Itchy, itchy, scratchy, scratchy!

Aside from the unruly bushes, this looks pretty harmless...right?

Yeah, that's what I thought too!

I spent ALL last weekend (hours, upon hours!) digging up weeds and trying to make the front & back yards look decent after a harsh summer.  We've been in our house 4 years this October, and we've always had this ivy growing on our back wall corner.  Except its never been this bad, so I decided to take it upon myself to pull it all out.  It is now growing underneath the siding, yikes!!  This picture doesn't do it justice.  It was already starting to cover the other wall & window, but I had pulled it down already.

As I'm pulling it down, I noticed that the stems had sort of a red color.  Then it clicked--red in nature means "Don't Touch!"  And then I observe the 3 leaves on each stem...uh oh!!  Barnacles!!  (this is my curse word, ha!)

Yep.  It's not regular ivy.  That would be poison ivy.  Growing inside my siding, and all over my house.

And now I've already pulled most of it down.  Wearing short sleeves, shorts, and flip flops.

As soon as I realized it was poison ivy I rushed Mav to the shower.  Mav was outside with me in just a diaper, and he walked over by me more than a few times.  Thankfully he never developed a rash.

I, on the other hand, look like a leper.  I am covered on both arms, legs, feet, chest, shoulders, stomach, and even behind my ear.  It is SOOOO itchy.  I have to wear long sleeves (in 100+ degree heat) so that I try not to over-scratch.  Even then, I've scratched some spots until they bleed.  Agh!

How about some cute pictures of Mav now? :)

He is such a big boy!

There is NO way my baby is going to be TWO in a few months!

I love his look right now.  Its very middle school-ish. 

You know, the awkward & goofy stage?  But for toddlers it much more cute. :)

His goofy smile warms my heart!

His poor face/skin has constant irritation from eczema.  His drooling doesn't help either, ha! 

"Bock! Bock!" is what he says as he's throwing rocks.

"Bye bye ah-plane!"

Sometimes he likes to scream for fun.  Just to hear the echo.

(he likes to do this at the store, lovely right?)

The next picture shows what happens when you give your child a bowl of mozzarella cheese, and turn your back to answer the phone:

Right after I vacuumed that up...he dumped out an entire bowl of Cheeze-Its.

And stomped on them.

Sigh.

But...when you walk around the corner and see this:

You think that somewhere in there you might be doing something right. :)