President's Day, Mardi Gras

We went to the arboretum for President's day and had a great time. We found some friends there and the kids all got their faces painted. That was a warm day for the middle of February, but windy I think. It is always windy here. There was also a small petting zoo, but none of the pictures turned out well. Just imagine Clark timidly petting a bunny and Sabrina wrestling a goat, and you'll know what it was like.

We had some muffuletta for Mardi Gras. It was homemade and very delicious. The king cake we had was not homemade. We bought a couple slices from Whole Foods and they really stunk. Hopefully when the Johnsons move back to Texas (we are hoping they will) we can visit them for Mardi Gras and have some really good homemade king cake. Yes, I just invited myself over to eat your king cake.

I have no idea what this picture is or when it was taken. Clark brought his booster seat to the couch and climbed up on top of me for some reason. Why not? 

Sabrina wanted to help clean the car, so we went and bought an extra sponge that she and Clark took turns using to help me clean. After we were done cleaning the car, the kids got a good spraying with the hose. I don't think it was too cold that day, but the kids wouldn't have cared. They love getting blasted with cold water any day. 

Just two cute kids getting ready for church. 

The next picture is a little gross, so proceed with caution.

At the end of January I got a lump removed form my head. It had been there for years, but it was starting to get bigger and it made my hair stick up funny. The doctor said it would be no big deal to remove it, but that we should do it at a surgical center since there would be some blood. Oh okay Doc. Sounds like no big deal. I put on my sick leave request that I would need the full day off, but that I might be back in in the afternoon. Well, they gave me general anesthesia and made this giant cut on my head. There is a lock of hair curling over it, so you can't see it perfectly, but I think I had 5 stitches. All to take an itty bitty pilar cyst. I had been led to believe this was going to be no big deal. Anyway, I had to take two days off work cuz I felt horrible all through the next day from the anesthesia. Then my head kept bleeding and scabbing for over a month and now I have a big bald spot where hair will probably never grow again. I feel that the doctor did not properly disclose all the risks of this procedure to me in order to gain informed consent. If only I knew a lawyer...

By the way, the pilar cyst that was removed is made of keratin. If you didn't know, keratin is the same stuff a Rhino's horn is made out of (as well as your nails and hair). So next time somebody asks me if Mormons have horns, I can tell them, "No, I had mine removed."

What's the Big IKEA?

I told my wife she had to wait until we got our tax return to go furniture shopping. Well the wait is finally over. We rented a cargo van for the day so that we could fit everything we wanted from IKEA in one trip. You fill a Mazda5 up really fast when you try to load up Icebergens and Bjorkfists and Tootfasts. The kids thought that playing in the cargo van was the best part of the day, until... 

 they got a house made out of one of the large boxes! It has a little window on each side (I was worried they would try to crawl through a big window and rip it apart) and a peephole that opens and shuts on their front door. The front door opens upwards so Sabrina said it was like a garage door, which I can't argue with.

They started to color on the outside with their crayons, but mostly they have been coloring on the inside and hiding from kidnappers. I tried going inside briefly and Sabrina and Clark became adultnappers and took me off to Sabrina's room where they fattened me up and ate me. 

Some of the IKEA stuff we purchased. I don't know what was wrong with our furniture, but I also don't know what is wrong with growing my hair into a fro. I guess I will just trust my wife.