I should be in bed...

After what I did today. I promise I'll head that way after I publish this.

First, I took Ryan to work at 8:30 because his boss said that's what time I needed to have him there. She didn't show til 9 so we had to wait there for her. Then I came home and got the girls so we could drive an hour one-way to get raw milk for our co-op. For some reason I had the order down as 10 gallons but added mine to it and ended up paying for 13 gallons(and came home with 10), it still confuses me! Stopped by our house to drop off my milk(that wasn't really mine but I didn't know it yet), took the rest of the milk to the distributor's home. Stayed and visited waiting on the egg lady to bring our eggs. Visited more and realized I needed to pick Ryan up from work. I called, he said they were ready, so Sarah and I took off for the rink. When we got there he found out that they'd be there at least another hour or more. Sarah and I rushed home so we could eat and put the eggs up and I grabbed the milk that wasn't mine before going to get Ryan "for real". We then dropped off the milk, and ran by walmart to return a night gown, get my medicine(for high blood pressure, imagine that!), dog food, and ice. Then home for a bite of chicken, a shower, and a short(very short) nap. Off to drop Ryan at his youth group's place and then the girls to their Wednesday church thing before going to PetCo to see about the kitties(they are fine but I haven't got to see them yet). Met Mark at Mugshots, drank iced tea before running out to get the girls. Brought Mark back to his car and came home. He had to go back out to fetch Ryan and we ate our dinner at 10 minutes til 10 tonight. Whew.

I promise to have frog pictures, piggie pictures and more in the coming days! Things have been a bit strained as Mark was forced to resign from his job last Friday. He is doing some consulting for a friend and thinking it will be permanent in a few months but the pay is considerably less than what he was getting. Still, we consider ourselves very lucky and blessed that he has the connections and friendships that lend themselves to this type of situation.

Fishing trip...

(the girls waded)


(the boys tried to repair the motor)


(the girls were bored)


(the mom was bored)


(then things picked up)


(Sarah caught a perch!)


(then Mark caught a crappie)


(and Ryan caught one too)


(the sun went down)


(and we enjoyed the evening)

And now for something completely educational...

Last week Ryan found one of THESE in the swimming pool!!! Isn't it creepy? He is very lucky it didn't bite the peewaddle out of him!! We assume it was in the pool because of the tadpoles. They are fast becoming pickerel frogs and so far Sarah has managed to capture 26 of them to be released at a local park. I wish they weren't so stupid to get in our pool. Neighbors beside and behind us have water gardens so I guess they just view the pool as one more habitat. We also have tree frogs and some kind of ugly black one with tiny legs(looks kind of like an olive). Anyway... here's the Giant Water Bug.





I went looking for some food fun to do with the kids this summer. We watch Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern and LOVE it! However, I don't think I'll be frying up any grasshoppers or squid hearts anytime soon. Instead, we'll be trying breakfast foods from around the world. Its an interesting jumping off point, now I have to research the recipes! But really, how fun does that sound to learn how different cultures do the morning meal? This page has them divided into 19 different categories but we'll probably tweak it to fit us better. I'm thinking this will be something to do on Saturday mornings rather than a weekday. That way I'll have an adult helper and he won't have to miss out on the good cooking.

In other news...

We're going fishing this afternoon when Mark gets off work. Not so much to fish as to allow Mark to fix the boat motor. It quit working last time they went out and he tinkered with it enough that he thought it would need professional help. He worked on it Sunday and got it running again but it needs some fine tuning in the water.

I wish I could find my camera cord!!! We had a super time in Ft. Worth at the zoo and botanical gardens, I highly recommend this trip! I can't show you any pictures yet though, darn it! Hopefully soon.

Attention MORONS(and responsible people too)...

PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!!! And, if you have cats, consider keeping them as INSIDE ONLY cats!!! This happens far too often.




