an untypical friday

what a day! mine started around 2 a.m. when sarah came to bed. she wasn't feeling well and couldn't lie down to sleep b/c of it. i woke up enough for her to tell me she thought i should take the day off b/c she was going to need my help, not just for her, but with the girls. so i was up for at least an hour pondering what all i had going on at work and who all i would need to contact to make sure some things got done. we've been busy at work, so my mind was busy last night.
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so i woke up around 6:40 with alex entering the room. we let mommy sleep for a bit while she ate breakfast. i woke sonja up around 7:30 and brought her down for breakfast. sarah had a doctor's appointment at 9:50, and we were home around 11. then we ate lunch and headed outside without mommy so she could get some rest with some peace and quiet. so the girls and i were outside most of the afternoon. i worked all afternoon with a shovel, pulling up ground cover to level out an icky 'flower' bed so we can plant our veggies when they're big enough. mom and dad came over later in the evening to help, and i don't think i could have done that much without them. in fact, had they not come, i was planning on quitting for the evening. so i'm glad they came, b/c it feels nice to have that project about wrapped up... aside from a final tilling and planting.
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some other exciting news today was two ducks which happened to visit our front yard. sonja saw them first and got pretty excited. we thought she was telling us there were two dogs outside at first. ducks don't make sense since the nearest pond is about a 5 minute drive south. and i don't even think i've seen a puddle anywhere than that. so we're not sure why they came to say hi. i think they were off one bubble. not only was our yard not the place for a couple of mallard ducks, but he ended up walking around under a pine tree for a while, and she was trying to land in a tree at one point. very odd if you ask me. we were telling the girls not to make too much movement or knock on the window b/c they could scare them away. we also said that they may be looking for a place to build a nest, and that we could end up having little ducklings running around our front yard. highly unlikely if you ask me... but then again, they were very odd ducks. so i left for a few minutes and came back and asked if they were still out there. "yep!" so asked what they were doing, and sonja replied, "they're looking for ducklings." we laughed, and i looked at sarah and said quietly, "more like they're looking to make ducklings." anyway...
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so it was a very busy day under a beautiful sky. very productive too. being as such, i didn't get a chance to read my bible again today. i plan to catch up this weekend.
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but here's a picture i took on my phone today. while i was working in the 'garden', alex and sonja were building nests under the pine trees to hatch sarah's soccer balls (hey, if horton can do it with a bird's egg, this is possible). maybe this had something to do with mr. and mrs. mallard from earlier in the day... i didn't make the connection until now. so the picture's grainy b/c it was taken on my phone, but at least you can get the idea (this is alex):