Just for fun

One of my many summer projects is to go through all the art work and school work from the boys this past school year and whittle them down to maybe a binder-full that we want to keep. I'll probably take pictures of some of the best ones for you to see.

Anyway, here are a couple of ones from Brigham I thought were cool.


This picture certainly isn't the best example of Brigham's detailed rendering abilities, but I thought it was very creative because he titled it "Boo!" He told me this is a picture of what it is like when someone scares you by yelling Boo! I thought it was very creative!

And this is an example of the many different ways Brigham likes to write his name. I thought this was pretty good for a 5 year old because he did the block lettering by himself, with crayon, and without a mistake. This kind of block writing isn't easy!! And then he did a "shadow" underneath the name, a mirror image reflection of the block writing above. Cool!

May 22, 2007

Hi Everyone,
Well, yesterday as of about 5 PM we now have the dubious honor of being in possession of three houses. Yes, our house closed yesterday! The former owners will be staying in until the middle of next week, so it'll still be a few days before we can start doing the projects we want to do before moving in.
So right now we own a house in Florida and own and rent 2 houses in Texas! Hmmm... Something wrong with this picture. Our lease is up in this house June 30, so only one month of paying 2 mortgages AND rent.
We're thinking of possibly taking our Florida house off the market and renting it out for 2 or 3 years until the market recovers. I just don't really feel like being one of those sorry souls who has to sell their house AFTER the market has collapsed. Of course this is a little risky because the market may never recover, and even if we do rent it out, that won't cover all of our expenses for that house. We still have a bit of research to do before we decide one way or the other, but things are just not looking good in South Florida and if we can wait a couple of years, it may end up being by far the best move. Or maybe not. That's the risk of investment I guess.
Ok, so on to the far more interesting saga of our weekend! Just kidding, it wasn't that interesting. Saturday afternoon I took the boys to see Spiderman 3. I guess it got poor reviews by the critics, but I loved it! I think it might be my favorite of the three. It was pretty intense, but the boys liked it too and were not too scared. I just like the fact that the spiderman movies have such a strong good moral message, and even if there is violence, it is all good vs. evil violence. Anyway, I'm no movie critic, but I liked it and recommend it.
After the movie we ate dinner at the food court at the mall, and then I was hoping the boys would fall asleep in the car (they had been up late the night before). But they were having none of that, so eventually we made our way to the Deutchfest in Pflugerville. I realized when we got there that I had no cash in my purse, so we didn't end up actually going inside the park to the festival ($4 admission fee). But instead we went to a great little petting zoo they had set up in front of the entrance. Our friend Eddie lent us $6 so the boys and I could go in, and we probably spent 30-40 minutes in there! It was fantastic. There was an area with baby goats, piglets, chickens, and ducks, and then another area with baby rabbits, ducklings and chicks. Also there was a cow and a horse for the boys to pet and feed. My boys loved it! The kids were allowed to pick up any/all the animals, and they were all surprisingly tame and let the kids pick them up without scratching/pecking. Mosey was in heaven. If he could carry Angel around all day, he would. So he just picked up rabbit after rabbit, duckling after duckling, and seriously was in heaven. Have you all read the children's book "Olivia?" There is one page that says something like, "In the morning, after she gets up, and moves the cat, and brushes her teeth, and combs her ears, and moves the cat, Olivia gets dressed." The illustrations are hilarious because they show Olivia (she's a pig) carrying this poor cat around grasped under her front legs, and it just looks EXACTLY like how Mosey carries Angel around the house. So anyway, Mosey had a really wonderful time. Joseph got very good at catching the big chickens and was quite proud of himself. We all wanted to pick up some of the cute little piglets (only 2 weeks old), but those things are SO LOUD AND SO WIGGLY!!! You would never guess how strong those little tiny things are, and how incredibly LOUD they are!! One of the farm workers there told me that they have to be that way because when the 400-500 lb sow lays down to nurse the piglets, if she accidentally lays on one of the piglets, they only way it will survive is if it can VERY vigorously thrash around and squeal at the top of its lungs to get the sow to move off of it. I didn't have my camera with me, and even if I had, it was almost dark when we got there so it would have been too dark for pictures. But they boys had a great time, and 2 out of the 3 fell asleep on the way home. Oh, yeah, and we also saw fireflies for the first time ever!! So cool!! Just these little tiny lights that blink on and off. The boys loved looking for them as we walked back to our van.
After church on Sunday Ben and I played a nail-biting game of Othello. For the first half of the game I was trouncing him-- at one point I think he only had 2 or 3 pieces on the board. But the last half of the game, sadly, was a slow bleed for me, and I ended up losing by like 49 to 15 I think... I'll have to play him again and earn my honor back!
So anyway, that was our weekend. Yesterday was a pretty normal Monday. Today I've got a bunch of stuff to do-- WW meeting in a half hour, then a YW meeting, then I have to fax a few more documents to our loan people, then I have to pay bills, I have tons of laundry to do, and I'm trying to finish up a series of 4 drawings I'm doing for someone. They need to be delivered before Father's Day, but after I come back from D.C. I'll probably be pretty busy proofing pictures, getting invitations made, and then working on our new house, so I really need to finish these up this week.
So anyway, have a great day everyone!

