Weeds, Stones, War, School, and Football

~Our back yard is a large open area that is dirt and weeds. It's so large back there that the cost of watering grass back there would be too much for the people who own the home so they just left it open and dirt. Well, it's being overtaken by weeds now. When Brian tries to mow it it flings dirt and rocks all over at him  cutting his legs and arms and face, and they fling at the house, the windows, everywhere. So we decided to spray weed killer on them. I sprayed some cheap weed killer from Walmart all over them a few weeks back...NOTHING happened!!! It was as if I had sprayed fertilizer on them instead of weed killer. The other day I decided to spray some Round Up on them. I mean it's ROUND UP!! That will kill anything right?!....NOTHING happened again!!!! It looks like a jungle of weeds out there!! The kids don't even want to play out there anymore because of the craziness of the weeds. Any suggestions?! I'm going to put on some long pants and a long sleeve shirt and mow them again but doesn't there have to be some kind of killer that actually KILLS weeds? If you have a tried and true brand and particular type please enlighten me!!!
~So about 4 years ago, on Memorial Day, Brian passed his first ever kidney stone. Between that day and Labor Day of that year he passed 36 kidney stones. UNBELIEVABLE!!! And he didn't experience much pain at all. He has an incredibly high threshold for pain!!! Well, the last one had spikes and got stuck and he had EXCRUCIATING pain and ended up having to have a lithotripsy to break it up so he could pass it. The anesthesia made him very loopy which made for some great entertainment for me! :) 
Since then he has passed about one kidney stone a year. None of them being very painful at all. Just a bit uncomfortable for him. Well, last Thursday he woke up in the middle of the night feeling very nauseous from the extreme pain in his back. He said it felt like he had a knife stabbed in his back and realized he had another stone. He had a lot of pain with this one Thursday and Friday as it tried to leave his kidney. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday he just had a small amount of pain sporadically throughout the day but not bad at all. Finally, Tuesday at around 3:30 am he finally passed the darn thing. I felt so bad for him! Those things aren't fun!!! I have been lucky not to have those. I may have just jinxed myself! But I'm sure that I would have been much more whiny if it were me. I would have had to use much more medication and would have milked it a lot more than he did. He's awesome!!!
~For years now people have suggested The Children of the Promise series to me. Even Brian read them and he's not a super big reader. He enjoys reading but doesn't often commit to a series of books that big. I always say NO WAY!!! I get so freaked out about war. I just can't take it. It's so hard! We don't watch R rated movies but I wanted to see Saving Private Ryan when it came out because I felt it would be good to see the reality of that war and appreciate the things people went through to ensure my freedom and the freedom of so many others in this world. Well, it was HORRIBLE!!! At the time my little brother Nathan (yes he's 6'4" but he will always be my "little" brother) had just joined the Marines. My brother in law Richard was in the military as well. I can't remember if he was in Special Forces in the Army yet or not but he has been for years. It was too close to home for me. It made me so sad and sickened to think of what these soldiers had endured. And it scared me to wonder what my relatives might have to face if anything bad happened while they were in the military. There was one particular scene that has haunted me since I saw that movie. I woke up with nightmares of that scene for at least a good month after I saw that movie. It was horrifying!!! To this day when I hear the name of that movie my mind immediately goes to that scene and I feel sick to my stomach.
Since watching that movie September 11th happened and the war broke out. Nathan spent a month in Iraq. Richard has been there many times for long periods of time. War terrifies me and I just don't do well seeing stuff about it or reading stuff about it. I finally caved and decided to read that series because my mom let me borrow a whole bunch of books and I realized they were all extensions of that series. I figured what the heck...I'll give them a try.  I finished the first one this morning. I couldn't put it down. It was really good but also so hard to read at the end when the Japanese soldiers began the Bataan Death March with our soldiers. It's just disgusting to me!!! What those poor men went through and what their families went through. It's just horrible!!!
I have been watching my Gilmore Girls Series boxed set again lately because it makes me HAPPY!!! I catch an episode when I'm folding laundry in my bedroom. I like to stick a disc in the computer and watch an episode while I do dishes. As many as I've watched you would think I would dream about them but I haven't done that at all. Not until I read this book about war and now I'm having nightmares about them. I'm debating if I should keep reading these or not if they are going to affect me so much. There are still 4 more books in this stories and a whole bunch more in The Hearts of the Children that is an extension of these books from what I understand. If I keep going I won't want to stop I'm sure but can I handle the stress these books cause in my heart? Have any of you read them? What do you think? Are they worth continuing?
~Only 12 days til school starts!!! I'm so very excited and worried. The kids are going to love being in school again but I'm wondering how Max will ever manage without his brothers around. How will I ever manage without Max having his brothers around?! It should be interesting that's for sure!!!
~Football practice has begun for Zack. It's his first year in tackle football. He is very excited! He's so cute in his football pads!!! He has a scrimmage tonight and his first game in a week and a half. We're excited for this fun new adventure for him!!! Baseball about puts me to sleep but I really get into football so I'm excited to watch his games!!!