Happy happy birthday

[I'm still here...it's computer troubles that have kept me away...and a busy life that I cannot recollect the details of...]

Yesterday was my birthday, hooray! Rus's work decided he should celebrate on the beautiful sandy beaches of the Florida panhandle. So I decided to celebrate at my parent's house, knowing that if I stayed home no one would be nice to me. We headed to their house Friday night (have I mentioned they moved to a town only 45 minutes away?!) My mom made a delicious dinner and my dad started a fire in the fire pit outside. The kids roasted hot dogs and we all enjoyed the perfect weather and the warm fire. My mom even made dirt cake, something I used to ask for on my birthday when I was a teenager. Beau had gone on a field trip to get a pumpkin and he was so excited to carve it. He had bought a carving kit at at Goodwill a few weeks ago and had grand plans for that pumpkin. With only a small amount of help, he designed, carved, and gutted his pumpkin and we all enjoyed sitting in the dark living room later and admiring it.

The next morning the kids let me sleep in, I got to go for a run, and my dad made me breakfast. He also tried to decorate my door with scrumptious grown up candy (Ferraro Rocher and ghiradelli) but after 45 minutes of intense efforts conceded that I'd like it just as much on the floor. (Apparently it was too heavy for the tape.)

The kids played in the beautiful 80 degree weather and my dad and mom and I carried out plans for an over-the-top trunk or treat project. Our ward trunk or treat was last night and we took it upon ourselves to make a catapult that could launch "pumpkin poop" aka puffy Cheetos at various items hanging in the trunk. The catapult was awesome. I envision coming up with 100 different uses for it over the next year. The kids at the trunk or treat loved it and wanted to do it even when there was no candy being offered. Our trunk won the decorating contest and we are now the proud owners of a large pumpkin. 

Other fun events from the day:

Rus called while sightseeing with a coworker and I made him sing happy birthday to me on speaker phone, in front of his coworker. He actually refused but then I guilt tripped him into doing it. Thoroughly embarrassing him made my day.

I received a bunch of texts and phone calls from friends and family and really enjoyed visiting with them. Tyler was the first and Lindsey was the last and there were many other wonderful salutations in between.

My mom made me a birthday cake. I don't remember he last time she baked anything! It was an Irish Apple cake with a custard sauce. It was beautiful and delicious. She put 32 candles on it, and darn it, lighting all those candles took so long that the cake had an extra layer of spears on the top.

My friend Taffy also made me a cake, a hummingbird cake, and it made the most scrumptious breakfast treat.

We went to a birthday party for a new friend, Sidney, who will turn five next week. Marianne loves Sidney, and they play so well together! I painted Sidney's face to go with her princess costume that she was going to wear for the trunk or treat. And then I painted her mom's face and another mom's face just because at Halloween you can get away with that. ;)

I told my boys a month ago that I was going on strike this year. I was not going to make or buy them costumes because there were just too many tears over the awesome costumes I made them last year. They were not as devastated as I would have hoped. Jacob decided to wear the snake costume and Beau the snow leopard costume, both great hand-me-downs from my sister Amanda. Bekah decided to be a witch (she is really not very original, but it makes less work for me), and Marianne decided to be a princess like her friend Sidney. I love how Bekah's face painting turned out.

Rus was thoughtful enough to buy and stash a gift for me that my kids presented to me after the trunk or treat. I told Rus that a really nice pencil sharpener would change my life. It would make homework time a breeze and bring me daily measures of happiness. It had to be super nice class room quality. I know it sounds lame, but I tried to buy it for myself several times and couldn't do it. And I really wanted it. We have all spent several happy minutes just today sharpening dozens of the pencils Rus got me to go with it. Marianne is sharpening pencils as I type. 

Did I mention it shuts off when the pencil is perfectly sharpened? No pencil eating here! And it can accommodate six different sizes and shapes of pencils!

So happy...

I live a blessed life.

