Special Guest Appearance

That's right!
We had a special guest appearance at our yard sale last weekend...


Vice President Dick Cheney!
It looks like he might be working on his vice presidential autobiography.


Josh was really taken by him.
Matthew really could have cared less.




And yes, he did sit on my lap. You didn't know he was that short did you?


This isn't the first time we've met Vice President Cheney. Last Halloween he made and appearance at our church's harvest festival. That evening he was dressed in his hunting apparel.


Judy even got to give him a kiss!



Don't be surprised if ole Dick shows up at your door!

Ice Cubes

I vividly remember the first refrigerator/freezer we got that had an automatic ice maker. Wow! No more filling those ice cube trays! It was a dream come true.

If you remember having an "old-fashioned" refrigerator/freezer, you probably also remember making ice cubes. I'm sure that either you--or someone in the family--would do anything you could just so you wouldn't have to fill the ice cube trays.

That's how it was in our house. And in Paul's house. We both have memories of either ourselves or someone in the family taking all but one cube and leaving it in the freezer so that someone else would have to fill the tray.

It was a regular cause for yelling in our house when I was a kid.
You would hear that freezer door open, and someone would yell.

Those are pretty funny memories now.

But here's what's even funnier.
Last weekend, during our garage sale, William found some ice cube trays.
He just had to keep those trays and could hardly wait to go in and fill them up. All week, he's been faithful to fill those trays and empty them--only to fill them again.



How long could it last?

Joshua's New Pet

Tuesday evening, while we were watching the Republican National Convention, the cricket started... What do they do? Crick? Sing? Not croak.

Well, you know. It sounded like it was right there in the room with us.
Turns out, it was.

Meet Jacky.



You see, the cricket appeared right in the middle of our family room. All of a sudden. William's quick response had the cricket under a little blue cup in no time. Then he put a plastic storage container over the blue cup...just to be safe.

There the cricket stayed until the next morning. Joshua, who had been asleep when the capture took place, wondered what was under all of that plastic stuff. William artfully lifted the big plastic container and removed the blue cup--all without letting the cricket escape (it was moving a little slowly anyway--what with being under plastic in complete darkness all night...no food, air, water...).

As soon as Joshua saw that bug, he said, "Aaaahhhh. It's my pet. It's name is Jacky."

Hhmmmm.



Now, I've never been one to adopt pets from the wild. Or from the pet store. I think that aversion began when I bought two little goldfish--one for Carrie and one for William. We brought Rebecca and Goldie home with us. I didn't know the first thing about "raising" goldfish, so I looked online. The first site I found was called "Goldfish Sanctuary." (Check out the quote on the top of their page.) That site totally had me a worried mess! Are they suffocating? Do I have enough square inches per fish? It was no fun to have goldfish, and I was honestly relieved when we found them doing the backfloat in their bowl.

Then came Carrie's frog. She caught it out in our yard and fell in love with it. We even borrowed GG's big fish tank for it so that it would have plenty of space. I cleaned out that fish tank really well with bleach and a scrubber. We added rocks and a little pool of water. Then I looked online to see what else frogs need.

Hold on. Did that say that I shouldn't clean out its home with bleach? It might asphyxiate it?

Great.

Then the frog got loose one evening...I'm not sure how. And I started screaming, and William started screaming. Carrie entered the room, had no idea why we were screaming, but she started screaming too. Then she realized what the problem was and calmly caught the frog and put it back in the tank.

The next day we released the frog back into the wild.

But...how hard can a cricket be? Once again, we looked online. Carrie read that they'll eat almost anything. Even each other. So, already I feel that we are being humane--it doesn't have to worry about getting eaten by its own kind.

Jacky loves popcorn.
He/She actually wrestles with it while eating it.



And kiwi. Yum!



All Joshy can talk about right now is his Jacky. He even reprimanded me for calling it a cricket.

"It's not a cricket now. It's Jaaaaacccckkkkkyyyyyy. I love Jacky."

He does love Jacky--just not its CHIRPING--that's the word I was looking for! Just not its chirping. He walks by the box with his hands over his ears.

I asked Josh what he thought Jacky was singing, and he said, "I think it's singing to God."

Wow. Don't you just think that must be true?



So far, so good. I woke up to Jacky's chirping today. It seems to be healthy...still.

Carrie told me that if taking care of a cricket became too overwhelming for me, we could always give it to Calla to give to her lizard.

Poor Jacky.

Wordless Wednesday..."A Little Help Here!"

