The Happenings...

Well, its been awhile, and someone I know and love mentioned that she had no idea what was going on in my life anymore because I hadn't been sharing any of it... well... I would love to say its been all fun and games... no hard times, no ruff spots.... but well... its just been life. I can say that I have lots of entertainment and my children are the main source. So, here it is... what has been happening in my life!!! (or at least the part I'm ready to admit to and talk about)

This is Nate.. Bruce has a setup in the basement to process vegetable oil into diesel and we get oil from Taco Bell once a week... well, every so often we will eat there when we go to pick up the oil. On this occasion I bought cinnamon twists and my sweet, ever entertaining Nathan was his typical self and started playing "now you see it, now you don't" as he was eating them... I couldn't help but laugh and of course film!

This video is Nate again... We where out and found a new little hole in the wall thrift store that had a pretty good display of Halloween costumes out front for some decent prices. I brought home a pirate costume for Nate that was complete with a hat that had a long haired wig attached to it and everything. The first thing he did was put the hat on, swing the hair around, and start rockin!!!

Another thing that has happened over these last couple weeks is homecoming for Jessica's high school. One thing about living in a small town is they have fun festivals and parades for every season and event it seems. On the weekend before this the town had a fall festival to celebrate the fall and the beautiful colors and all the things it brings. There was a parade - which I arrived at 10 min's late and totally missed seeing Jessica in - and an awesome fair type setup complete with shops, displays, music shows, and lots of really good food. Of course because of this 10 min late and missing her thing, I was early for the homecoming parade and got her! The camera didn't get her so well, but I was there nonetheless. The homecoming game was cool, at least Jessica said it was... and we won! I didn't go for the game, being a single-ish mother of 6 means that when nobody wants to go to the football game with me except the kid that's actually in it, that I just go for half time to check out the show. I have to say it made the shows we did when I was in high school look like nothing.... they where amazing. The dancing, the movements, and the creativity was totally awesome! Jess has posted alot of the video I took already on her blog, so you can go there to see other parts of the program, but I really like this one. Their coach really did a good job on all the choreography they do. It was awesome!!

I also got to attend another homecoming celebration at Nate's preschool. They invited all the preschool kids and their siblings down to make a hat, and sash, and then be in a homecoming parade around the preschool. It was really cute and they all played instruments and walked around the school making lots of noise... adorable!

If you look really close at this picture, especially at Nate's sash, you can see what looks like kinda scribbled letters... that is Nate's name - he wrote it himself! I am so proud of him!! I never realized how much a 4yo kid could learn in just a few weeks of school! He can write his name, a little messy, but he can do it and he recognizes letters almost everywhere we go and is even sitting here currently pointing out all the letters he knows on my keyboard.... He is really growing up! Finally!! ... :)

Raych loves to go to Nate's school, every chance she gets. Every day when he leaves on the bus, we have a talk about when she can go and if she is going to ride on the bus. This was definitely right up her alley... go to school, make something fun involving markers and stickers and then get to make lots of noise and act like she owned the place! Needless to say we where the last group to leave because Raych was busy doing and seeing and talking... and she can't wait to go back!

Sarah is a total go with the flow kinda kid, and a good thing too, because if she wasn't I would be in so much trouble. She does love to dance and make music, so walking thru the school making music was a blast for her. She is at the stage where she is starting to talk and interact with everyone. In fact, just the other day she started something new. She dances in circles until she is dizzy and then when she falls over, she giggles and then if the music is still going, she gets up and does it again.... I'll have to get a video of that, its too cute!

OK, now that you are up to speed with what has been happening around here up thru last weekend, fast forward to tonight.... Growing up in Arizona, I was used to seeing snakes, scorpions, roadrunners, big fat frogs when we would irrigate, and other interesting "desert" animals... well when we moved to Missouri, I was really looking forward to the green and the foliage and it never dawned on me that there would be a new group of animals that lived here.... well, I can tell you first hand - there is!!!

As I pulled up into the driveway tonight, my headlights caught the tail end of something running up the stairs onto the back porch.... knowing that we have a kitty that adopted us, I figured it was just her running up the stairs.... well, sitting in my car for a moment, I noticed that the downstairs doors to the old fashioned garage in our basement were open. Great, the kids left the doors open, nothing new... but then I saw movement in the garage... uhhhh.... the cat doesn't move fast enough to get from the back porch to the garage that fast.... what is in my garage.... then the cat comes walking out of the garage... uhhh....OK, what is on the back porch! Between me and the backdoor no-less.... so I use my phone and call inside and tell the kids to turn on the back porch light and tell me what they see.... Due to the fact that I have an interesting story about 2 raccoons and me on the back porch at 2am that I would rather not relive, I am way to chicken to get out of the car and check the porch out for myself... so anyway, Jess describes this hairy thing, with a pointy nose and a long rope like tail sitting bravely in the middle of the back porch.... great! Ok, I tell her, open the back door and then slam it again and see if you can scare that thing out.... ya right! The thing sticks around, walking around on the back porch, munching on the cat food that the little ones so sweetly spread all over earlier....then the cat saunters up the back steps and I watch intently waiting for her or it to come running out... ya! whatever! the goofball cat makes friends with the thing and now they are both munching on the food spread all over... seeing this, the kids get more drastic and start throwing silverware out the door at this thing... you can tell that when Bruce went to Texas, he took all the bravery with him! Anyway, so thru this all, I am sitting in my car waiting for this creature to run back down the porch steps and back out into the field so I can go inside... after about 5 min of back and forth info on the phone, I got alittle brave and run in thru the garage door and slam it shut behind me....

This is a picture of the "thing"-- a possum.... Shy looked it up on the internet... next to the cute little pictures of them hanging from a tree are pictures of them hissing at the people taking their pictures... Oh joy!! As I am sitting here now, typing... this thing is pleasantly curled up sleeping on the back porch with my guard kitty....

So, does anyone want a cat? or a possum?