Snakes!

Our library hosted a program for the summer reading participants called Snakes Alive. The 2 big girls loved getting to hold the snakes. Betsie liked looking at them, but didn't touch any of them. Very fun program and a fun way to kick off a new school year.

Still Here!

So life has been quite busy! I so want to blog more regularly. I have started working part time as an administrative assistant at my husband's CPA firm. Plus I have added another part time job...couponer! Of course I do that one at home, but it really does take a few hours a week. The good news is that I have saved a TON of money this year on groceries and household items.

Then there is that homeschooling thing. Yeah, that's another part time job.

Anyway, I haven't figured out what I want this blog to be about. I used to just throw up the occasional photo or story about the kids. But I no longer have a camera and I'm not sure I want to put too much on here about my kids anymore. Truth is, I don't know what to share.

But in the interest of keeping this blog pretty, here is a picture of my favorite animal lover!

Mary Evelyn's Early Birthday Gift

She got to pick out a pooch at the Humane Society. (although I said no to her first few choices for a variety of reasons.) Meet Foster. He just turned one year old and seems to be a terrier/lab mix. Mary Evelyn ADORES him. He is very friendly but needs lots of training. Rose keeps barking but Foster just stands there and looks at her like she is crazy. Maybe Jason and I are the crazy ones!

I am not crazy about his name. Jason and I had a dog pre-kids named Foster and I loved it for that dog...that and this dog has had about 4 names today. I insisted that the name he had at bedtime tonight was the final answer...so I guess we have Foster Jr. Sweet pooch though.

The Week in Review

We had several "blog worthy" happenings this week, but I wanted to leave the posts up about Cohen and Ellie for a few days so you all would pray. FYI...both children are doing well. Ellie remains critical, but more stable.

Rachel's 10th birthday is next week and I have always told her she could get her ears pierced when she turned ten. (Worked for my parents with me so I just copied them on this one.) So Thursday we headed to the mall and got it done! She was very excited and feels so grown up.

Rachel's nervous face

Here we go...

One ear done!

Here comes the other one...not enjoying this so far.

Yes! It's over! Now she can smile!

In other news...yesterday we went to a horse farm for a field trip. Here are a few pictures from that. Unfortunately my camera battery died before they got to ride the horses. You'll also be able to see that Mary Evelyn is sporting a cute shorter do in these photos...another thing we did this week.

A New One for My Calendar

I just added "Order Mary Evelyn's ants" to my calendar. Have I gone completely crazy? I am actually paying for bugs that will live in my home. Just last week, I paid a guy to come and spray around my house to keep bugs out. So yeah, Mary Evelyn is getting an ant farm. She asked for some kind of gun to shoot cheetahs and elephants so they would go to sleep, thereby making it easier for her to catch them and bring them to the backyard. Not sure where she is finding cheetahs and elephants or what her plan is for when they wake up. So an ant farm it is...and we are considering ourselves pretty blessed that at least we can step on them if they get loose...guess you can't do that with cheetahs and elephants.

I'm Done! (Almost)

Hip, hip, hooray and Praise the Lord! The lost shipment has finally arrived. It was my last gift and now it's here. Woo hoo! (Looks like the inlaws won't be left out this year after all!) All I have to do now is find one missing stocking stuffer (or did I wrap it?). And I never did make Betsie's handprint ornament...need to get that done. But most of the big stuff is DONE!

Now, onto other things. Last year (on the old blog) I posted about a fun little Christmas event we enjoyed. We went back to Hollywild this year. We loved the lights and the animals. Betsie was still nervous and this year she could tell us so! But she loosened up and almost had the nerve to feed a goat. Almost. Mary Evelyn loved it of course, and Rachel had fun too. Here are a few pictures from this year, which look an awful lot like the pictures from last year.

A "Sweet" Morning

This morning, the big girls and I went to a fellow church member's home and got to decorate a gingerbread house. This is a great group activity. Each family can bring a little candy and you can have lots of variety without spending your week's grocery budget on all that candy! Rachel did a great job...Mary Evelyn found something else to do.

Should we be surprised that Mary Evelyn found their pet bunny and never got around to helping us decorate the gingerbread house?

Rachel getting the house put together. She became a pro with the icing and even had to help her kitchen clumsy mother.

Building a pretzel fence

Just a few more details




Looking good!

All done!!

My Squirrel Rescuers

We had the perfect "blog experience" yesterday. We got to rescue a sick baby squirrel. The girls were playing in the backyard before supper (We are having perfect weather this week for being outside!) and Mary Evelyn saw a little squirrel shivering on the ground in the yard.


Mary Evelyn found a box and Rachel grabbed some fleece because it was shivering and crying. Its cry sounded like a loud squeaky mouse. One of Jason's clients is an animal emergency hospital so we called them and asked how to take care of the squirrel. Now, I was NOT looking to have a pet squirrel but our girls were just so heartbroken that this baby was suffering and there was no way we could just abandon it. I admit I was happy when we found out it was illegal to keep wildlife without a license...it gave me someone to blame for not keeping little Belle, as she came to be known, as a pet!

Anyway, Jason's contact gave us a number to call. There are volunteers who are licensed to take care of wild animals that need help. They told us to put a warm towel around Belle and leave her in a box near the tree where we found her. Then we were to go away for a few hours and see if her mother would come for her. Mama Squirrel did not come. So then we had to take her to the home of these volunteers. Jason, Rachel, and Mary Evelyn were going on an unplanned field trip!

When they got there, they found out that Belle truly was a female and probably even had a urinary tract infection. She would have died if we had not taken her there. They were going to be starting her on antibiotics, pedialyte, and some sort of proper nutrition last night. Also, they promised to keep her name the same and send email updates.

These volunteers had several other rescued squirrels in their home. Rachel and Mary Evelyn got to hold squirrels named Edgar, Allan, and Poeline! Mary Evelyn is ready to go get licensed and set up her squirrel rescue center in our garage...or better yet, in her room.

It was quite the learning experience and a very special thing for Mary Evelyn, but Rachel loved it too. They were both very concerned about little Belle. Betsie was fascinated and kept saying, "mouse! mouse!" until we corrected her.

This is Rachel with one of the other squirrels at the home of the animal rescue volunteers.

Mary Evelyn with one of the other squirrels.