I Thought It Was a Pine Cone!

We have this Bald Cypress tree out in the front yard that Paul and the kids gave me for Mother's Day a few years ago. I love it! It's such a neat, different kind of tree. I'll officially introduce him to you in a later post. That's right. He has a name.

Anyway, this tree has always had these little pine cone looking things hanging on its limbs. Not knowing much about a Bald Cypress tree, I just figured that it must be something like a pine cone. And of course, I would forget to look it up when I got on the Internet. That's what I do when I get my turn on the computer. I just sit there and stare at the screen and have no idea what to do with it except blog and email. I could have all kinds of things that I want to look up when I'm not on the computer, then put me in the chair and I go blank. And then my turn is over.

Well, yesterday I found out what those neat little pine cones are.

They are Bagworms!

What?!

Yesterday, William said, come look at this weird bug.

There, in the yard, was one of those pine cones with a head sticking out of it eating grass. When I poked it with a stick, the head would go back in, but it stayed firmly attached to that grass. It wouldn't let it go.

Thankfully, Judy was there to tell me that she thought it was a bagworm. Ron seconded that. It was confirmed by the website What's That Bug? I also found some great pictures of the bagworm on a website called "Bug Guide." You ought to check out the ones from South Africa and India. Pretty amazing.

Warning: The aforementioned websites are not for the squeamish.






I know nothing more about them yet--except that they kind of creep me out--and at the same time they intrigue me.

And that the female is the one that is wingless and flightless while the male escapes from the pine cone thing with wings and the ability to fly, looking for females. Oh, and the female dies after she lays eggs in the pine cone thing.

Wow.

Labor Day at Our House

Let's have a one-day garage sale on Labor Day!



That's what we're doing today. Garage sales always sound good when first mentioned. But I forget how much work is involved in preparing for a garage sale. Everytime we have one, I say, "Never again!" Then, before you know it, we've accumulated things for a garage sale.

The kids love sale day. It is fun, once everything is out and priced (Oh! The pricing!). Donuts for breakfast, sitting around visiting with Grandma and Grandpa (Thanks, Ron and Judy, for all your help!), interesting people to watch...



I can't really complain. Paul and the big kids did most of the set up work. I helped price a little, but mostly I kept Matthew happy. Today, I'm getting school things organized. I really didn't take the time to do that before we began school a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, back to the sale.

If you remember, back in the early part of the year, we gutted the kids' rooms. The promise was that if they cleaned out their rooms, we would have a garage sale, and they could make some money.

I think I also mentioned that I'm kind of sentimental--that's why Paul took charge of the "gutting of the rooms" project.

So, here I am last night, going through all the things that have been put in boxes for the garage sale. Some of those things were mine when I was a little girl. Through the years, I have given them to Carrie. Why did I give them to Carrie? So I wouldn't have to part with them.

Well, the day for goodbye has come.

Goodbye Raggedy Ann that my grandma gave me and made the dress for and had my Great Great Aunt Polly replace the hair on two times.



Goodbye, Tigger, who I cried for (very loudly, I might add) in the middle of a Sears aisle and my mom told me, "No" dragging me from the store and the same Tigger that ended up under my Christmas tree that year.



Goodbye handmade by a lady from my hometown Cabbage Patch doll that was from my mom and was supposed to be the last doll I ever got but my grandma had the same idea that Christmas and gave me "my last doll" when we went to their house in the afternoon.



Pictures seem to help me let go. I'm able to take a picture and know that it will be something that I will remember forever--even if I don't have it anymore. It's the same with the kids' school projects. We hang on to them for awhile and then take pictures of them before parting with them.

Here's an example...Carrie's shoebox pioneer home dioramma:



And what is Josh doing today?




He's having a ball! He's trying on dress-up clothes, playing with for-sale items, and putting claim on things that he just has to keep. Things that will one day make it back out to the driveway for another sale.

Unless Matty gets ahold of them.

Tea for Seven

Seven years ago, we began homeschooling.

Carrie was just five years old.

On that first day of school, I wanted to do something special. I decided to have a First Day of School Tea Party and invite Grandma to come over to join us. I remember certain parts of that day well. That summer, I had planted a flower garden. I had zinnias and cosmos--flowers that my mom always planted from seed. I remember dressing Carrie and then taking her to the garden to pick some flowers for the centerpiece of our tea table. Then I took her first day of school picture.

Kindergarten.



That year, 2001, there were four of us in attendance: Grandma, Carrie, William and me. We all drank tea from our favorite tea cups.