May 18, 2007

Mosey and I are suffering from springtime allergies. I was spared while we lived in Florida, but whatever I am allergic to is DEFINITELY blooming around here. Mosey's been really sniffly the past few days as well, and I suspect it is also allergies. Today I was driving to Target with Mosey in the back seat, and he tells me that his nose is all stuffed up. I told him I would wipe it when we got to the store, but I guess that wasn't soon enough, so he does what all kids do, and used the back of his hand (TMI, I know...). Anyway, he was so funny because immediately he puts his hand up and says, "Mom, look! Booger juice!" LOLOLOL!!! Too funny from my little guy.
And then tonight he made me laugh again because I was reading him his alphabet book and asking him, "What's this letter Mosey? And what is this animal? And what about this letter? And what is this thing?" He began answering me in this funny growling voice. Really, a growl! But his voice is so high that a growl from him is quite hilarious. And the context was even funnier because he was using this high growling voice to say, "Mom, that's a capital M! I think (fink) that is a elephant. That is a lower case P! Mom, I fink those are jacks!" I was really wishing I had a tape recorder for that.
Mosey's fear of cockroaches is not abating. Ok, I'm going to tell you something really, really gross. Apparently at some point some cockroaches got into the air ducts of our van. They are, thankfully, dead now, and the air conditioner has blown them to the airvents in the back of the van. They are trapped there by the vent cover thingy, but if you look close, you can see them. I think there are 2 or 3 in there. So disgusting, but *I* am not going to be the one to get them out!! Ben will have to do that sometime. So anyway, the boys discovered they were there and now EVERY time I get Mosey into the van he asks me, "Are the cockroaches still dead Mom?" Yes, Mosey, they're still dead! No resurrected cockroaches around here. He's pretty worried about them! And last night in the middle of the night he woke up crying. I waited a little bit hoping he'd go back to sleep but he didn't, so I went in the boys' room, picked him up and asked him what was wrong. He was clearly not quite awake and he said, "There's a cockroach! A cockroach is going to get me!" Poor guy, having a nightmare about cockroaches! Ick, now I'll probably have a nightmare about cockroaches...

Joseph has started this funny way of saying no. Instead of plain old "no," he will say, "NEVER!" So I say to him, "Time to brush your teeth Joseph." And he'll yell out, "NEVER!!" Or he'll be outside and I'll call him in and I get a "Never, never!!" It is pretty cute because actually he's not really serious when he says it. Usually he'll come trotting over to do what I asked in a minute or two, but I get a kick out of his "NEVER!"

Brigham did something funny this afternoon too, but now I've forgotten it. Oh well, I'm sure he'll do something else funny tomorrow!

We went to Souper Salad tonight which was very yummy. My Weight Watchers strategy is to be good all week long, and then I let myself have one dinner a week where I eat whatever I want and don't count points. So probably my extra 35 points are gone for the week, but it was good! That is a good place to go with our kids because there is lots of variety so they can all find something they want.

We didn't close on our house today, but supposedly on Monday afternoon everything will be ready. Not a big deal since we aren't moving in right away anyway. When we were buying our Florida house our lenders kept stringing us along and the closing date kept getting moved back and back and I was going CRAZY living in that tiny hotel suite and was very frustrated. So this is a lot less stressful.

Tomorrow I think I'll take the boys to "Deutchfest," a German festival of sorts out in Pflugerville. I'm hoping it will be fun for the boys and not too many beer-drinkers! Our friend Eddie assured us it isn't Oktoberfest and that it should be family-friendly. Pflugerville is definitely a family type place, unlike downtown Austin, so it'll probably be fun.

