Creepy Amphibious Insect Thingy

Ok, can someone please tell me what the heck this thing is!?! I caught sight of it this morning, though I'm not sure how since it was so tiny. You can tell how small it is by looking at the size of those blades of grass. If you click on the picture, you can get the big version. It was surrounded by what looked like little soap bubbles. At first I thought it was a frog, but in the picture, it looks like it has grasshopperish legs. Ick!

I bought Clara an inflatable pool last month and we finally pulled it out for the first time today. It has tree trunks and on top of the trunks was supposed to be a canopy that sprinkled water from above. I got it because I thought a little shade sounded like a nice idea. Well, the trunks hardly stood up on their own and when you put the canopy on it, it just fell over (which Clara was not fond of by the way). Bummer. I hope Target will take it back even though it's out of the box.

It took me forever to blow the sucker up, so I went ahead and filled it up and let Clara play. She absolutely loved it.

I'm finally on the upswing from this pesky sinus infection. Last night was the first night I slept well and could actually breathe and I think today is the first day in over two weeks that I haven't had any sinus pain. It feels soooo good when you get over an illness that's been wearing you down. I cannot even imagine going through life in chronic pain.

Clara and I hit the mall for a little while today. I had a $10 coupon from JC Penney burning a hole in my pocket, so I got a t-shirt. We were only gone for an hour, but when we got home, CJ's bedding in his crate was wet, so I think he had another seizure :( On a positite note, Dingle behaved herself today.

Tonight, we to Lowe's and bought some weed killer for the yard and some twist tie things to train the jasmine on our back fence. We've finally gotten tired of receiving letters from our HOA requesting that we weed our lawn. It irks me because the reason our lawn needs to be weeded in the first place is because our cheap homebuilder thought it in their best interest to use sod that was only 60% St. Augustine. We found this out from a previous employer of the landscaper they used. He had just left that company to start his own and we had him sod our backyard. Lo and behold, our backyard is absolutely beautiful, lush, green, hardly any weeds because he uses 90%. And of course, ours was the last home done by this particular landscaper because the builder stopped using them they were so bad! So, now we walk by the newer homes in the neighborhood with their nice lawns and think to ourselves, "that's nice, they're not getting letters in the mail."

It's taken almost a year, but our front yard is gradually looking more presentable. We used the weed and feed on it, and it really helped in the front yard, but the side yard still looks pretty craptacular. If we could just get rid of the weeds that have little flowers, then the yard wouldn't look quite so weedy. What I hate more than weeds though is crab grass. That stuff is feisty! I don't know how the poor St. Augustine is supposed to overtake that evil crab grass. Phew, glad I got that off my chest.

And since I don't want to end this post on a negative note, here's something sweet that transpired at Clara's bedtime. We were reading Mama, Do You Love Me? (one of Clara's and my favorites right now) and when I finished, I turned to set it back on the shelf that's right next to the glider. When I turned back around, Clara had her hands clasped together and her head bowed ready to say her prayer. Ahh, how sweet is that?