Get Involved

I don't know about you, but I'm really thankful for the country that we live in. I feel so blessed. But, there are definitely things going on with our government that I really disagree with. I'm always wondering, "What can I do?" I try to write letters to my Congressman, but I never feel like I make much of a difference. I found this web-site today and I feel like there are some great ideas of ways to get involved. I like the "White House Wednesday" with legitimate issues and people to contact. This is a "mom" type blog, but I feel like this could be useful to anyone!

http://asamom.ning.com/

Halloween Carnival & Grandma's

Madilyn made a really cute pumpkin. All of my children have a slight addiction to candy. I blame it on my parents. Before we lived with them, I never bought candy. And then, my dad would come home every night with a treat for everyone. Bad, bad dad.



It's really hard to decide what David is. He says he's Batman? I'm just not seeing Batman. Maybe he's a new member of Kiss? He's always had a love for mullets. Maybe he's just a creepy mullet man? Or perhaps he's just from West Virginia?



I love this chicken costume. Too bad that little miss Madilyn hated it.




Here's the whole family. Hubby David will hate me for posting this picture. But, he'll forgive me because I love him so much.

The Pumpkin Patch

We had such a fun Halloween full of weeks of festivities. We went to the pumpkin patch, had a Halloween carnival, did a party at Grandma's, went on a late night Halloween cruise down the Provo river, carved pumpkins, and went trick-or-treating on Halloween night. Here are lots of pictures from all of the fun:

The two pregnant family members

All of the family at the Pumpkin Patch

Tyler picks his pumpkin

Once There was a Snowman. . .

We woke up this morning to a little snow in Utah. The boys were extremely excited and so they spent hours outside attempting to build a snowman. Here's what they came up with. Dad helped a little bit.
I think they managed to use every last morsel of snow on the ground to create this snowman. And then there was Mr. Calvin who stood staring out the window the whole time pointing and laughing at the "noman." I guess there are some good things about really cold weather.

Class Reunion

After Jake and Lindsay's wedding, I had my 10 year class reunion. David came along and he was a good sport. It was a lot of fun to see some of my friends from high school. The very best part was the reunion of the "FAB 5". These were the gals who I spent most of my high school days playing sports with--basketball, softball, volleyball, and track. We were pretty much together from our Freshman year all the way through our Senior year. Looking back, I sure did love high school. Although, I'm glad to be where I'm at, I've had a lot of fun along the way.

Jake's Wedding

This is a long overdue post. My brother Jake got married on September 12th on the family farm. All of my siblings and I were in the wedding and we had a lot of fun. Everything turned out beautiful. I also got to complete a goal I've always wanted to accomplish--make a wedding cake. I know that seems a little silly. It equated to an extremely crazy day before the wedding. There are things that I would change, but the cake tasted yummy. The whole entire wedding cake got eaten, so I guess that's what mattered most. We did two layers 0f pumpkin cake for the bottom, two layers of fresh apple for the middle, and a chocolate brownie cake for the top. It was all smothered with cream cheese frosting. I stacked the cake on an old antique oak window and then put red apples underneath. I stole the concept from a cousin who used green apples under her cake. I'm an idea thief.

It was a really fun day for everyone. We just enjoyed talking and we were quite a silly wedding party. Here are some more pictures if you're interested (first gallery at the top):

http://www.fhgphotography.com/miller/index.html

Lindsey is the perfect fit for Jake and they seem so happy together. I can't believe that we're all becoming big people with real responsibilities. Weclome to the family, Lindsey. We sure do love you!!

Grateful

I'm not a good blogger, but my life has been crazy with so many things. I've always loved writing in a journal and have done so on and off since I was 8 years old. Blogging is something that adds to my journaling, but I've never felt like sharing really personal things, so I write those in my journal and I'll occasionally post a blog.

I guess today I'm feeling like sharing some of me. I hope it won't be too much for you.....

Today, I've felt a little lugubrious (this is our latest Reader's Digest word--go look it up :) ). I'm kind of on bed rest for the next 6 weeks due to a basketball injury that was followed by surgery and it's made me a bit down-hearted. However, today, as I was bemoaning myself--the fact that I'm lying in bed, working my job, and I can hear my little children downstairs with their Grandma and I can't help--I realized how good my life is. It's really good. Great even. I have so many things to be grateful for. I can't even count them all. But mostly....

