Almost forgot...

Last weekend, I signed us up for a Serve the City project through our church.  We headed over to Pleasanton to work in an elderly ladies yard.  She had received a notice from the city that she needed to clean up her place, but she hadn't even been outside in 3 years.  It was a mess!  There were probably 10 volunteers and we all kept busy for 4 1/2 hours.  It was really amazing what was accomplished.  There was not a single place to walk in the backyard, not to mention the overhwelming smell of dog poop.  By the end of it, she had a normal yard.  It took 8 dump runs to get it to a manageable place.  The kids were troopers!  They loaded up the truck, helped bag weeds and brought loads of junk from the backyard to the front yard.  I brought books and the dvd player, but they didn't know it and I never even thought about getting it out.  They did awesome and we had a little celebratory dinner at Red Robin :o).