The kids and I had a full day of park and skate with the local homeschool groups. We got home around 4pm to find these precious babies in a flower pot next to the front porch, dry but their umbilical cords were still damp. It was 90 degrees today. Mama kitty nowhere to be found. We think she's a stray we've seen a few times, possibly feral, definitely not tame. She's probably not going to come back. I've got newborn formula for them but the black and white one isn't eating well and seems to be the weaker of the two. We are going out of town tomorrow for the weekend or this wouldn't be such a crisis. Fortunately I have someone to foster them over the weekend and possibly another person to take them til they are weaned. Provided they survive through the night with me.

Again...

PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!!!

Ack, I forgot the title!!...

(nap session, from top left, Tallulah, Tibert, Gypsy and Jasper)


(Jasper isn't the only one who takes care of Tibert, now its Gypsy's turn)


(they stayed this way over an hour)


(Tallulah and Tibert gassed out on my computer chair after a hard play session)


(she loves having a younger playmate since Jasper and Gypsy, at 19 months old, are outgrowing that energetic stage)

In other news...

I found one of my rotary cutters so now I can work on my 9-patch!!! It isn't one of my good ones so I'm hoping to limp along and get at least a few blocks worth cut out.





And, it is raining!!! YAYYYY!!! I dragged my planters of Wandering Jew out to get a good soaking. My friend Sharon gave them to me a few years ago when she moved and I thought they'd died(or were nearly dead). Last week I gave them a whole two quarts of water and they leapt back to life! They are soooo beautiful!! Wow, it is really coming down now. Good.

If we hadn't gone, we might not be here...

(she assured me they didn't need to wear their vests)


(her class was the largest with 19 regular attendees)

Last night was Sarah's AWANA award ceremony. She completed her first book, got extra credit work, a friendship award, and an award for good manners. YAY!!! The funny thing about this AWANA stuff is that sometimes when I dropped her off the teacher would show me stuff to do "with" Sarah. When she got home, however, she squirreled her book off to her bedroom to do it "herself". I NEVER even opened the book, never even saw it. She said it took her a while to learn how to read it by herself but she did it! YAY!!!

Anyway, after the ceremony they had a pinewood derby which lasted forfreakingever. Sarah won the third heat so we got to go home earlier than many....

Which was a good thing. When Mark raised our garage door we noticed a strong, burning, acrid smell. He thought it might be his boat batteries which he'd put in the store room to charge(they weren't on the chargers though). It wasn't. We finally located the source of the smell, a fluorescent light fixture that had quit working late last week. Mark and Ryan got in the attic to see if the wires were messed up and they were fine. Mark turned off the garage breaker, just in case, and removed the bulb which was glowing red at one end! We left the door up and opened a window to get the smell out. About 20 minutes later I went out to check and the smell was still there! I climbed up the step ladder to see if I could spot something going on with the light fixture and as I put my hand on the ceiling to steady myself, found the ceiling was HOT!! Again Mark went into the attic but the other side was only warm. We decided to check the spot periodically to make sure it was cooling off and not heating up. It finally was cool when we went to bed, the power to the garage remains off.

This was truly a God thing. If we had not been gone it is possible that we would never have smelled the smell which alerted us to the problem. We would have been inside the house while it got worse and worse. Maybe someone would have gone into the garage but probably not. We are SO very blessed to still have our home and our lives!! Thank God!!!!

In other news...

Karen asked if we'd get Mr. Tibert a playmate and the answer is NO! He has bonded with Tallulah, Jasper and Gyspy very well, Jasper especially. They all romp through the house like crazy cats but he always manages to snuggle up with Jasper to take his naps.

a new blogger in town...

My Mom has a NEW BLOG!!! Check it out!! Not much content yet but she'll get there. I hope she finds as much goodness in blogging as I do!

In other news...

Mark and Ryan went fishing with friends today while the girls and I stayed home and did NOTHING. Oh it was nice. They are still an hour from home with a flat tire on the trailer so I don't imagine we'll see them before dark. Luckily Mark thought to take his trailer jack(can't remember what he called it) so he can change it easily, he just has to find one! Hopefully the rain will hold off til they're home.