Part 3: Martin's Cove

We happily (and hopefully noisily at 7am) left Guernsey, WY and headed to Martin's cove, a quick three hour jaunt away. We were there in time for church. The Church has quite an impressive campus there. [It includes the large meeting room, some housing, a visitor's center, and numerous smaller "period" buildings.] We met in a nice large room for testimony meeting. [The room was filled with dozens of missionary couples and other families visiting the area.] Bekah bore her testimony, it was so sweet. We all attended primary with Elder and Sister Grover, and our family members were the sole recipients of their wonderful lessons! [It was so great that these missionary couples had activities and lessons and snacks planned just in case they had someone there visiting!]
Roger and Louise of course know a couple that is serving in Martin's Cove. They are the Erekson's and are from Edgewood, NM. After church they took us to the "Route 66 Missionary RV Park" where all of the missionaries that are serving there live. Many of the missionaries bring their own RVs, but there is also some housing available there. We all enjoyed a really relaxing afternoon visiting with the Erekson's. Beau told me that night that he had the most fun that afternoon playing in the gravel at our campsite with Marianne. We were treated to dinner with all of the missionary couples at a pavilion at the campsite that night. I was feeling a little under the weather, and it was a shame because the food they made looked delicious.
Monday 8/4
Elder and Sister Erekson treated us to breakfast at their trailer - which the kids thought was a mansion compared to Nana and Big Papa's RV. (Which is a mansion in its own right when compared to our pop-up.)
Afterwards we headed back to the Martin's Cove campus so we could go on an authentic 5 mile trek - handcart and all, guided by the Ereksons.
We started by seeing the "baptismal font" in the Sweetwater. Isn't that neat that you can be baptized in the actual Sweetwater River?
Next we visited Fort Seminoe and learned about the "valley boys" who were part of the rescue group for the saints who were struggling and in very precarious circumstances on their way to Salt Lake City. These saints would not have survived had it not been for the rescue groups sent by President Brigham Young to give them aid and nourishment and hope at a very bleak part of their journey. Fort Seminoe is where the members of the church who were crossing the plains in wagons left many of their goods so that there could be room in the wagons to carry the sick. Martin's cove is where the rescuers took the saints, in the wagons, to get them out of the harsh weather conditions and give them respite so they could continue their journey.
The Sweetwater river snakes around and the saints had to cross it repeatedly. We only had to cross it twice and both times we had the option of using a bridge. But the first time, Big Papa wanted to carry the kids across the Sweetwater himself. I was really impressed with that.
Nana and Rus pulled the handcart across.
Marianne really latched on to Sister Erekson. They were buddies the entire time. That day, Marianne got dressed because of Sister Erekson, let me do her hair because of Sister Erekson, and walked more than she probably would have because she got to use a walking stick like Sister Erekson.
At one point in the trek, we left the handcarts and walked a mile back into Martin's Cove. Elder Erekson spoke with us there and told us how Wyoming doesn't have a temple, but it has Martin's Cove. It is a sacred place and the visitors there are asked to treat it as such.
Elder and Sister Grover, our primary teachers, were manning the station at the trailhead for Martin's Cove. We had to get a picture of the kids with them.
The rest of the trek wrapped up nicely.

Epic Seven State Road Trip: Part 1

Our family dared to do the impossible this summer: go on a 12-day road trip pulling the pop-up trailer and camp all along the way. It started with wanting to go to Mt. Rushmore. If you make it through all of these posts, you will find the presidents' carved noggins in NONE of them...it turns out that the week we planned to go was the same week when all of the motorcycling world planned to have a rally at Rushmore. BUT. Since we'd already opened up the door to the idea of a road trip, and talked with Rus' parents about doing part of the trip with them, we were committed. Instead of heading through Nebraska to South Dakota (as originally planned), we rendezvoused in Nebraska so the men could tour a bullet manufacturing plant in Grand Island. So, just to put it all succinctly: I'd rather explain the route of our trip by saying it was to not go to Rushmore, rather than admit that it was to tour a bullet manufacturing plant. Anyway...
Here's our trip in a nutshell:
Day 1: Albuquerque to John Martin Reservoir, CO
Day 2: John Martin Reservoir to Grand Island, NE
Day 3: Stay in Grand Island
Day 4: Grand Island, NE to Guernsey, WY
Day 5: Guernsey, WY to Martin's Cove, WY
Day 6: Martin's Cove, WY to Soda Springs, ID
Day 7: Stay in Soda Springs
Day 8: Soda Springs, ID to Rexburg, ID
Day 9: Rexburg, ID to West Yellowstone, MT
Day 10: Stay in West Yellowstone
Day 11: W. Yellowstone, MT to Yampa River State Park, CO
Day 12: Yampa River State Park, CO to Albuquerque, NM
I took notes each day to try to keep things straight, so I'm just going to type those up here and include as few possible of the hundreds of pictures that we took...I've added some comments to my notes, they are contained in [brackets]. So here we go:

Thursday 7/31
Woke up in John Martin Reservoir campground. I went for a run from our campsite (which is at the base of the dam) to the top of the dam...thought it'd just be a couple miles but in the end it was four. Funniest thing - all of us were chasing Marianne around the campsite and when we got close to her she just stood there and her pants dropped spontaneously and we were all laughing. [We laughed about her "super power" the whole trip, actually.]

