I gotta share this.

Just call me Ned.

OH! And we've been watching reruns of Pushing Daisies (SO GOOD!) and I've taken a liking to making pie. I've made four since last weekend. Peach, Blueberry, Plum, and Strawberry Pies. YUMMo. I really should take more pictures. And make more pie. I think I'll go make one right now...

Tutus and Flesh Eating Beetles.

Ok. Well.

Trying to come up with something to write about... maybe if I add some bullets...

• Um. Okay. Let's see. I made a cake. :) And a tutu. A couple of tutus actually, for the girls whose baby shower I made the cake. This is Mags'. I haven't finished the other tutus yet, so no pictures. I bought Maggie some socks that match to get her picture taken in socks and tutu. Yay!
• 
  
• 
  Ok, now my bullets are out of control and I don't know how to fix them...
• The boys, Big D and Ike, had a Vacation Bible School they went to with some friends. The last day was Cowboy Day and the kids dressed up like... cowboys. (Didn't see that coming, didja?) We went to the dollar store and Goodwill the night before to find some cowboy wear to go with what they already had. There was a five pound Hershey bar for the best costume. The lamest costume won. Psh.
• Sammit. Sammit has been going to a developmental pediatrician for some testing. I don't want to go into a lot of detail, most people who know Sammit know that he's... full of life. We go back on August 10th for the "parent conference" with the doctor. We already know he needs speech therapy. His daddy thinks it's all just cause he's three, and I'm sure that has a lot to do with it, but... I'm his momma and I wouldn't have taken him if I didn't think they could help him. If I didn't think he needs a headstart. I'm hoping to get him into a pre-k kind of situation with other three year olds. Anyhow, hopefully the doctor will be able to help more with how we move forward... I'm tired of people thinking that just because he's a hand full, he's naughty. Cause he isn't. He's sweet and happy and cute and he just needs some ... thing. I have my own theories, but I'll save those for an update after our conference. (In this pic, he'd found the bag of peanuts and decided to help himself. :) And, of course, he has his hat and crocs.)
• 

We went... ok, these bullets are ridiculous. Never doing this again... We went to the Bracken Bat Caves with Big D's cub scout pack. It was very, very interesting. And hot. And stinky. Holy wow. The stink. But very cool. Here's a little of what we learned (taken from the website): Bracken Bat Cave is the summer home of the world's largest bat colony. With as many as 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats living in the cave from March thru October, Bracken holds one of the largest concentration of mammals on earth.

The emergence of these millions of bats, as they spiral out of the cave at dusk for their nightly insect hunt, is an unforgettable sight.

Ike still had blue hair from Crazy Hair Day at the VBS.
I found this pick on the internet. It wasn't actually taken the night we were there, but this is what it looked like.

TWENTY MILLION. The guide said that it takes 4 to 5 HOURS for all the bats to leave the cave. And that they travel as far as Corpus Christi in one night! Basically the bats at the opening create a vortex (screaming vortex of terror!) as they fly in circles and circle around and around and around until they all rush out in a spiral. It was very cooool to watch. The baby bats cling to their mothers while they are sleeping and there can be as many as ... I think he said 120 bats in one square foot of cave ceiling. ONE FOOT. They are super crammed in there, and if any of them don't quite get caught up in the vortex during take off they fall to the floor of the cave and get eaten by FLESH EATING BEETLES. No joke. Here's a picture:

In the winter the cave empties and the conservationists go in to harvest the guano and the guide was telling us that he's been bit several times by these suckers. And he also said that they floor of the cave is covered in bat skeletons that have been picked clean by these nasties. That made me really sad. :(

Ok, I guess I did have something to blog about.

I still don't know what's up with my bullets... or the font...

Scary... in many ways.

Of course it's a scary situation, but oh my heckarooni. Hide your husbands! LMBO!!!!

Ah, Alabama...

I should blog.

Thanks a lot, NPR.

So the hubs listens to NPR, religiously. It's the only thing that plays in his car... unless I'm driving. :P

This week, on Marketplace, they did an interview with William Powers, author of Hamlet's Blackberry (which sounds like an interesting read), who said that he and his family have introduced an "Internet Sabbath". They unplug the modem on the weekends, Saturday am to Monday am. I've heard of people taking time off from getting online, like a whole week at a time, but this appealed to me (more or less) because it felt like something we could (and should) at least try, and something we could do on a regular basis.

