Our Family Ramblings!

Haiti Earthquake from New Missions on Vimeo.

I will certainly NOT forget Haiti.... her name is Jessica and we LOVE our sponsored child! She needs us now more than ever. We have been sponsoring her for almost 2 1/2 years now!! We love her sweet little letters!! We haven't heard anything from the organization about the status of our sweet Jessica, but we know she is in the Lord's mighty hands!!

If you can help visit New Missions website!! I know now more than ever... little ones will need your support!

*UPDATE*

I was told that if I haven't heard from New Missions re: Jessica then she was safe!! PTL!!!

Also ... if you go over to THE NEWLYWEDS BLOG she is donating $$ to relief for Haiti for every comment that is left on her post!! GO... such a simple easy way to help!

We from this on Sunday:

(oops... someone forgot to turn off the sprinkler system. Poor reindeer!
He has icicles all over him!)

To this on Thursday: Much better!!! (and getting better each day!) So nice to see you 70 degrees!

He is begging me every minute. He is promising me that he will take care of it. He told me that he will go on "probation" to show me that he can take care of it. He has set up a box in the playroom with a play snake in it to show me what it would be like.

Okay... just a few things wrong with this picture... Hello... no lid on it. I have nightmares that the thing will get out of the box and attack my baby in bed. (ya think I watch too much tv?) No sugar plums dancing in my head, the snake ate them! There is no food in the box. Oh, because he has to go outside and collect disgusting bugs, lizards, God knows whatever else to feed the thing. Ewww, what if the food for the snake gets loose in my house. I will be infested with bugs and lizards and have to move out to have the house fogged/bombed!

He then looks at my aquarium and says, "when the fish die, I could use that aquarium for my snake!.... wait..... that won't be big enough!" WHAT??????? Our 30 gallon aquarium is not big enough for the snake. We are NOT even entertaining getting a boa constrictor or python here. And he says, "I can take it out and play with it!" Oh, I hope the dog eats it. Did I just write that? Correction... I hope the dog doesn't eat it!

Okay, so I told him we wouldn't even consider this unless he shows us that he can keep his room clean. (that is probably where he would keep it and I don't want to look through a battle zone when he loses the snake in his room. (oh, I am getting nauseated just thinking about it) He also can not complain about taking care of the dog and cat. Yup, we already have pets. Just call me Dr. Doolittle. He also has to do research online to find the best "pet" snake that doesn't bite... well basically do anything! One that eats vegetation would be good too. Oh, and it has to clean up it's own shedded skin. Ewww... :o) Don't get me wrong, I think the little ones are kinda cute, but out in the yard or in the tree... NOT IN MY HOUSE!!!

Am I being unrealistic? Do you have pet snakes? Is it a boy thing that is a phase that will (please) go away? I will keep you posted on his progress and my therapy session! I ask you Son, what happened to the cute little turtle you asked for a while ago. I am guessing I should have given in to the turtle!!

The kids school is surrounded by multiple farms. On one of these farms they have about 8 peacocks! On any given day, you can see them strutting through the field. On this particular day, they decided to get brave and visit the parents in the "pick up" line after school!! This was taken right outside my driver's side door window!

Here is a pair going to greet someone else!! The kids find them amusing. They aren't really a threat or anything. They flee when approached. Apparently they aren't afraid of the cars though! Aren't they beautiful!! Thank you Lord for your beauty in nature!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

"Hold on tight boys" There is a storm a'comin'!!"
(There are 4 little frogs huddling on my light!)

Here we go again! Once again, we have water intrusion. Oh "snap"! I thought we would escape this due to Fay only being a Tropical Storm and not a hurricane, but I was wrong. We have had constant rain for 3 days now. When winds come from the right direction and drive into the wall at the right angle-- our walls start to "cry". They say, "please stop the rain!" We experienced this in 2004 with Hurricane Jeanne, but it was much worse and ruined our entertainment center and carpets! Now we have wood laminent, and I am starting to panic! Anyway, we have the dehumidifier running, towels on the floors, and a lot of prayers going up that the rain will stop soon!

This is the kitchen sliding glass door frame.

This is the family room window frame.

Well, school starts tomorrow! (hence the reason I can blog at a normal hour-- they are all in bed!) What a better way to round out the summer and get back into the "school" mindset than celebrate the birth of our butterflies!! They emerged!! I can't believe how small they were when we got them! The kids were absolutely amazed and love every minute of this experience!



They have decided that there are 3 girls and 1 boy. I have no idea!! :o) They were going to name them, however , they quickly realized that they looked the same and were always moving.


One by one they emerged from their chrysallid! We put some fresh cut oranges for them to feed on! Then after a few days of watching and admiring God's wonderful creation, we set them free! As the kids let them go, they told them to come back and visit!! I now foresee EVERY butterfly that they see will be OUR butterflies!!




Here are the empty Chrysallids! Down below is one that has just come out. See the other two "dark" chrysallids to the right still have butterflies still in them.







Here is their butterfly home! Time to let them go!




Aren't they beautiful!!

They ate their food on the bottom of the cup and grew huge! Check out the before pic. here!

Isn't God's creations cool?!

I think there is a total of 5 in the jar! This will also be a great teachable moment about our new life in Christ! Should be interesting to see how this goes!