I have the best family in the whole wide world. I've got a husband who's a lot of fun and so helpful with everything. He has so many amazing talents. He single-handedly (well pretty much on his own) fixed our little farmhouse with his two big manly hands. I love his hands. And, I love his heart. We were really made for each other. We have three beautiful children with unique personalities. We have great parents who have helped us beyond words. We have fun siblings who we love to be around.

Gratitude = Family = Love

Truly what life is about. And I wrote this little poem that kind of sums up my feelings....

sunshine and rain,
trees and flowers,
summer and spring,
kids and popsicles.
or better yet,
my kids and ice cream,
my husband and sons,
sons and a daughter,
parents and grandparents,
laughter and dinner.
all mixed together
in a little place
with a big heart
and rolling hills,
with lots of green trees,
and friends who say what they mean,
and help each other.
perhaps a small paradise,
or really just a simple place,
bursting at the seams
with love--
a simple place called home.

And a side note, I'm sure grateful for fall. How I love the crisp air and the crunchy leaves!!

Why you should never ever go into a store bathroom with three kids by yourself...

I know it's a long title and yes this is going to be another long post. Just remember that I warned you.

Several weeks ago, I had to stop at the good ole "Wal-marts" as everyone calls it here. We needed some diapers, and needless to say Madilyn smelled yucky and both of the boys needed to go to the bathroom. I had just walked in, grabbed an empty cart, drove up to the bathroom, parked the cart in front, and hauled all three kids into the bathroom. I pulled down the diaper changing table and then proceeded to get the boys in the stall so that they could go potty. I noticed there was someone in the handicap stall, so I stood outside our stall door so both boys could stand in the stall. There was no way all 4 of us could fit.
So, I'm talking to them for a few seconds..."Tyler you're such a big boy to go in the potty" and on and on. (Tyler was getting potty trained). As I'm standing there, this 6ft 4 bearded man walks in and stops, looks at me, and walks out. I started laughing and I was thinking what an idiot. David walks out of the stall and asks me what I'm laughing at.
Then, he says, "Mom, I don't want to go in here, I want to go over there."
I said, "You have to go in the toilet."
He's like, "No Mom, over there."
Then, I looked over, and I see them in their blazing white glory. There were two urinals on the other wall!! I grabbed David and ran outside really fast to look at the sign on the door. And yes, it was the men's bathroom. No big deal. I started laughing at myself, and Tyler comes running out. And this is where things get interesting. I look down and he has NO PANTS on.
I said, "Tyler, where are your pants?"
"In there." (pointing into the men's bathroom)
Then, I look down, and he has NO UNDERWEAR on either!!
"WHERE ARE YOUR UNDERWEAR?!?!?!"
We're standing right in the middle of the whole store, and one of my kids is completely indecent!! I was a bit embarrassed by this time. I pick him up, run back into the men's bathroom, grab the undies and pants, push up the changing table, grab the diaper bag, and run into the women's. The whole time, Tyler is pretty much bare bottomed. I guess we could have gotten in trouble for indecent exposure. And, the poor guy in the other stall was probably frightened to death and wouldn't come out!!


My poor children--their mother is losing her mind!! The things they go through. I'm just grateful that they're a still a little young.

Happy Sunday, everyone!!

Happy Independence Day!!

We've sure had a fun day today. We got up and hiked up to the top of the hill where daddy David was raking the hay with the tractor. We played in the dirt and watched David on the tractor. The boys were so funny. We then walked home via the creek. We went up and down though the massive drain-pipe several times. (I know it doesn't sound safe, but it's only a couple of inches deep.) I even let Madilyn stand in the water. She had the uncontrollable giggles--so funny. I love little baby giggles. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids after the hike.

I love these hats!! We made them at a fun library day last summer. I think the boys look so cute in them!

Here's a cute picture of Madilyn (at least I thought it was cute.) This was after the hike as well. She's standing on the other side of a very dirty glass door!!

Tonight, we went to a really fun community 4th of July celebration. They had two of those super big bouncy inflatables. One was a jumping inflatable and the other was this huge obstacle course. The boys loved it!! Tyler was so silly. He can scream louder than any girl. It's not just a scream--it's a shrill.

