Now He's Got His Own Tag

You know Little Buddy is always in some kind of mischief. He's a sneaky fella and one that I do not trust under any circumstance. He's got a long running history with writing instruments and recently I've noticed that he has some gang tendencies. In fact, he's developed his own "tag". I'm sure that if he were older and was part of the Bloods or the Crypts this is what his spray paint bottle would draw:

Exhibit A: An unsuspecting corner of the living room that is sandwiched between a wall of windows and the built in entertainment center. It had gone unnoticed for some time until I was doing some random cleaning. Notice the "double t's"..... r. h. e. TT !!Exhibit B: Facial tissues from Target that were minding their own business on the counter....apparently way too close to a sharpie. Again, the double T's.Exhibit C: The last victim is one not to be reckoned with. The Infallible, Holy word of the Lord. Defacing such things is surely punishable by things worse than jail but shall not be discussed on this forum. I believe in the book of Joseph, chapter 3, it states that if you are under the age of 4 that this offense can be cleared and forgiven through the prayer and petition of your parents.

So, this double T is turning up all over this house. The defacer denies all charges but, seriously, he's the only person in this family with TT in his name. And given his reputation, he's prone to lying on the witness stand.

Grant Graduates!

Grant got to walk the big stage today at Pre-K graduation. I really can't believe that in just a few short months he's going to be at "real" school. The time, as usual, has just flown by without me realizing it. He was being quite the cut-up and making his friend Olivia laugh during the ceremony.

This is Grant with his teacher Ms. Ann Marie. He super loved being in her class this year. One thing they did with each child is to announce for everyone what they desired to be when they grow up. Grant's response is about 2 years and holding : An army jet pilot.

He gave Ms. Ann Marie a charm bracelet as a thank you for being such a great teacher.

I took Grant's picture with Thomas because, save for one year when he moved away, they have been in the same class at preschool. Grant and Thomas were usually inseperable at school. Unfortunately, they won't get to go to the same elementary school :(

Hugs from mommy for the graduate.

And another from daddy:

Kisses from grandma who never misses a thing!

I am so proud of Grant and how well he's done in his preschool. He started in the one year old class when he was 15 months old. He's never cried, not once, when I dropped him off. He's made several new friends, learned how to write his name, his colors, shapes, and numbers to name a few things. And, he's learned lots of independence. I can't wait to see him flourish in kindergarten!

Service With a Smile

Grant has never really been the eager to help kind of child. He likes the sound of helping out but doesn't actually like the work that accompanies it. Lately, however, he's turned over a new leaf. I've found something that he enjoys doing AND it's a big help. It's raking. The kid loves it. Who knew a $7.99 plastic fan rake could bring so much enjoyment to all of us?? Cade usually helps out as well but today it was a solo job. Grant bagged all the grass on his own and he did it with a smile. He did ask afterward when he was going to get paid some money for being so good. I guess his heart wasn't as pure as I thought :) And yes, he IS raking with a pistol on his belt. With all the creepy critters we've had around these parts lately one can never be too sure of when you may need to put a cap in something. We always keep personal safety a priority, even in the smallest of household chores.

Ahhh, all in a day's work..... seven days of rest from yard work if we're lucky!

A True....Umm, Animalitarian

There should really be crime tape on our porch after the last 24 hours. No pictures have been taken due to the graphic nature of the scene..... only the one's that will vividly remain in my mind until a couple weeks roll by and I can replace them with nicer ones. You remember Robin, correct? And you remember how I chastised her for her poor placement of a home. Yes, friends. The dreaded day has come.



Bobby was casually walking through our foyer when he noticed that our front door was now lacking one very important wreath. He looked out on the porch and saw that all 3 babies were strewn upon the aggregate.....one even fell down one step. He hung the wreath with the nest still attached back on the door. Then, remembering the golden rule of bird saving, (you should never touch the baby because then the mom won't love it anymore because it smells like a human, you know, that rule) he retrieved a spatula from my kitchen and "spatulated" (made that up) the babes back into their nest. All the while the mama bird was tweeting her head off at him. Luckily all 3 were alive and much to our relief the mom returned to sit on them. Strange thing was, about an hour later, another bird shows up to the nest with worms in it's mouth. The mama moved over and let this other bird feed the babies. I figured the conversation must have gone like this, " Ooohhh, Robin. I heard about the triplets. Honey, you must be beside yourself. We've been praying for you at church and I just thought I'd bring a meal by for you. " Pretty sure that's what she said but Rosetta Stone doesn't make a program for learning Tweet.



Let's fast forward to say, 1:35 this morning. Rhett is yelling for me to come up and re-cover him. (Seriously? That's another story for another day). I, friends, believe this was divine intervention. As I'm coming down the stairs I see a looonnngg, swaying tail hanging out of the nest. No mama bird. Oh yes. There was a four foot long, 6 inch in diameter, poison--........let me back up. There was about a foot long little snake in the nest EATING THE BABIES. No joke. One already in it's belly, one halfway in it's mouth. Then here comes Steve Irwi-- Bobby Morgan.....Fearless Baby Bird Saver. He pulled the snake out of the nest, stomped it and threw it into the street. (Then this morning retold the story to the children and marched them out in the rain to see it in the road. ) I have NO idea how this snake found the bird nest and frankly I'm a little weirded out that we had a snake on our front porch. Do you know how long it takes to fall back asleep after you've witnessed a baby bird head in the mouth of a snake? Long time.



Anyway, poor Robin is down to one little birdie that she is now sitting on diligently. We have enrolled her in some sessions with a Christian counselor so that she can tweet through her grief. You've never seen the likes of a bird with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. On a brighter note, we are pleased to announce that Bobby is a true hero of the bird community and will continue to do his part to form a friendly alliance between humans and birds.

Our New Lake House

This is a picture of the little creek that runs through our back yard. Little Buddy insisted that he run down there, stand next to the new bridge my dad built a couple weeks ago, and get his picture made. I did it to appease him and now I'm glad I did. It can serve as the "before" picture. I took the boys to the book fair at Cade's school and got caught in torrential rain on my way into the school. I had gone straight from the gym so I was already looking rough to start with. However, mix that with the wind and rain and the finished product was not good. In fact, (this is no lie), a special needs girl walked straight up to me in the library and said, "Why in the world does your hair look like that?" and she proceeded to use her hands to push my hair around on my head. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Just a side note. So, I come home and see our little creek busting at the seams. Little bridge underwater.

I sat down inside and was reading to the boys. Seriously maybe 20 minutes had gone by, if that. This was the view out my back window.

Then just a couple minutes later, it looked like this. CRAZY. I got the boys suited up because we were going to kayak through the back yard but when I got to the garage I realized we didn't own a kayak. Next time I'm at Academy I may price them.

I also now have a nice collection of balls: footballs, soccer balls, bouncy balls, over sized plastic balls, and a sword, and probably some shoes. And plenty of miscellaneous garbage. And a strange pile of weedy things on my little bridge now that the water has receded. Let me know if you ever want to come over and pretend we're at Dale Hollow. As always it's BYOB (bring your own boat).