One day of fun...

leads to a week of "fun..."

But, let's back up a bit.

Here in Kansas, we have decided that the best schedule for us on the weekends will be 1 day of homework, 1 day of fun. Jim needs to do homework as his JOB, so this is a good compromise.

Last weekend, we decided Sunday would be our "day of fun." So, we went to CCD & church, then came home to decide what we would do for the rest of the day. As you can imagine, FOOTBALL played a small role in what was going to happen that day.

A few weeks before, we put a print (that Jim purchased before it was even painted in Iraq) in to be framed. It was ready for pick up, but it was 45 minutes away. We checked the geocache site to see if there was a quick geocache we could grab while we were down there to make the trip "fun." I found one that looked lit it would be an easy find as it was in a park. It also advertised a FREE museum nearby, so it sounded perfect.

The park was exactly what I had figured. Usually, caches hidden in parks are right off the main path. We started following the GPS as we walked down the path until it started pointing in to the tall grass and woods. Not thinking TOO much about it, we followed the GPS in to the tall grass. I started getting concerned when there was no "nerd trail." (you can tell where some caches are hidden when you get close to them because there is a trail that to a normal person would look like it went to no where...) We weren't really prepared to be hiking through tall grass and woods. We had on no bug spray and Alan was wearing shorts. After a few minutes, we decided that we wouldn't be finding the geocache. (remember this fact, it resurfaces later in the story)

Off to the Johnson County History Museum. This find turned out to be a diamond in the rough! WOW!! Most of the museum consisted of the history of the settlement of Johnson County, KS. It was very interesting, though, with 14 interactive areas for children scattered though the museum. The kids LOVED it.

Then, we came to the part of the museum that contained the temporary exhibit. It had just opened the day before. It was AWESOME! There was a street set up with store fronts for the kids to explore. I have seen this concept portrayed in Children's museums before, but this was, by far, the best one I had ever seen! And, did I mention before: FREE!!!

There was something for everyone: Teresa and Alan enjoyed the theater...putting on a rock concert. Alan started the performance by coming out on stage with a microphone and said, "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!?"

Another exhibit was the hospital. Here is Dr. Teresa tending to a new born. Behind her is the patient preped for surgery. (if you open the doors on his chest, you can operate on his internal organs...) Dr. Sarah, you should be proud of your protegee.



And, as you can see...there was something for everyone...in the "park," Jim practiced his putting! There was also a Wii in the park set up so people could play baseball!

After tearing the family away from the awesome museum, we went to the store, picked up the print and went home. Alan and Teresa played outside with their friends and Jim watched football. I started to make dinner. Alan came in and was covered with mud, so I sent him to the shower.

I remembered that we had walked though some tall grass, so I went in to the bathroom and asked if I could check Alan for ticks, just in case. That's when my week took a turn. I found some ticks on Alan. LOTS of ticks. The smallest ticks I had ever seen in my life. They were smaller than a freckle. In fact, I wasn't sure, at first, that they were ticks, but there were SO MANY, that they had to be! I called Jim in to see and confirm my diagnosis. Yep, ticks. I had to pull Alan out of the shower (and turn off dinner) so that I could see them all. I pulled as many off as I could and sent him back in to the shower.

I was talking about it with Teresa, telling her she was next in the shower when she said, "Who is going to check MOM!??!!" I have so many freckles. She was happy when Daddy said it would probably have to be him. She always has to help me with sun screen, so I'm sure she thought it would have to be her!

I found about 10 on Teresa's sock line. There were about 2 or 3 on my sock line. Jim had about 20 or so on his legs. Alan was a different story. I picked about 50-60 off of him. Yes, you read correctly.

Monday morning, I checked Alan again. There were 2 more ticks attached. One I removed, but one was embedded, so I decided he needed to meet his PCM finally. She took the tick off and sent it away to be analyzed. She also asked me if I knew the preventative for ticks. Yes, I did. Thank you for telling me.

Alan and Jim have so many itchy bumps on their legs that I have to coat them in calamine lotion twice a day. Alan has so many that we do one side of his body at a time. He has to wait to flip over so the lotion will dry.

My fun meter for geocaching in Kansas has just gone to ZERO.

And now you are caught up on my week. If you were wondering why I hadn't posted in a while, now you know why...

Fun...