What is that?

Um, alien children, it must be!

Actually, crazy hair day 2011 is what you see!

Making Use of Every Drop

We are in a huge drought this year. We have been on very strict watering rationing. One thing that we can not do is wash our own cars. So when we finally got a good storm the other day, my savvy husband took advantage of the situation. It was so cute and Bodin was out there "helping" and loving every minute of it. One of the many reasons I love my hubby!

McKinna is The Winnah!

" McKinna Cobb can Do The Job!" was the slogan as the student council elections came up this year.

The speeches were to be given when we were out of town for the funeral so I worked with the school and we decided that she could submit a video of her speech.

I let her know that she probably would not get elected since she would not be there for the voting, (and I secretly did not want to have to figure out a way to get her to the meetings at 7:30 in the morning.) However, this did not happen. She was elected as a class representative. She was out of town when they put in their nominations for President, Vice President, etc. so she will have to save that lobbying for next year. WAY TO GO MCKINNA!

We will Miss You Grandma Grace

This post is very hard for me to write because I don't want to deal with the reality that I won't see Grandma for a very long time and I already miss her. I loved the fact that I could tell me friends how awesome my grandma was. She had the cutest outfits on with her hair and nails always done. She spent her time walking (very fast), dancing, and hanging out with friends. Family was always the most important thing to her and it was truly amazing that she LOVED each and every one of us. One of her famous sayings was, "Can you believe I started all of this?" And she was so dang proud when she said this.

I loved that as a child I was able to go and stay at her house in Holbrook. I have so many memories from there. I loved sitting in her built in bench seat and choosing the best cereals from her cupboard. I loved always waking up knowing that Grandma had been up for hours with her cup of coffee. I loved playing with her little perfume bottles. I loved that every Christmas we got a new Christmas dress and we knew that with it came the fact that we would later be modeling it for her.

As I got older I loved the EARLY morning phone calls that came to our house from Grandma. I loved that with the birth of each child came an adorable outfit and a visit from her at the hospital. I loved that she always told us how she had been to the salon, hospital, anywhere really...and showed everyone there the pictures of the cutest greatgrandkids she had. I love that in the end she let us know that she was ready to go, she needed to go be with grandpa. She will sure be missed, but she was ready to go and visit with grandpa.

Our own PETRIFIED forest!

So, as the story always goes...Ben was at work and I was home with my kids, Bodin's friends, and McKinna's friends as well as one of McKinna's friends moms. The kids were all out in my front yard playing kickball in the cul-de-sac. The ball got kicked up in the tree and got stuck. As they were getting ready to throw another ball at the first ball to try to get it out one of the neighbor kids spots the oppossum. She points it out and we all take a look. It is hanging there straddling the branch with its' front and back legs just hanging there...AND IT IS DEAD AS DEAD CAN BE! The neighbor child is insistant on getting her father to get it down. I demand that is not necessary, but she beckons to him anyway. Great, more people in my front yard looking at my dead oppossum.
The father comes over with a shovel to tap it out of the tree. This is not working as it has petrified around the tree limb and has become one with the tree so he goes and gathers up his ladder and gloves. He climbs up the tree and gives it a slight tug, and to the horror of all the little children the leg pops off and falls to the ground. Actually, the kiddos think it may be the coolest thing since sliced bread. He then gently pulls it off the branch and shows its petrified body to everyone. As this is happening, wouldn't you know it, the pizza man shows up with the fathers' pizza. Holding the dead oppossum, he lets him know that he should probably go to the door and have his wife pay. I guarantee that every one of those kids went home and told of their great adventures to their parents.
Later that night, Ben comes home and I relay the days events to him. I comment that I can't believe we never smelled him. That is when he reminds me that a few months back we kept finding oppossum hair in our yard, beneath that tree, and it did smell a bit. I figured a cat had killed it and left its hair for me. Geez, why did I not think to look up in the tree. Why do these things always happen when Ben is at work?