Zoo Girls

The girls and I went to the Montgomery zoo with some precious friends on Monday. The city schools had a day off so that means our pre-schools were out as well. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun with Susie, Isabel and Chaney.


This was an exhibit that was part of some weird Halloween scenes the zoo had set up for their annual "ZooBoo." I'm not sure what flowers or fake worm-snake-looking things have to do with Halloween, but the girls had fun playing in the exhibit. It reminded me of the sort of strange scene one would see in Alice in Wonderland or Wicked. (Am I supposed to italacize or put those titles in quotes? Teacher friends, that question is for you.)

If you think that looks weird you should have seen the scene they had set up with Cinderella, Snow White, and a transvestite knight! Or transvesknight, as Susie coined it (pretty clever, huh?) One of the little ones pulled the wigs off of the scary princesses. I tried to fix it, and we quickly moved on.


Here they all are at the maned wolf exhibit or maybe one of those fox things. All I remember is it was really musky and stinky and the large, fox looking thing was asleep. As you can (sort of) see, the girls were more interested in the turtles swimming in the moat.

Isabel pointing out the giraffe to everyone.

If you look real close, it looks like the giraffe is licking Isabel's head in this one.

The train ride is always one of the highlights. We ran into some more Auburn friends and got to share our train ride with them. Again, more weird and some freaky, scary scenes were set up along the train route. Luckily, the kiddos are probably still a little young to even know to be scared. Even more strange, the zoo had put trash bags over the heads of some of the mummies, monsters, etc. I'm more traumatized by those images than what we would have seen otherwise.

This was the best photo I could get on the train. Aren't they cute?!

The train ride was at the end of our trip, so nobody was especially cooperative with my photo attempts. We had a great time, but missed you and your boys, Nonet!!

New Trick

Look what the sitter taught Lauren to do today. John is so proud. I just hope she doesn't do that at pre-school the next time they serve oranges for snack. (Please ignore the mess in my kitchen, I promise I cleaned it before I blogged!)

The Noise

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and I was so enjoying my computer time with no guilt. You know what I mean. It's Sunday so I am not supposed to be doing anything but worshiping God and enjoying a day of rest.

Unfortunately, I HAD to wash my sheets today. I never do laundry on a Sunday. Never, ever. In fact, I try to do as little as possible in the way of housework on this day. Because that is what God calls us to do. Enjoy Him and take a break!

Okay, so I'm doing laundry because a certain little three year old is scared of storms. And, a certain daddy loves for his eldest (and less squirmy) daughter to cuddle and sleep with us in our bed every once in a while. Okay, so I kind of like it too. It takes me back her infancy.

Anyway......she was so exhausted and had stayed up so late the night before that she tinkled in her sleep!! In my bed! I was horrified. Mainly, because it meant I had to wash our sheets today, on my day of rest! Note to self: go buy that extra set of sheets tomorrow.

So, back to my main point. Lauren and John had left to take a field trip to Lowe's or something. Catherine, a.k.a The Squirmy One, was napping. And, I was supposed to be enjoying my guilt free computer time. But, something kept thumping in the dryer. I ignored it for a while. But, it was really loud. Even the new songs I downloaded earlier couldn't drown it out.

I kept thinking, what in the world could that be? It sounds like a shoe. But, why on earth would there be a SHOE in my dryer. I'm not washing shoes. I'm washing sheets and a few things that were already in the washing machine. So, what is that noise?!!

I debated for a long time on whether or not it was worth it to get out of my big, comfy chair. My curiousity got the best of me and I dragged my lazy self into the laundry room. It took me several minutes of searching, but I was determined. I mean, I did get out of my big, comfy chair to find the source of the quite disturbing noise.

No shoe. Of course it wasn't a shoe. I wasn't washing shoes. But, I had thought, in the back of my mind, maybe The Squirmy One had thrown one in there when I wasn't looking. Entirely possible scenario in any household with toddlers, right?

This was the source of the continual, loud, disruptive pounding in my dryer.

Can you believe it? That is one serious pocket knife, people. Big, sharp, and in some cases extremely loud. Oh, and now it is very clean. Bonus for John.

Why isn't Lisa Posting?

If you are wondering the answer to the above question keep reading.

