Jake is always coming up with new phrases and statements he likes to say often. Right now, one of those statements is, "I love..." (whatever it is). He loves this...he loves that...The other day while eating at Olive Garden, out of the blue Jake declared, "I love my haircut!" Glad to hear it, Jake.

On this particular day, Jake's statement really got a good laugh out of Erik...

Erik had ordered a truckload of landscaping rocks to be delivered. We had several sections in the backyard where the rock layer was very thin. Erik, Jake and I shoveled the rocks into a wheelbarrow and Jake's wagon to move them from the driveway to the backyard.

Erik took a load back to a spot where there was a box in the ground for "easy" access to the sprinkler system. Well, he accidently dropped a bunch of rocks into the box when he dumped them. So Erik got down on the ground and began digging them out by hand, as he sweated, and huffed and puffed over the aggravation.

Jake came up to him and asked, "Daddy, what are you doing?" Erik replied with frustration, "I'm digging out the rocks that fell in here." Inquisitively, Jake asked, "What's the matter?" Erik sighed and said, "It's a big hassle." Jake exclaimed with excitement, "I love a big hassle!"

Stacey Lloyd
Created: 06/05/06