May 17, 2007

Hey Everyone,
My boys have been counting down the days till the end of school. I'm not really sure why because I'm pretty sure after 2 or 3 days of no school they will be bored and want to go back! Actually I think they are mostly excited about being able to say they are 1st graders. :-)
I don't have too much to say today. I've been feeling a bit down about things lately. Just seems like I don't have time to do anything except chores and drive the kids to and from places (Yeah, I know, welcome to motherhood). I just see other moms that seem to be able to do so many things, and keep up with their houses, etc., and I wonder what is wrong with me. But I decided that probably the problem isn't that I have abnormally messy kids, or anything like that, but that I'm just not in a very good place personally right now and that is why things seem overwhelming. So I have recommitted myself to getting to bed earlier, reading my scriptures more diligently (I've been guilty of counting our family scripture reading time as my own personal scripture reading time, and it *doesn't* count!), and I re-joined Weight Watchers to get off these 12.4 lbs that have creeped on over the past year. I will be back to my goal weight by Naomi's wedding! It feels good to get back on the program, I already feel more in control of myself. I'm also going to concentrate more on things I am grateful for, instead of complaining about annoying things.
So, here are some things I am grateful for. My kids, while they have their moments, are also very sweet to me. Last Saturday I took the boys to HEB, and we had the usual "discussion" about who gets to sit in which seat in the children's car-carts they have there. There are only 2 seats, and I have 3 boys, so there is always a "discussion." Anyway, it was Brigham's turn to sit up on the handle-area of the cart (not supposed to be a seat, but oh well). I noticed that whenever I went over to get something off a shelf, Brigham would turn himself comletely around to be facing me. Then he said to me, "Mom, I have to turn to see you whereever you go because I like to look at you because you are beautiful." Awwwww. And the next day at Church he was sitting next to me in Sacrament meeting and he kept turning his head and sniffing my arm. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I like to smell you because you smell so good!" He must be buttering me up for something, huh?! Mosey has also been doing something really sweet. He will come over to me and hold my cheeks in his hands and then give me the sweetest little kiss right on the mouth. He is an exceptionally sweet 3 year old, and I am very blessed! Last night after I read him stories, I was so tired I decided just to go to sleep right then, too (8:00 PM). So I had the pleasure of listening to him tell stories to himself. I know he always does this, because I can hear his little voice in there for quite a while before he is quiet, but I usually can't hear well enough to know what he is saying. It was so cute to hear him telling this elaborate story about ants and an anteater which runned out to a field and shaked and shaked and shaked (??) and then falled asleep and sleeped and sleeped and sleeped and then waked up... Anyway, it was very funny to listen to him talking to himself. And Joseph has been so helpful recently! He's been my most willing boy when it comes to cleaning up. He's also been my least fighting boy! (Brigham and Mosey have been having some tiffs recently). He's been waking up happy and cooperative in the morning and generally just being a joy to be around. We got a nice surprise when his teacher sent a notice home over the weekend that HE also we selected for Principal's Pride for the month of May. So Brigham and Joseph both got Principal's Pride for their class, and both for creativity. I was very proud of them, and it was good for both of them to get that recognition. I am so proud of how well Joseph has been doing at school. He had such a rough start at this new school, but he has been SO good the last few months. No arguing at all about going to school, no conflicts with teachers or other students, he's just been a really good boy.
Ben has also been great helping me when he gets home from work. I guess he can sense that I've been stressed out. He's been doing dishes, running the Scooba (love that thing), and took the boys to a cub-scouts information meeting Wednesday night while I relaxed at home for an hour.
So overall I am very blessed, and I feel better focusing on those things than on the petty annoyances of life.
I'm reading this book called "Stumbling on Happiness," which is VERY interesting, I recommend it. Anyway, the author is a professor of psychology at some school or another and one part of the book talks about how our mind will put up a strong psychological defense when presented with really devastating things. Humans are able to be amazingly resilient in the face of tragedy or betrayal or other really bad things. But our defenses are not aroused by the little annoying things of life, so it is the little things that really affect our happiness, and NOT the big things you might expect. This explains why proportionally more marriages fail over little things that partners do to annoy each other than for big things like infidelity or abuse. Weird, huh? So anyway, I guess that explains why I can feel supposedly unaccountably down about relatively minor things. Interesting concept anyway.
Hopefully tomorrow we are closing on our new house! Our lenders are being very slow and leaving things to the last minute, so we are crossing our fingers. Ouor house in Florida still hasn't sold, and apparently the market is sort of collapsing. Sigh... Apparently the area has 24 months of inventory on the market right now and only half of those homes will sell in the next 12 months. Frustrating. I think we're just going to have to bite the bullet and drastically lower our asking price and just get this thing sold. Our variable rate mortgage is going UP very soon, and we just need to sell it. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. We'll be fine financially even if we don't make much money on the house, so really that is one of the "little things" I need to just make roll off my back.
I hope you all have a great Thursday and a great weekend!



