. He said he did. Just as I suspected, he has no idea what he REALLY wants, he just was in a “mood” yesterday when he said he didn’t want to go. We will still with our plan (not that we weren’t going to anyway) of giving him at least one semester in the school to try it out, then re-evaluate.

Kelson is still getting smarter and smarter. He is surprising me with his independence and how much he talks. He still has a bit of a lisp, which is just dang cute. He says his “s” with a weird kind of “th & p” combination type sound. Next time you see him, ask him to say “chips” and watch his mouth when he does it. He also likes to do stuff on his own. That is where having an older sibling comes into play, I think. He sees Cade do stuff by himself and tries to do it too. It’s pretty funny to watch him try to put on socks, shoes, pants, etc. Difference is he doesn’t get frustrated with it like Cade does (although Cade has done much better recently…he doesn’t freak out anymore and scream and cry when he can’t do something…he’ll ask for help instead).

Arellano Update
None to report that I know of...Although, in reading Adam's blog yesterday, I noticed that he said that the girls (mom, Melissa and Lettie) were a little disappointed when he and dad came home from a camping trip early the other day. I told you they were up to something!

Christensen Update
None to report that I know of.

Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:23 - 7:01 - still can't get myself up at 6:30...any ideas anyone?

TODAY:
Breakfast: 1 bowl of frosted mini-wheats

Lunch: ham and cheese sandwich on hamburger bun, ruffles, coke - also had one cookie and milk
Dinner: Chicken fajitas with beans, rice and flour tortillas, sprite - had a brownie with ice cream on it much later