A week full of spring time

I've been up to my old tricks again...pulling off the side of the road and snapping pictures. Maya wasn't with me, though, so I didn't get any of her silent, pre-teen angst when I asked for my camera.

I have to go back a bit to tell this story...I won't take long. I'll try really hard to get right to the point. :)

Almost two weeks ago, Steven left to go to Alexandria, Virginia for a training class. He took off on Monday, and on Tuesday, I started coming down with a bug. My throat got really sore, I developed a headache and I was extremely tired. On Wednesday, I turned 40. My theory is, I was allergic to both my husband being gone, and to this particular birthday. (Sounds logical to me...what about you?)

By the following Monday, I could no longer pretend I was dealing with an allergy, (make believe or otherwise,) and I went to the doctor. She said my headache and sore throat were due to a sinus infection, and my itchy, painful ears were due to ear infections. (One, actually, on the left. The right was getting there.)

Okay...here's where the picture taking comes in!

Wake Medical Center is on the same street at my doctor's office. I have driven past the last two springs and have been amazed at how beautiful the dogwood trees are that are planted in the parking lot of the building. It wasn't until today that I finally looked it up and learned that those trees are actually dogwoods.

There are so many of these beautiful trees in this lot...it's like a sea of light pink petals. I felt awful, but this was such a gorgeous sight. 

While waiting for my prescription to be filled, I drove through the library and dropped off some books. This tree I noticed last spring. It's so unique...I've only seen a few others like it around town. I have no idea what this tree is called, but I took some pictures of it.

I'm feeling much better now...unfortunately, Scott came down with something similar yesterday. One minute he was bowling and having a good time, the next minute he was feeling yucky. It was a low key evening, a shower and a good night's sleep.

It was such a pretty spring day today, Steven and I thought some time outside would be a good thing for our ailing child. I pulled out the sidewalk chalk in the hopes that his usually vivid imagination would take flight.

It took some time to warm up.

Here's a pretty cool dragon,

and another one...this time breathing fire!

He even wrote a message for Steven who was out buying some things for the car.

When he claimed he couldn't think of anything else, I went out there with him. This is what the two of us

together came up with:

A very large, very pig like dragon. My guess is that he/she found a few damsels who were indeed in distress and made a hearty meal of them. This is only a guess, though....

Our dragon was so big that we had to take a separate picture of just it's rear end...

Here is Scotty's knight...perhaps a bit late to save some of the damsels...but ready to slay this crazy, huge dragon all the same. (Shadows made taking good pictures of our artwork a bit difficult...I will try again in the morning for some better shots. You can click on the any of the pictures in this post and it will open it up larger for you. Might be easier to see them that way.)

He may not be feeling 100%, (in his words, he feels more like 30%), but he's still pretty darn cute.

Maya took her new book outside and read out on the swing set. She's keeping her distance from her little brother. She was much the same way when I was sick.

I believe her exact words were, "You better not give it to me." Maya's been sick enough in the last several months to last her a lifetime. She wants no more bugs.

There are those sweet little purple flowers again by the mailbox,

and we'll have tulips soon, too.

We have no swim team practice this coming week and Steven home with us...I'm hoping to get Scotty well and to keep Steven and Maya healthy long enough to enjoy the rest of our vacation. I'd like to get some spring time ocean pictures...we'll have to wait and see!