Here we are at the top of the dam:


We stopped in Kansas at the Fick Fossil Museum and the lady (a Mennonite), was so nice to the kids - she opened up a beautifully restored fire truck and let the kids climb in and play. They loved all of the shark teeth in the museum. [Apparently there was a couple who ranched in that part of Kansas and they found thousands of shark teeth on their property...from long ago when it was part of the ocean. This same couple started the museum.] The kids also loved buying souvenirs. [Oh gosh. The kids were souvenir OBSESSED. They could not wait to spend the money they had saved all summer!] We played on the playground. They had a merry-go-round, all fun and games until Jacob fell off.
Oh! And in Colorado we passed through a stretch of road where we saw at least a dozen ornate box turtles trying to cross the road - some successfully, some not. We stopped once to get two out of the road. [Turtles pee buckets when they are scared, did you know that? And they weren't scared by huge semis zooming by, they were scared by me picking them up! I didn't get peed on, though.] We saw a little guy in the road and decided to keep him with us for entertainment. We put him - actually her, the kids named her Rose - in a laundry basket. [You can tell the sex of a turtle by it's eye color. Boys have red eyes. Girls have black eyes.]

It was fun to watch her try to escape. At one point, Marianne said, "The turtle's gone!" And when we looked, she wasn't in the basket! We looked for a minute and found her climbing up the seat behind Marianne's seat. We kept a closer eye on her after that. [We found Rose a great home at our campsite in NE. Some might say "sudden transferring" her was cruel. But they didn't see that stretch of shell-dappled highway in CO or the quaint stream we left her by in NE...]
We were happy to pull into Mormon Island RV park, Grand Island, Nebraska, and see Big Papa and Nana waiting for us. [Here's our campsite.]

And better yet, they had dinner ready for us! We enjoyed a slow morning before Rus, his dad, Jacob and Bekah headed to Hornady, a bullet manufacturing plant, and Nana, Beau, Marianne and I headed out to the Stuhr Pioneer Museum. We went to Railroad Town in the museum, a little town replicated circa 1894. There was a schoolhouse, bank, mercantile, barber shop, millinery, tin smith, blacksmith shop, and train depot, among others.



Nana and I enjoyed it, while Beau's favorite part was buying stuff at the gift shop - a little stuffed animal wolf key chain and "gold" candy.
We all met up for lunch back at the RV park and after a short siesta we headed to Island Oasis Waterpark. It had two sinisterly tall slides that Bekah loved but I swear took the skin off my back. [I screamed like a little girl. I thought I was going to die for about 2.7 seconds - how long it took to drop roughly 3000 feet.] It also had four other water slides that everyone loved, a wave pool that Nana especially loved, and a fun lazy river that we rode with inner tubes. It was fun for all of us!

Total time it took us to get from Albuquerque to John Martin Reservoir: 8 hours
Distance: 367 miles
Driving time: 5.5 hours (i.e. how long it might take if you didn't have kids, or a husband with a small bladder)

Part 2: Grand Island to Redneckville RV Park, WY

We packed up and headed out early from Grand Island, intending to go as far as Scott's Bluff. We stopped at a Cabelas so the men could look for .22 ammo [another hidden agenda of our trip]. They found some and the kids found mini-multi tools for only $6! They were thrilled. [These tools would become the bane of our trip. One was always, always lost.]
The next stop was the Golden Spike Tower in North Platte.

It is an eight story tower overlooking the world's largest rail yard, Bailey yard.

It is three miles wide at the widest, and eight miles long. The kids - and the adults - enjoyed watching the trains move around the yard, the engines assemble, and the train cars slide down the rails in the hump yards.

Of course the kids bought souvenirs at the gift shop. We ate lunch there, in the RV. Beau caught a frog. His second frog in as many days. He's a frog whisperer.

