I love that you write about a massive attack of blood-draining bugs and it bring on the comments! Bloggers love comments whether they admit it or not so while the story itself was HORRIBLE as it was happening the comments were a fun surprise ending! An even NICER surprise ending is that an amazing WOMAN (that I used to babysit so I still want to call her a kid) I know who WORKS AT TOMS texted me last night and is SENDING ME A NEW PAIR! For free! If you are a mom on a budget then you know going out and buying yourself a new pair of Toms (or any shoes that don’t come from Target) can’t always happen when you want it to happen. So even though I would have loved to order myself a non-tick infested pair right away I knew I was going to have to wait and ask my Mother-in-law (who has bought me the two pairs I own the last two Christmases) for a new pair this Christmas. I think Lauren probably thinks my life is incredibly sad that I can’t just go spend $40-$50 on myself! HA! Welcome to the world of paying for your kids to do soccer and gymnastics and soccer and oh my gosh they ALL need new shoes and coats and Gray’s wet the bed enough times he needs new sheets and oh man Parker crashed her bike so hard it broke so she needs a new one and please can we hire a babysitter tonight so I can have some sanity YOUNG FAMILY BUDGET. Am I right?

Anyway.

So I got lots of fun comments yesterday and I get a new pair of Toms! Not shabby for one blog post with one out of focus photo!

But I bet you’re all wondering WHO was so awesome that I ventured off the trail to me demise right?

Emma.

Softball player and tomboy who always has a ponytail in her hair but SO incredibly gorgeous she just has no idea. No. Idea. She’s striking and I couldn’t stop telling her how amazing her hair was OR how I’m going to hire her to come over so Parker can play beauty shop because she would DIE to get to brush that hair! It’s Pocahontas hair (is what PJ would think), in fact, Parker would think she IS Pocahontas which would be pretty funny to watch her face when Emma walks in. Not that Emma is ever going to want to come over since she knows now my kids will run at her with a brush and about a million hair bows! HA!

So all in all, Emma was worth it. The thousands of potential tick bites and the 27 chigger bites I’ve counted so far (that are driving me INSANE). Oh and for anyone thinking my shoes didn’t look THAT covered… you have to realize that I took that photo AFTER I had stamped my feet, taken the shoes off, shaken the shoes and then brushed off the countless others that had invaded my ankles and calves as they were heading for my nether regions! Those were just the ones I couldn’t get off!

Here’s beautiful Emma…

See? Gorgeous!

But are you itching a little looking at the obvious places I must have gathered my little friends? And HOW IN THE WORLD she didn’t get any on her I have no idea because she truly was in deeper than I was! And do you know one of the things I keep thinking about is how badly I feel for deer that have to deal with these all the time? HA!

THANK YOU Emma and Virginia for not thinking I was totally insane when I stripped right in front of you! At least you have a good story to tell of your crazy photographer! HA!