Last week was my Spring Break, and I had such a great time. It was a late Spring Break, and I'm not sure why exactly that it was pushed back to mid-April, but the weather was wonderful.

Kara and I went down to her families area over in North Mississippi. Since I had never seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), they rented it for us to watch, and I really enjoyed the movie. We and Nathan met up with Kara's granny and granddaddy on Monday for lunch at Wendy's. Later with Nathan, we walked around Hernando and stopped by the Dip for ice cream cones.

Tuesday, we went with Gabe, Susanna, and Micah to Grace Christian School in Memphis. Micah and I unloaded the trees and scrubs that were used in the new landscaping around Grace Chapel, and I spent some time talking with Timothy, studying, playing basketball with Micah, and talking with Carson, Luke, and Davis.

At 2 o'clock, we went to the Memphis Zoo and were admitted for free because we are Tennessee residents. Micah was finished with his school and went with us. They also let Micah in for free, and we all had a really good time. They were feeding the snakes... so, that was kinda gross (poor little white mice). I ran through this big water spray because it was so hot and we were all so thirsty --- I didn't drink the water as I ran through, but it still helped cool me down. We found bottled water later on in our walk.

My favorite things at the zoo this time were the grizzly bears and the hippos. The grizzly bears were playing, chasing one another, and fighting. One even pushed the other into the water, and they met in one area and started just swatting each other while standing. It was really fun to watch. The hippos got out of the water and came right up to the fence. They were so huge, and I still don't understand how they can walk... much less swim.

Gabe and I invented a new game last week called Lawn Mower Ball. We took this old push mower without an engine and turned it sideways, and had to see who could throw the baseball through the lawn mower the most. I made a lawn mower ball high score of 14 points the second time that we played. The first time we played, Gabe won.

I played Monopoly with Nathan, Micah, and Gabe one night, and I was winning at first with hotels on the orange and red properties. Gabe had Boardwalk and Parkplace, but no one seemed to land on those enough to cause any damage. Nathan had the light blue and light purple corner properties, and Micah had the yellow properties. But everyone was broke because they kept landing on my properties before they could build theirs up. Until I put Micah out of the game and he sold his yellow properties to Nathan for $20. Nathan ended up winning the game.

Friday, we went to Mamoo and Papoo's house, and I rode bikes with Micah and Gabe. We decided to play hide and go seek on bikes, and Micah let me know that he knew of some different trails in the woods (there were some cleared out trails) - so, I followed him and we ended up in the middle of a wooded field of poison ivy. It was horrible. I quickly got back to the house and jumped in the shower to scrub with soap twice before getting out. Kara washed our clothes, and the three of us boys were walking and sitting around in Papoo's pajamas while waiting on our clothes to wash and dry. Thankfully, I ended up not getting poison ivy.

Saturday, Kara and I drove to New Albany. She met up with Audrey and went to Tupelo, and I drove over to Louis' house and spent the day with Louis and his family. Lily was smiling at me a lot, and I got to hold her quite a bit. I drove Louis' new lawn mower around a little bit - he recently got a new lawn mower for his big yard (one that is the same kind that's used on golf courses). Later on, we went out to Ripley, and he bought a new weed eater with a blade kit (the blade can cut down 3 inch trees).

Saturday evening, Kara and I went back through to Southaven, and Kara met up with Chelsea at Starbucks while I spent my time at Best Buy.

On our way back home Sunday evening, our car broke down on the Interstate. Without any warnings, our transmission blew out completely, and our car wouldn't go anywhere. I called my emergency roadside service, and they towed the car (no additional charge from my monthly payment) to Smithville. Kara and I stayed the night at my parents house, and I spent Monday getting the car to my mechanic and looking for a transmission. My dad and I found a used transmission, I'm borrowing my dad's van for this week, and I hope to have my car back by this weekend.