So, I have not been blogging. I have been reading blogs but not posting. But, it is not because I don't want to or don't have anything to say. It is because I am so frustrated with the look of my blog and the fact that I accidently deleted all my friends links. I used those links, a lot!

About two or three weeks ago I decided that I wanted a cuter look and feel to my blog. Especially after seeing my friend, Tiffany's blog. It is adorable. And, it gave me blog envy.

Sooooo.....I started searching for free blog templates. Not an easy task. I think I spent, I mean, wasted at least an hour (and that's a conservative estimate) searching for something cute and appropriate.

Have you guys seen some of the templates out there?! Oh, my. If you are into roses, race cars, or Nicole Kidman, you are in luck. I am dead serious. There is a blog template with a cartoon version of Nicole Kidman!!

I thought I finally found one I liked. I downloaded it, copied the code, pasted, etc., etc. I hated it. And, the worst part was that all my links were gone!! Ahhh!!! I was so fed up that I gave up and haven't been back to my blog until now.

I guess I'm going to do what smart Tiffany did and get professional help. Not mental help although I do need that some days, but, help with my blog. I know I can do it myself, I like to think I'm fairly computer savvy. Thing is, I don't have the patience or time to mess with it.

If any of you dear friends have any advice, please share it. Oh, and if you have a second, please resend me (in an email or comment) the name of your blog so I can fix all my friend linkies.

Happy Friday and WAR EAGLE!

Same Persons, Different Day

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Meet the Chickens...

...and the ducks, and the turkey. Yes, we have several chickens, three ducks, and a turkey. And, Marley, of course. But, most of you have met our dog, Marley. You may or may not know we have farm animals.

In short, the Easter Bunny delivered ten baby chicks and three baby ducks to Lauren and Catherine this past Easter.

The girls were delighted, John was thrilled, I was apprehensive to say the least.

Over the course of the spring and summer months our chickens and the turkey encountered several unfortunate and sometimes terminal accidents.

For example, once we moved the chickens and ducks to the farm, the chickens started disappearing from the pen. Oh, did I mention they lived in my garage for several weeks? There are not many wives that would allow their husbands to commandeer their garage for the sake of farm animals. But, that's how I roll.

So, once they moved the chickens started diminishing in number. Daily, and one by one they would vanish. We were down to one chicken. For some reason, the ducks remained unscathed. The pen did not have a cover so John and I speculated that a hawk or owl was enjoying a free chicken buffet.

Luckily, Lauren really did not notice before John had time to get replacement chicks. And, each time he would come home with new chicks she had a new baby (or five) to play with. Lauren had a ball carrying them around the house, wrapping them in blankets, and having tea parties with her birds. And she named a few. The turkey she called Big Foot and two of the chickens became Super Man and Cinderella.

Super Man and Cinderella are the ones strutting on the far left of this photo.

Lauren loved on Big Foot, the turkey, so much she inadvertently broke his leg. Luckily, one of the kind elders at our church is a veterinarian professor and just happens to be my former youth minister. So, I called Dan and asked him what to do. The thought of putting the turkey of his misery was too much to bear.

I put John on the phone with Dan and they had a 15 minute conversation on how to splint a baby turkey's leg. Seriously. And, then John made me help him splint Big Foot's little leg. John used so much medical tape to secure Broke Foot's leg to his body, he looked like he was in a partial body cast. Poor Broke Foot, I mean Big Foot.

Unfortunately, Broke Foot did not survive once he moved from the garage to the farm. His broken leg proved to be a far disadvantage when trying to escape the creature that grabbed him in the night. We are not sure how he met his ultimate demise. There was evidence of a struggle and many turkey feathers were strewn in and below his pen.

Once again, John was able to replace Broke Foot without Lauren's notice. See how happy she and the "new" Big Foot are together?
Even Catherine likes to get in on the turkey action!

It's the Little Things in Life #1

I don't know if my husband would agree with me on this statement, but I truly gain pleasure from the smallest things. Things that some may call trivial can bring me great joy.

For example, it struck me this evening as I was loading the dishwasher that I LOVE it when I completely maximize every single inch of space available in my dishwasher. I mean, you couldn't shove even one more knife in that thing and it get cleaned effectively. It really makes me happy.

Isn't it fun when we can derive pleasure from the most everyday, boring tasks?