Brigham up for Principal's Pride.



Joseph up for Principal's Pride.



All the Principal's Pride kids (K-3rd grades) for May.



Mourning dove we found on our deck the other morning.

May 13, 2007

Hello Everyone,
I had a GREAT Mothers' Day. Ben and the boys woke me up with a fantastic gift. It is called the Scooba, and it is like the Roomba except that it is for hard floors and it vacuums and mops. We've tried it in the kitchen and playroom and it really works! It's not totally perfect, but it will be much easier to run that thing and then spot clean as needed. Brigham and Joseph both made cards for me at school and gave me plastic bead bracelets that are just too cute. I'll wear them proudly.
I don't want to go on too long tonight since I want to get in bed at a reasonable hour, but I do have to say CONGRATULATIONS NAOMI AND DAVE!!! I need to get Dave's email address so I can add him to my email list. I'm sure he's just dying to read my daily updates. :-) So now I can finalize my summer plans, although I'm still not sure exactly what we will do. I just don't think we can made two plane trips this summer, not with closing on our house and everything that takes up a lot of cash. So I think maybe we'll go to CA the first week of August, and then drive up to UT the second week to spend time with Ben's family and then fly back home after the wedding. This will mean we miss the Frandsen reunion in July and the annual Turner gathering over the 4th of July, but I think I'd rather have Ben and the boys be able to be at Naomi and Dave's wedding, so that's probably what we'll do.
I have to brag on Mosey a little. So he knows all his capital letters, thanks to Blues Clues, but I know that technically I'm supposed to teach him the lower case letters first. So tonight while I was reading stories to him, I pointed out all the lower case letters in various words. Then I quizzed him a little and he can correctly identify all of them! It's amazing how quick little 3 year old brains are.
Ok, enough for tonight. I'll leave you with a few more pictures from that cool place I found last night. I did closeups of each of the boys' eyes. Are they weird? And then just one of each of the boys that I liked.