So here's what we did instead:

1. We listened to Big D whine about checking his Farmville. Seriously, dude? I came this ... close to deleting the silly thing. (We aren't big gamers so this is new and exciting to him. LIMITS, Man.) *sigh*

2. I had my first Sonic Campfire Blast. Oh My Gee.


Graham cracker ice cream with chocolate covered marshmallows... I was dubious about the flavor of the ice cream, but it is SO good! And the chocolate covered marshamallows... that's what sold me.

Bliss.

I've had another since then... my hips thank me.

3. Ike tried feeding his sister, but she decided to feed herself. Sweet potatoes. Yum!

4. We went to the Mall on Saturday after our ever so patriotic TACO breakfast at church. Tacos? Really? Ok. Anyhow, it was the first time I'd been to a mall in... um... two years, at least? Once we got there, I remembered why. I have four reasons. Cute, loud reasons. But, we went in Build A Bear and got Mags her own bear. D was older when he got his cat, but Ike was about 6 months when he got his "Monkey Toes". She loves her bear! She picked it out, and who was I to complain when she grabbed at the the cheapest one!? Sammit ran screaming from the store... *sigh* He still doesn't have one. Whatever.

5. We put Mags to bed early Sunday and burnt through the fireworks we bought, mostly the little tank-style ones. And sparklers, of course.

Daddy lighting sparklers on the grill. :)

This child should not be allowed near long, whip like sparklers. Almost burnt my tush more than once.

Choosing which we should do next!

Daddy and his Ike
SamBam freaked out when the big ones started!
Attempting a small sparkler...
Once it sparked his finger, though, he wanted nothing to do with it.
Playing with a neighbor friend.


It was hot and smoky. :P





Daddy found this guy in our "backyard". YIKES!!!!! Then he tried to catch it (Say What??!) and let it go elsewhere. Elsewhere being just behind the fence. Seriously? I was thinking about a mile away...

So that was our weekend. Aren't you glad I shared? :)

The Heads

Oh... and the maintenance guy "fixed" the hole on my neighbors garage. The dogs busted it out again. It's flippin' hot in there!!!

So wrong.

Trippin' in STL.

I'm goin down down baby, yo' street in a Range Rover
Street sweeper baby, cocked ready to let it go
Shimmy shimmy cocoa what? Listen to it pound
Light it up and take a puff, pass it to me now ...

Hung out with Nelly last week in the Lou... Mound City... Gateway to the West... Yo.

You dig?

*snort*

Okay. Anyhow...

After a 16 hour drive, me and the littles made it to el casa de mon pere. Like that? That's what I call Franish.

Oh, I love this guy:



Don't leave your kids in the car, you dig?

Ok, back to what I was saying. What was I saying?

Oh yeah, St. Louis.

It was nice. The drive, not so much. Particularly the drive home. We debated having N fly up and help me drive back cause it was CrAzYyy but he was all, "You can do it!" SO I did. And got a flat tire in the middle of Oklahoma. Blurgh. Oklahoma. Glad they let me pay them $8.25 for the privilege of driving on their roads. :/

But. I'm a big girl. ANd I handled it. (Not that I didn't curse him out and hang up on him.)

SO, yeah, St. Louis. We swam, we ate well, kids played with cousins. It was good!

I forgot the camera.

Oh well.

One of the best moments was when we were in Joplin, Missouri in a Chik Fil A. The boys had to potty SO bad so they ran in the bathroom while I ordered. Ike came out while I was trying to place the order and yells "Mommy, I peed my pants a little!"

"Okay, it's alright."

"THEY"RE ALL WET!"

"It's okay, shhh."

"But, they're WET in the FRONT! SEE!!?"

"Okay. Ike, where's your brother?"

"He's in the bathroom going STINKY!"


:)

I made a word.

So I'll leave the Irish Spring background up for another day or two...

I'm what I like to call a "self-better". I'm like Colbert, see. I can make up words too. But, yeah, I'm a self better. Not that I'm better, but I like to place bets with myself ... in my head. In fact, if it was real, I'd be pretty wealthy right now. I'll give you a for instance. This morning, N and I were having a "discussion" and I said to myself, "I bet ten dollars, he's gonna tell me to write in my journal." (It's always ten dollars, not sure why. Not like I'm actually gonna have to pay up.) Anyways...

Do any of you do this?

Or am I crazy?

Don't answer that last one.