This year, we had our Eighth Annual First Day of School Tea Party. Paul's grandma now lives close by and has attended for several years. And now we have Joshua and Matthew--O.K., Matthew didn't really attend. He napped. But this was Joshua's first year to actually sit at the tea table instead of nap. Our drink of choice has also changed from tea to coffee and chocolate milk.

We also don't dress up as nicely as we did that first year.



Grandma and GG bring the kids bags of school supplies to begin our year. It's so much fun! I LOVE school supplies! And I am so thankful for all they do to support our school year and make it exciting for the kids. It means a lot to me.




And to the kids.





See that cookie loaded down with icing? Grandma brings them--they've become a much-anticipated tradition.




Like I said, Josh didn't nap this year.
But he wanted to!

Happy Third Birthday, Sweet Joshy-Boy

"I'm 3, and my clothes still fit me!"

That's what Joshua told his brother William on his birthday morning. Don't you just wonder what runs through a little one's head sometimes? How are they making sense of the world around them?

So sweet.

After many references to pirates in the past few months--we finally saw the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Josh has watched some Dora the Explorer and Backyardigans with a pirate theme--we decided on a pirate birthday party. It was lots of fun to plan!



Josh went over to Grandma's house to spend a few days this summer. He and Grandma made a pirate flag to hang at the birthday party. "Aaaarrrrggggghhhhh!"



Here are some of the party people getting ready for the Treasure Hunt. We usually have a Fourth of July treasure hunt at our house, but this year it was too wet. We decided to save it for Joshua's birthday--which worked out just right after deciding to do the pirate theme.
Party People from right to left: Uncle Brian (Paul's brother), Papa B and Grandma Gilda (my dad and his wife), and Grandpa Atkinson (Paul's dad).



Now the search begins...
Grandma (Judy) and I looked on as the kids followed the picture clues to the treasure.



Aaahhh! Treasure! GG (Paul's grandma) and Marilyn (Judy's cousin) look on as the kids divide out their booty! If you ask me, the chocolate coins and the little Hershey gold bars were the most valuable. I think Josh liked the paper money and the bubbles.



Then it's time for the presents!



And some money to spend all on his own...



And last, but not least, cake time. Josh was so tired by this time that he ate just a little ice cream but no cake.




Joshua got his first "big boy bike" this year. It's a Tonka construction bike that we found at Wal-Mart. He was so excited! He had a tough time learning to pedal--he's always ridden everything by walking his feet along.



Here he is sitting at the new school desk that Grandma and Grandpa gave him. He loves this desk--he sits at it all the time. He keeps all of his school supplies in it and does his "schoolwork" there.



I love birthdays! Not just because of all the excitement in planning and then the festivities the day of, but because it reminds me what a blessing that person is. Joshua wanted to hear stories of the day he was born. He was an emergency C-section because of a prolapsed cord. We talked about how quickly he was born and how many people helped to see that he was born safely. Paul and I gave Joshua the Bible verse Joshua 1:9 as he was being examined and cleaned up a little.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Wordless Wednesday....Aaaarrrrrggggghhh!

Dinosaurs, Unicorns and Blogging

Where has the time gone?
Where did July go?
I can hardly believe that we are already a week into August!

And, I'm wondering if my blogging hobby has become as extinct as the dinosaurs...or as nonexistent as the unicorn.

This month finds us preparing for Josh's third birthday on the 14th and for our first day of school on the 18th.

As you might guess, every time that I get on the computer lately, it hasn't been to blog or to read blogs. I've been researching and ordering curriculum and looking for good ideas for preschool themes to use with Josh. I think that I have only one more "have-to" curriculum that I need to buy, and "Dinosaurs" is going to be our first preschool theme.

Joshua asked me just the other day if we would see dinosaurs at the zoo. I guess I never really thought much about what a little guy might be thinking when he sees pictures of dinosaurs. Of course he might assume that they are as real as any other animal he might see at the zoo.

Another reason for my blogging absence has been because our computer has had a little time off this summer. Two weeks ago, it went to Cousin Kyle's for a spa weekend. Kyle cleaned it all out and checked for viruses, etc. It's so nice to have it back in good running order for the start of our school year.

THANK YOU, KYLE!

I have to get back to school stuff now, but I will leave you with one of Carrie's favorite past-times...

messing with Joshua's hair. She usually goes for the faux-hawk, but this time he allowed her to give him a twisty unicorn horn.