Our next stop was at Chimney Rock. There is a really nice visitor's center there. If you visit, you'll learn what the Native American's name for the landmark was. The kids enjoyed loading up a 1/2 sized wagon with provisions...and perusing the gift shop. [We learned what a relief it was for pioneers and other west-ward travelers to see this obvious landmark. Rus and I were even relieved to see it after driving in the flattest country imaginable for two days straight.]

We made our final stop for the night in Guernsey, WY. We got in late, and the only campground we could get into was a cramped little one located between a canal and a golf course. Perk - there was a small (tiny) play structure there that kept Marianne entertained. Downside - a big group with too much beer. We cooked over a fire - the campfire mac and cheese I'd found on Pinterest was a hit!

Time it took us to get from Grand Island to Guernsey: 11 hours
Distance: 383 miles
Driving time: 6 hours

Bekah: Double Digits!

Bekah's birthday was last Saturday, and I am still getting over the fact that I have offically been a parent for TEN YEARS now. I remember so many details about being pregnant with her:

Being desperate to wear maternity clothes

Not telling any of my college-class-mates that I was pregnant until I was 20 weeks along and had already found out we were having a girl. I was the only married girl in all my interior design classes and I remember that the other girls were pretty shocked.

Walking miles and miles with my mom and Rus, trying to make my baby girl COME OUT!

Telling my mom that in ten years I would have four kids and be done. She didn't seem to believe me.

Having some of my male coworkers at Lumbermen's turn surprisingly mushy as my belly got bigger and bigger - and having them ask to rub it. (Still weird.)

Anyway, I'm being incredibly self-centered. This is supposed to be about BEKAH. 

This year, Bekah wanted to have a birthday party, and as we researched themes, we decided to go with a TEN theme. We sent out an invite that said this:

TEN IS MAGICAL

TEN IS COOL

TEN IS DOUBLE DIGITS

TEN RULES!

TEN IS FANTASTIC

TEN IS SUPERCALAFRAJALISTICEXPIALLADOCIOUS

TEN IS ON THE CLOCK

TEN IS EXTRA INNINGS

TEN IS A SAWBUCK

TEN IS METRIC

NOW YOU HAVE TEN REASONS TO COME TO 

BEKAH’S 10TH BIRTHDAY PARTY!

DINNER, CAKE, 10 FAVORITE THINGS, OF COURSE

(LIKE SWEETS AND GLOW IN THE DARK GAMES!)

Sadly, quite a few of her friends were out of town, but the girls that came had a great time! We had Libby and Emma (cousins), a friend from church and a friend from school.

Rus took the other three kids and my mom came up to help me. Us girls had a blast! So here are the ten things we did that night:

Um...first, before the girls came, Bekah and I had a little photo shoot:

Isn't she so pretty?

We took the shoot to the trampoline:

Bekah cracks up every time she sees this picture:

Okay, now the ten things we did that night...
1. Pizza
2. Red Velvet cake and vanilla ice cream

3. Eat Watermelon
4. Whipped Cream Fight! We took it outside for this one. Good thing, because those four cans of whipped cream made more than a little mess...on us and on the ground!

Yep, someone tagged me in the head. At this point I started double squirting the stuff. If I could add sound to this picture it would be the sound of five girls giggling!

There was only one way to clean up a mess like this: Some sprinkler-trampoline jumping!

5. Next we did a DANCE PARTY! This included some silly-fun glowstick glasses...which were still fun even though it wasn't dark yet. The girls went wild for Black Eyed Peas "I've Got a Feeling" and Katy Perry's "Roar!"

6. Open Gifts! Bekah was thrilled to get some money for her nook, Phase 10 and some gel pens, a sweet little Lalaloopsey, and some cash in a piggy bank from Cutesy.

7. Face Painting! Bekah started this off with some rainbow eyes, and the rainbow theme was carried out by the rest of the girls...including a rainbow cat, rainbow tiger, and rainbow butterfly.

8. Don't Eat Pete! Bekah loves this game. We usually play it with m&ms but used smarties this time. Some of these girls were wickedly good at eating all of the candy except for Pete!

9. Games at the park! We had hoped for a cover of darkness, but it turns out that the sun doesn't really set until after 9 right now. The girls enjoyed playing hide and seek and toilet tag and throwing glow in the dark frisbee things (like the pink thing Emma is holding in the picture). We also lucked into a beautiful sunset.

