i will survive

thanks so much for all the well wishes. the first day is always the worst. im beat today... so tired and sore. archaeology is hard work! i mean, i dug all this just today...

ha, just kidding! thats what i call a stupid archaeology joke. what i did do today was dig the unit (that scrapped looking square) that i am measuring in the picture. and the one directly west of it. and only ten centimeters deep in each one. it is a very tedious job, with lots of paper work. and its hot, sweaty and dirty, not in a good way either. we are working on a prehistoric village site that dates to 500 - 900 AD. middle woodland period for all you nerds out there. its a pretty cool site, the block that i am working in has three or four fire hearths, a bunch of post hole molds left from some sort of old structure, pottery, projectile points and all kinds of things that would probably bore most people to tears. so my back is killing me, and my hands are sore, but not as bad as i thought they would be. i must be tougher than i think. i have decided that i really need to buy some crocs. that way i could leave them in the truck and then take my boots off on the drive back to the cabins. thats the worst part. i can wear shorts and tank tops when it gets hot, but i always have to wear big old hiking boots and thick socks, and by the end of the day my feet are just burning up. taking of those boots feels like heaven....

did not get to the embroidery last night, flipped through a fresh issue of glamour instead. very important reading. i also realized that when i am not cooking for my family, i eat very random things. for instance, last night was a hot dog, humus and carrots and yogurt with black berries for dessert. i think this is mostly a factor of tiredness and convenience. kat asked why i have to be gone for ten days, and the answer is when we do field work, it isnt cost/time effective to come down on a monday, work T, W, TR and leave again friday. nothing would ever get done. so we work ten days straight, then go home and are off for four days, then back at it for another ten. its good and bad. it is nice having a four day break, but it can get pretty tedious when there is a lot of work to do. luckily we are wrapping up and only have three ten days scheduled, so i should be finished by the end of may. last time i worked from april to august on the same schedule, and let me tell you, those four days just wiz by. luckily david is coming to visit this weekend with the kids, so i breaks up the ten days perfectly, and eliot loves to hang out on site getting dirty and playing in the water screen. stay tuned for more adventures in archaeology!

my brain hurts

it has been so hectic around here since i last posted. bleh... i had been rushing around to get a big report done ( i have been working on it for three years!!!) before leaving for arkansas today. yep thats right, im broadcasting live from good old mountainburg arkansas tonight. my home away from home. more like my disgusting, dirty old cabin away from home. today i started my first field session, which means i will be down here for ten days straight working!!! i already miss my family. i miss squeezing collette and sniffing the top of her head, that good baby head smell. i miss getting peanut butter and jelly kisses from eliot after lunch (thats right, he eats pb&j every day). i miss sharing a yummy snack and a movie with david after the kids go to bed. sigh... im feeling sorry for myself right now. my heart hurts would be a more accurate title for this post i guess. so does my chest. what you say? thats right, today collette and i started the weaning process cold turkey. no more nursing for me. i cant say that this is a bad thing, i am looking forward to getting my chest back to myself. and wearing a bra that doesnt flip open. but i am not looking forward to the pain that i will probably have for the next two days while my body figures out what the heck is going on. but even worse, i will miss that close time with my baby. my last baby... and in a few more short weeks, she will be a year old! time is slipping through my fingers... and being gone isnt helping. ok hannah. i didnt mean for this to get so melancholy. im just lonely and a little sad. im sure the butt-kicking i am in for tomorrow will help take my mind of things. its been two years since i have lifted a shovel, and tomorrow bright and early, i will be out digging. yikes! sore back and blister city here i come! im going to try to post every evening, keep a little diary so to speak of what i think might be my last field work. things with david are looking good. keep your fingers crossed.... now im off to fix some dinner and try my hand at some embroidery.

bonus!

and an unexpected one at that! david is reading scripts today which means he left me the computer!! yippie! now i can do some serious blog reading while the kiddos are napping. i might jinx myself by putting this in writing, but eliot and collette both still take a long nap from 2 to 430 in the afternoon, sometimes even till 5! with that being said, i am off to finish up baby gift #1. but real quick like, the wonderful myra has started up a postcard swap! and the lovely tania has made this cute cute button, take a look!

links

i finally updated my links section to reflect what blogs i check out daily. this is mainly for my own purposes, so that at night when i get some computer time, i can do all my surfing from one place! i never realized how anal i was about some things, but it just didnt seem right to not put them in alphabetical order. makes for easier additions later. but hey, surf away my friends!

sweetest cat

such a wonderful friend! sent me a surprise spring package full of butterflies and birdies and all kinds of treasure. thank you so much!

and here is some more photo fun from monday. how can i not take pictures of these kids?

what a weekend!

granted its tuesday night and im talking about my weekend, but im a little behind right now... sheesh. work is killing me! all this rush around to get things done so i can go do fieldwork, im not so sure if that is such a good system. maybe i should sloooow things down. if i was smart i would. but enough about work, lets talk fun!! back to the weekend, which was AWESOME! for starters kc blessed us with wonderful weather, mid seventies, breezy, and sun, sun, SUN! yippie for nice weather. saturday was a quick day at the papersource, as usual. new goodies in the store that i couldnt resist such as: octopus gift wrap, pillow boxes, and 70's mens catalog postcards. score! saturday night i visited with my friend beth, recently back from a two month trip to ireland, scotland and england. it was nice to live vicariously for a few hours. an sweet italian girl came into the store sat and after helping her figure out the correct change, she gave me one of the euro coins i spied in her palm. i came home and told david that we were obligated to go to europe and spend it before a year has passed. so mark it on your calendars, april 3rd, 2006.

sunday was an even better day! after church my friend kerry and i took the huffsters to my parents house and then hit the fabric stores. there was a quilt shop hop event going on all weekend, and what better excuse to check out some fabric?? i found some great fat quarters, and came to the realization that i am hopelessly addicted to all the vintage looking 30s reproduction stuff. cant get enough of it!

also managed to find these little guys at a quiltshop. thought they would make great baby gift toppers.

they are technically called dreampets, but i call them stinking cute. look at that naughty little giraffe, she picked a flower! what else? kerry found this wonderful vintage thrift/antique store, called nine lives, and it was full of cool stuff. i managed to find the motherload of vintage childrens books brimming with woodland creature scenes perfect for the invitations i am making for collette. i havent had a chance to scan any in yet, but they will come. i also picked up this great purse, at a different sale, which i dont know when i will get to use it, but i couldnt resist its springy colors and bumpy goodness. i thought it wise to throw in one of eliots cars for scale.

monday turned out to be just a beautiful weather wise. oh did i not mention that i stay home mondays now? I DO!!! and it rocks. i love having an extra day with the huffsters, and giving david some time away from the house to work and catch up on sanity. i see it as a pure win win. except for the small issue of being computerless on mondays, and blogless... i think we are rapidly moving towards becoming a two computer family. that mac mini is calling my name...anyway, so monday brought more special fun. extreme makeover home edition has been in kansas city for the past six days, so we packed up the fam and headed over to the work site to see ty, i mean show eliot all the bulldozers.

see, even ty was excited about the big machines!

so was mom. if only that big machine would have been a little closer... oh well. eliot was really excited about the bulldozers and the added bonus of police motorcycles all over the place.

he looks so little! of course only moments before this picture he was screaming in fear of the thing, and of course moment before the screaming he was begging to go check it out. kids... go figure.

ps. i finally figured out how to make a picture bigger when you click on it, with help from the hinge. if you wanted to take a closer look at those fabrics, go ahead, but you really want to take a closer look at ty. i know you do. just click it... do it...