Mosey



Brigham




Joseph



Mosey




Brigham

Joseph

May 10, 2007

Why is it that towards the end of school time just seems to accelerate?? At least, it does for me. Probably not the same for the kids... Only 9 school days left. I'm hoping we can establish a really good summertime routine so we don't all drive each other crazy.
Joseph missed half of school today as it was. I thought he had a urinary tract infection. He was in so much pain last night and this morning, tears just streaming down his face every time he tried to go to the bathroom. I took him to Urgent Care this morning and after 10 minutes and lots of tears he was able to get about 1/2 an ounce for the urine analysis. But it came back perfectly clean!! The doctor examined him and he looked fine. So he gave us a urology referral just in case things didn't resolve themselves. I was very frustrated because poor Joseph clearly had a VERY full bladder (he really hadn't gone at all since yesterday after school). Anyway, on the way home he told me to pull over because he just couldn't hold it anymore. We found a tree, and he was actually able to go! And once he started going, it didn't hurt anymore. A miracle. He was SO relieved (yeah, I know, bad pun), and so was I. We stopped for happy meals on the way home and had a picnic with Brigham at the school, and Joseph decided he was well enough to stay for the rest of school. Poor little guy! But I'm glad it is all better now. I wonder what that was all about?
Brigham has been chosen for Principal's Pride for the month of May. I believe this is something like student of the month. Students are nominated in certain areas, and Brigham is getting Principal's Pride for Creativity, which doesn't surprise me! So Monday is the award ceremony and he's looking forward to it. Joseph had received the citizenship award in December at our old school, and Brigham had asked me a few times when he was going to get an award, and I just kept telling him I am sure he will sometime, but maybe not this year since there are lots of students in the school. So anyway, this works out very nicely for my two very competitive boys!! We also discovered that Brigham has three loose teeth! Yay!! He's been waiting for this for so long. They are just a little bit loose, so it will probably still be quite a while before he loses any, but Brigham is excited anyway. Of course Joseph had to show him up again by getting three of his six year molars. My boys are growing up... :-(
Mosey has been bitten by the puzzle bug, much like Brigham was at his age. He has a ten piece Dora puzzle that he just puts together and breaks apart over and over. He is doing it for the 10th time today right now. He is also getting so good at his numbers! He can recognize all of them by sight (although he gets T and I mixed up), and yesterday while we were waiting at Tae Kwon Do, I had brought a magna doodle for him and he surprised me again by being able to draw several letters by himself! He can do A, O, Q, M, N, C, E, J, S, and is working really hard on B and G. Truly, I can't take any credit. I really think it is due to the Alphabet Power Blues Clues DVD that he loves (ducking my head in shame here).
I've been doing pretty well recently, although I get very frustrated with myself. So you all know by now that the major source of stress in my life is my continuing pathetic efforts to keep the house clean (Yeah, I know, if this is the main source of stress in my life, I've got it pretty good! And I do.). This week I have sort of observed myself. I just have such a hard time buckling down and getting it done. On Monday I was determined to get the house totally clean. So what did I do? I spent 2 hours gathering up and organizing the books in the boys' bedroom. Yeah, the book case looks great and it is much easier to find books, but that probably wasn't the best use of my time. And then on Tuesday, with the same goal in mind, I found myself separating out about 6 different 100 piece puzzles that had all gotten mixed up together and putting them together so I could find out which ones are missing pieces, and also just to separate them again. Took me about 4 hours. Again, not the best use of time. My problem is that I am such a compulsive person at times. I start cleaning up, and then I see these puzzles scattered all over the floor, and it drives me crazy to just put them all in a box to separate out later. I have to separate them out NOW. Or the books. I'm picking up the boys books and I just can't bring myself to just stack them any which way in the book case, I just HAVE to sit down and organize them all. There's nothing wrong with that except that this is what I'm doing while the floors are a disgrace and the boys bathroom? Well, I don't even want to walk in there. And my car. It is SUCH a mess, and there is a suspiciously bad smell somewhere in the back... So what am I doing today? Well, writing an email update because it has been so long and I feel guilty and I guess it is just easier to procrastinate.
Ugh. I guess I just still need my mommy here to keep me on task!
I think Ben has been more successful in his daily pursuits than I have been in mine. He is dealing with some interesting and challenging employee issues. I think he is doing a really good job considering the delicacy of some of these issues. And I think he still likes his job. Right Ben? I want him to take a Tae Kwon Do class also. He can go Tuesdays and Thursdays 7:00-7:45 PM, but so far he hasn't been able to do it. Last Tuesday he spent a half hour trying to find the place. Last Thursday he wanted to stay home and watch the Republican debates. This Tuesday he didn't get home from work until after 7 PM, and I dont' know about tonight. I will encourage him to go. I'm sure he is exhausted after working all day, but I think a non-work, non-family diversion would be a good thing for him.
Ok, well I have 2 hours before it's time to get the boys from school and I am REALLY going to get something USEFUL done around here!!

May 5, 2007

On Saturday, after going to a baby shower, I took the boys to go search for milk weed. The boys want to find a monarch butterfly caterpillar to raise into a butterfly (they are doing this in their classrooms). We found milkweed, but no eggs or caterpillars. But I found this great place for pictures. I was so excited. Lots of different areas to shoot in-- fields, wildflowers, oak trees, stone steps, and then a drainage area with concrete retaining walls which give a cool "urban look." I took a bunch of pictures, which turned out well except I forgot I was spot-metering, so I ended up overexposing certain areas which really annoyed me. But I like them anyway, and as I edit them the next few days I will post more. For now, here are three closeups of my boys.
After going to the park we celebrated Cinco De Mayo by going to a Mexican restaurant. Actually we weren't really celebrating Cinco De Mayo, it was just a good excuse to go out to dinner! Afterwards I took the boys to Krispy Kremes (fulfilling a promise I made if they completed their chores), and we went inside to watch the donuts being made. It was funny because we had just watched a segment on Discovery Channel (I think) about Krispy Kremes being made. And the manager there gave us each a free donut, so that was even better.

Gallery night at the school

AAAAAHHHHH!!!! This is why I have such a generally negative attitude about public schools. This was written in the computer lab by a 1st grader at the boys' school. It says (I'll translate from the phonetic spelling) "Do not polute! Animals are disappearing. Do not use cars. The ice is melting. Help!" The picture is of a tree with the word "HELP" written in it. I'm just hoping this stuff was taught to the child at home and not at school.
Don't get me wrong, I am a CONSERVATIONIST. I really am. But all of this global warming stuff has just gotten to the point of ridiculous hysteria. But I'm not going to get on my soapbox here, I'm sure I won't convince anyone who believes otherwise, and for everyone else, well I'm just preaching to the choir.