10. FRIENDS! At the end of the night we gave the girls a little party favor "thank you" gift and sent off balloons and exactly 8:56 pm - which was when Bekah was born.

It was a really fun night! I'm so grateful for Bekah. Some things I love about her:
*She is really good at asking for help or advice, and she always says thank you when you reply. Even if you tell her she has mud on her face she'll say, "oh. thank you!"
*She is an avid reader. In the last two and a half weeks she has read two and a half novels (Septimus Heap series), each of them with no less than 500 pages. She has also read the whole Series of Unfortunate Events, most of the Little House on the Prairie, the Sisters Grimm, Kim Little's Flight of the Butterfly...
*She is a wonderful helper with the other kids. She is great at getting all of the kids to play the same thing, distracting Marianne from sadness if she is having a hard time, and negotiating with Beau and Jacob if there's a disagreement. We've had some hard times this year with her attitude and temper, but I can honestly say that Bekah has been a huge blessing this summer with her calm and helpful attitude!
*Bekah is super responsible. She had a dog-sitting job for three weeks this summer and she never forgot to go take care of Bailey and she never complained. (She was thrilled to be earning money!)
*Bekah is always there to ask, "should we bless the food?" or "Should we say a prayer before we go?" She is a great help at keeping our family on track!
*Bekah loves to serve others. A few weeks ago her Sunday school teacher had his appendix out, and she wanted to make him some cookies. So she did, from scratch, by herself.

Bekah, I love you and I'm so proud of you and the beautiful young lady you are, inside and out. I'm blessed to be your Momma!

Beau's Birthday!

I got one and only one good thing from attending cub scout day camp with Jacob - and that was an awesome presentation from a 17-year old kid about reptiles. Imagine sitting in a gym with over a hundred little boys for an hour and none of them making a peep. Those kids were fascinated.

So when Beau said he wanted to have a birthday party with his friends, inspiration struck and I found myself calling Lonny, aka the 17-year-old reptile expert who had captured the attention of all of the kids at day camp. He said he'd love to come and bring his reptiles and amphibians for a presentation for Beau's party.

I was so stinkin' excited. I was probably more excited than Beau.

On the day of the party (July 5th), Lonny came with his awesome sidekick mother. I want to be her when I grow up. Lonny started showing an interest in reptiles when he was 13, specifically bearded dragons. His mother made him research bearded dragons for years before she would allow him to buy one. She insisted on the same kind of informed approach to pet adoption before he could acquire his four different varieties of turtles, salamanders, and bullfrogs. She said she draws the line at snakes, though. No snakes. 

I think I'd be okay with snakes...

Here was the set up in my backyard: We had eight guests and then my own four children. Emily and Chip were in town for the weekend, so they came too.

Lonny started by telling the kids about the four different classifications of reptiles. If I remember right, those were lizards, snakes, turtles, and ??? Anyway, here he is with his bearded dragon Rosie. Rosie is actually a boy, but when he named him, he thought he was a girl, and when he found out later (it's hard to tell a reptile's sex until they are at least 6 months old), he decided it was easier to just keep the name Rosie.

Here is his mom letting the kids pet Rosie. They were instructed to only use their first two fingers, and they were very careful to do exactly as he said.

After the bearded dragons Rosie and Luna, he then showed off his turtles, salamander, and bullfrog. At the end of the presentation he let each of the kids pose for pictures with Luna the bearded dragon.

Yes. Bekah was the first to insist that Luna sit on top of her head. She is fearless. And slightly goofy.

I love this pic of Jacob. This is his "smoulder" look. His, "I am too cool to smile" look...

I told him he had to smile though.

I like Bekah's face here. Luna wasn't staying still and I think that made Bekah a little jumpy.

Then the kids all got to pose with the ornate box turtle. Isn't Beau so cool?

The turtle was trying to scratch Jacob and he was trying not to drop him.

After the presentation, the kids all went inside, got some snacks, proceeded to disregard the crafts we'd planned in favor of casual play, ate their dirt cake, opened presents, and that was that. Beau had a great time, so I count the whole thing as a success.
Beau's actual birthday was the next day. I had been working hard for the previous week on making him a desk because that's what he wanted. A desk and a lamp. Inspired by parts of different desks on Ana White's website, I decided to make it with cubbies on one side and a book shelf on the other.

