"You ever been worm hunting?"

Yesterday afternoon our neighbor boy was fishing in the ditch near our house......


He seemd to be enjoying himself, but before you know it he had company......



I thought it was too cute not to take a photo and as I was sneaking up to get a quick shot, I heard Madelyn ask "Have you ever been worm hunting?" And then she proudly announced "my daddy and I go worm hunting sometimes and it sure is fun." Before long Madelyn had retrieved her fishing pole from home and attempted to catch herself a bullfrog.
As I was driving by on my way to pilates class I stopped to check how fishing was going. They hadn't had a bite but seemed to be enjoying themselves. Madelyn jumped up and came running over to my car and happily reported "mama, I have a new friend."

I wasn't sure if this friendship would be returned, but today that same little boy was back fishing in the ditch and Madelyn soon joined him. Before long the two of them were playing together in our back yard.

Diva for a Day

Madelyn went to a friend's "Diva" birthday party yesterday, complete with a VIP pass. Ten little 5-6 year old girls dressed as Divas or Rockstars and took a limo ride to Pump-It-Up. With Madelyn's birthday a little over a month away this birthday party is going to be difficult to top!!

To a Good Home

As a child my family had a Corgi and I can remember him being a very good pet, and pretty smart. Well, two years ago I convinced myself that I needed a Corgi so I bought a darling, Welsh Corgi puppy for $250. Ryan was less than thrilled about this purchase but knew he couldn't talk me out of it so went along with it. I really wanted a house dog and was hoping that my new puppy would fit the mold. Not so much. Jack is darling alright, all thirty plus pounds of him. But he doesn't particularly care to be in the house because he gets too hot with all that fur. He would much rather be outside herding the other dogs. He is a herder by nature so he thinks our labs need to be herded. Our oldest lab, Chance, cannot stand Jack and they tend to steere clear of one another. Our other lab, Belle, tolerates Jack but when she has had enough of the herding she ends up biting him. Jack enjoys barking and marking his territory. I'm beginning to wonder if my childhood pet wasn't really a smart corgi, or I just ended up with a dumber version this go round. He isn't the brightest dog but he sure is cute and would make a great farm/cattle dog. If you know anyone interested I would be happy to sell or even give him away. His dad was registered but his mom was not, therefore Jack is not registered, but he is full-blooded.

Purdy, Purdy Please

For the past several weeks Madelyn has had "temptations" to flip up her middle finger. It is a trick she learned at school from a boy that told her to go home and do that gesture to her parents. We have told her that in no way is this gesture appropriate and basically told her if she flips someone off she is going to have to deal with the wrath of her mom and dad. She was overly concerned that her middle finger might "accidentally" pop up sometimes. I finally got tired of discussing the issue with her and told her to go in her room shut the door and put up her middle finger as long as she wanted, but as soon as she came out the flipping off was over. So, she did that and it seemed to ease her concerns and she didn't talk about it for over a week. Well today as soon as she walks in the HS to go to her daddy's office, she was practically in tears and said that she needed to tell him something. In her quiet, I'm in trouble voice, she told Ryan that she put her middle finger up during class. She said no one saw it but as soon as she did it she went and told Mrs. Olson. Ryan gave her the I'm so disappointed speech and asked her what she thought they should do about it. He said I don't know if spanking is appropriate and she said she was thinking that too (imagine that). He reminded her that I had told her that if she ever did that in school she would be in trouble at home. Ryan asked why she didn't listen to me and she said "because mama didn't say purdy, purdy, please." Ryan said he had to turn his head so Madelyn wouldn't see him laughing. When they arrived home he told Madelyn that any time she has the urge to flip up her middle finger she needs to go in her room, close the door and let the finger fly, but she better tell us what she is doing so we don't walk in on her flipping us off. He then banned Madelyn from after school cartoons and had her complete many chores. We will see if this is a lesson learned.
Right now, I love that she always feels guilty enough to tell us when she does something wrong. I'm thinking that won't last, but I will enjoy it while I can.

Delayed St. Patty's Post

The weekend before St. Patrick's Day me and my BFFs took our annual trip to Manhattan to celebrate St. Patty's Day in Aggeiville. When Robin and I arrived at Kris's house Saturday morning we were very pleasantly surprised when Brooke came out of the house with Kris. Brooke flew in from Atlanta, GA for a surprise visit. Kris, Kelli, and Brooke had been planning this for months and Robin and I had no clue. That was a great way to start our weekend. The four of us met up with Kelli in Aggeiville around 11:00am and we spent the day drinking green beer, hanging out with old friends, bar hopping and laughing until our sides hurt. My SIL met up with us in the afternoon but only stayed for a short time because she had worked the night before and was going on very little sleep. Around 9pm after a great time was had by all we decided to head to the hotel and we were all cozy in our beds by 10:00pm. So we can't hang with the young pups until 2am anymore but since we started festivities at 11:00am I think we hung tough.


The Fabulous Five


CGHS 1993 graduates ROCK!

Spring Winter Wonderland

I recently posted all the things I loved about spring and ice, snow and sleet wasn't on that list for a reason. However, I must say I was anxiously anticipating the foot of snow the weatherman had been talking about for days. As usual, the weatherman was wrong and I was disappointed. We did get eight hours worth of freezing rain, sleet and rain on Friday and it finally turned to snow Saturday morning. We probably had less than 4 inches of snow on top of all the ice. We were lucky that we only lost electricity for a very short time.
Yesterday we headed to the big hill in Augusta for sledding and about fifty other people had the same idea. We had a complete blast and before we knew it we had been there for over two hours. I'm very pleased that we actually had one decent snow to have some fun in this year. But now that all the snow is melting away I'm completely ready for Spring.



Ryan and his hunting buddy, Andy.

Ryan and Andy's son, Jake.




Going down the hill was much easier.

"Porked"

Last Saturday Ryan, Madelyn and I spent some quality time out in the pasture. Ryan was preparing the hunting box and feeder for turkey season, Madelyn played hard and road the 4 wheeler and I just did what I do best, look pretty (right mom and dad?). Madelyn and I started wrestling around and I pushed her down into a cuckleburr (sp?) patch. We refer to the illusive cuckleburrs as porcupine eggs. When Madelyn got up her clothes were covered in "eggs." She said "mama, I just got porked." I started laughing and looked at her with a confused look and she said "I just got porked by porcupine eggs." Then it all became clear to me. So if you are ever in Augusta be careful not to get "porked".