On a brighter note, here is Joseph pointing to his artwork of a bat cave.



And here is Brigham with his artwork on display. I don't think this is of anything in particular, just an abstract piece done with primary colors.

Officially Texans

Hey, I guess we are now officially Texans. I finally got our Texas plates today. And it only took 4 months and 4 different trips to the County building to get it registered!

Brigham and his blocks

Bluebonnets, Finally!

May 3, 2007

I'm going to attempt to post a movie clip, the first time I've done this. Yesterday Mosey and I were building with Lincoln logs and he surprised me by being able to identify all the letters on a wooden lid that read KRAFT. Then he started singing the ABC song to me and it was so cute! Believe me, I am NOT a film-maker, but I hope you think this is as cute as I did!

May 2, 2007

Hello Everyone,
It is May 2 again, and I've been thinking about Jacob and our family as I always do this time of year. Mama and Daddy and Rachel I hope today your memories were more sweet than bitter. Mine were I think. Still there is always a big gap when I run down the names of my siblings, or when I tell people how many children are in our family.
A couple of weeks ago I ran across these links to photographs taken by pullitzer award-winning photographer Renee Byer. She followed the story of a young boy diagnosed with incurable cancer, and documented the last months of his life with his mother. These images were so powerful and moving to me, I just cried all the way through them. Made me think so much of Jacob and the last few months of his life, and what it must have been like for him, and for mama. I miss Jacob so much and I wish I could have seen how he would have grown up and what he would be like now. But I know I'll see him again, and I so look forward to that time.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part1/
http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part2/
http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part3/ http://www.sacbee.com/static/richmedia/swf/journey/part4/

The last couple of days have been pretty good! Joseph and Brigham had Tae Kwon Do Monday and this afternoon, and they really like it. So I guess my days as chauffeur mom have officially begun. Yesterday was an early-release day for the boys, and later in the afternoon I went to Brigham's classroom for his portfolio review. He is doing fine academically and the teacher told me that Brigham is the most creative child she's ever had in her 20+ years of teaching. She showed me a little picture and story he made in his story journal that day. He had drawn a picture of a house, and just below it a mirror image of the same house. Then he wrote, "My house is an optical illusion. Can you tell if it is upside down or upside up?" Of course, this is written in funny little Brigham phonetic spelling, but it was definitely decipherable, and pretty cool! So, even though Brigham is not correctly identifying numbers 13-19 (oops, bad mommy!), Mrs. Fuller said she wasn't at all worried since obviously his brain is working quite well. Music to a mother's ears.
That night was the school "gallery night" with artwork from each class displayed on the walls. So we went to see the boys' artwork and while we were there, we listened to a little asian boy playing the piano over by the art room. He was probably 3rd or 4th grade, and he was SO amazing! Made me feel like I've already failed my kids, not having them start piano at 2 years old... My rationalization is that it's not fair to rob little kids of some of their childhood by making them be so disciplined at such a young age. But somehow, I think maybe I'm just rationalizing to myself because I know *I* don't have the discipline to help my boys excel like this...
The cockroaches are waking up from their winter hibernation around here. I've seen a couple out and about, but none at our house until Tuesday. I was sitting at the computer when suddenly Mosey screams, and starts crying hysterically like he's hurt himself badly. I jump up and run to him, and try to figure out where he is hurt. I don't see any blood, but he was eating some crackers so I thought maybe he bit his cheek or his finger. But he shook his head, that wasn't it. I held him on my lap until he calmed down a bit, and then he started saying something about a "big black thing." I went to go look for something big and black and horrifying, thinking maybe somehow a snake got in the house or something. But I didn't see anything, so I went back and held him some more. He wouldn't set his feet on the floor, and just clung to my neck. Finally he told me it was by Brigham and Joseph's room, so I went back there and there was a lovely roach, lying face up on the floor. Not a huge scary one by any means, and it looked to be on its last legs anyway. So I went back and told Mosey it was only a cockroach, and then I got some roach spray and Mosey watched me put it out of its misery. The really funny thing was later on when Mosey was going over this situation again and he told me about the cockroach that "tried to kill him." LOL!! Obviously my little Florida boy has already forgotten some of the not-so-nice things about living in South Florida. Five months ago a cockroach wouldn't have fazed him!
Ok, that's it for tonight.