I decided to just make it all out of 3/4" plywood with a clean contemporary look. There was no way to build it without Beau seeing, so we all conspired to tell him that I was actually making shelves for Dad. I didn't put it together until the last minute, literally, so it wasn't too hard to pull it off the deception.
I think he was happy with it...here was his reaction:

And here he was sitting at his desk. Such a big boy!

Bekah and Jacob were kind enough to help him organize his things. They put his art supplies in bins and filled the book shelves with his favorite books. Under his direction, of course.

I am so grateful for Beau! I feel blessed for the last 6 years our family has spent with him in it.
Bekah says the thing she loves the most about Beau is that he likes to play games with her. And that he likes to run around in his chones.
Jacob says the thing he loves best about Beau is that he sometimes gets a little crazy. He's a pretty energetic boy.
I know Marianne would say she loves that Beau watches shows on the iPad with her, hugs her and plays with her. He is usually her first choice when I tell her she has to hold someone's hand to cross the road.
I am grateful for his joy and love of learning knew things, for his ability to work hard, and for his fierce hugs and kisses. I'd say his greatest ability is that he can see a task to the end. If you give Beau a picture he will color all of it and if you ask him to scrub a toilet, he will stay with it until it is spotless.
Also, Beau would want me to mention that he has recently learned how to ride his bike really well. In fact at the 4th of July parade at church, he rode it 600 times around. (That's what the emcee of the event told him.) Also on the 4th, Beau ran a whole mile, without stopping, and won first for his age group.
I also love that Beau insists on "2 minutes of hugs" every night, without fail. He has a tender heart he is easy to love.
Happy Birthday Beau!

Random summer happenings

Oh dear. It's July. Which means we've been out of school for a whole month and we only have one month left. Yuck. If digging my heels in made time slow down, I'd do it.
Our summer has been filled with fun things...the kids have taken some of their Bear Canyon Academy classes - like Baking, Curse of the Mummy, Weather Bugs, Center Stage Ballet, Summer Day Camp, and Art of Science - with more to come like Book Club, Swimming, and Just Desserts. I love that they have something fun to look forward to, but I tire of driving them all over and trying to memorize my schedule so I don't miss anything and having to be three places at once. As I told a friend, I'm just realizing I have to lower my expectations of trying to be everywhere on time.
We have also had friends over to play (and busted out the face paints)...

Sported Fauxs like Cutesy...

And I sewed! I don't know what happened. I think it was the combination of already needing to sew a bunch of dresses for our RS Dress a Girl project and finding a pattern I had purchased a year ago...and then like fuel on a fire there was a well timed Joann's sale AND THEN I WOUND UP WITH A FEW HOURS TO MYSELF to thoroughly peruse, select, and purchase adorable fabric. So I made Marianne this skirt and of course the best part of it was the floofy bow on her bum!

I also made her a pillowcase-style dress and Bekah a skirt out of matching umbrella fabric, as shown in this pic Rus took on Father's Day. (We went and bought Rus "ugly" ties at a thrift store).

And then, motivated by my children recurrently sleeping in their regular clothes, I made them all pajama pants. Yes, Marianne's pant legs are not the same lengths. They still sleep just fine.

We also had an unfortunate incident of Colonel baby-napping a baby bunny from it's burrow. Colonel has horrible, self-incriminating timing. He was found with the baby in his mouth during a lunch party with a bunch of other little kids, right before we all had to leave for an appointment. So instead of leaving, a dozen of us hovered around a pint sized bunny wrapped in a washcloth by a very concerned and motherly Bekah. Long story short, the bunny survived, and through some tricky observation of Colonel, we discovered the burrow and re-deposited the bunny in its home. 

We spotted it (or perhaps a sibling), a few times in the yard eating our weeds. The kids couldn't resist picking it up...

A few days later I spied it dashing through my backyard and escaping into the wood pile as Colonel and I returned from a run. I excitedly told Bekah, "the bunny is in the woodpile!" It was about thirty minutes after I had first spotted it. She went out to look at it and found it dead - as evidenced by the ants in its eyes. I was troubled by this, I still am actually...did Colonel and I scare it to death? Did it hop into the woodpile and land on something unforgiving? Of course Bekah was devastated, and I had to play the "circle of life" card...but it did make me sad.

And last but not least, several volcanoes have recently erupted in our area. Fortunately no lives were lost, although my vinegar and baking supplies were greatly diminished.

The end. For now.