Afterwards, we went over to the town lawn where they had a band singing the best of Motown. The singers were actually quite good and we had fun dancing and just acting crazy. The favorite thing of the night though, was this guy who had all sorts of tricks--unicycling, juggling, fire eating, baton twirling, etc. I thought this part of the night was going to be lame, but the boys loved this guy. He was probably about 5 feet tall and he was quite the trickster. My kids wanted to follow him around all night.

And then, to top the night off, we watched fireworks. The radio announcers all week were saying this was, "One of the best fireworks displays on the East coast." I couldn't help but chuckle. When they said one of the best, I was thinking best in what? Best in 1,000, best in a 100,000?? Come on? This is Tazewell, VA. I guess we can all be one of the best at just about anything. :) Overall, the show was really good, though.

We had a great day and a great night. I'm thankful to live in this country. There are many things going on right now that I really dislike. But, I still think that this is one of the best places on earth to live.

Happy Independence Day!!! Let Freedom Ring! :) (I've had that song in my head all day...by Martina McBride. I even sang a phenomenal rendition to Jen on the phone tonight. You should all be jealous you missed that. COUGH!)

Sunny

This morning David #3 woke up and said, "Mom, today we're going to be happy because it's sunny outside." Made me laugh. Made my day!!!

Calf vs. Baby

One would think that apples to apples, it would take the same time for a calf to drink a bottle as a baby...

Tonight, David called from a Scouting campout to ask me to feed our calf, Dolly. My dad gave us this little calf after she lost her mother. They had to do an emergency c-section on the cow and they were able to save little Dolly.

When David called, it was already 9:00pm---DARK!!! I don't do so well by myself in the dark. I always manage to conjure up the worst possible scenario in my mind of how I'll meet my doomsday death in the dark. And tonight was not any different (we've also had a bear lurking around the house, so that doesn't help).

I mixed up Dolly's bottle and put a head-lamp on my head, and walked up to the barn. I kept turning my head 180 degrees every 30 seconds to see if I could see little beady eyes. Or even big bear egg eyes. Thankfully, I didn't see anything on the way up.

I got up to the barn, went down the middle aisle, and looked in the first stall. (David told me the calf was in the first stall.) I looked down and there were pigs. So I walked to the back stall, and something reached down and grabbed my head. I started freaking out. I was screaming like crazy. The dogs started barking and the pigs started making noises. I kept trying to turn the head lamp to see what was going on. My head kept getting smacked. FINALLY, I looked up and there were two birds FLOGGING me!!! It wasn't just a simple flog--I was getting double-teamed. I ran out of the middle of the barn screaming with my hands above my head. I kept thinking they were going to scratch my face with their feet, poo on my head, or I was going to get some sort of strange bird lice. Luckily, no damage done.

I went around to the side of the barn and found Dolly. I gave her the bottle and within about 50 seconds I could hear her gulping air. Amazing. I grabbed the bottle, closed the stall door, and walked as quickly as possible back to the house. (I walked for fear that if something was behind me and I ran, surely it would chase me). I know. I'm secretly a wimp.

And now, I must say...Thankfully, when it comes to calf verses baby, CALF IS THE WINNER. I don't think I could have handled more than 50 seconds.

Our little Over-Achiever

With baby #1, I read all of the week by week pregnancy and baby developmental guidelines on-line. I read tons of books on pregnancy and new baby. With baby #2, I looked at the books/Internet a couple of times--mostly when I was feeling extremely sick or baby was feeling sick. On Sunday, I opened my very first baby book for baby #3. I hope that baby #2 and #3 don't feel neglected. I'm definitely not a pro at mothering, but I guess with each baby I've become a bit more easy-going. It really has more to do with me than the kids. I'm not so up-tight and stressed because I feel a lot more comfortable with myself as a mom.

The reason I opened up the baby book for #3----We've decided that Madilyn is already an over-achiever. She's developing so fast. And, while I'm very excited for her accomplishments, I find myself sad that she's not the teeny tiny baby that she once was. Granted, she's still a baby; but, she's getting so mobile and she's developing her own little personality. I'm missing the "baby slug" stage, but I am enjoying the present moments that pass all too quickly.

Madilyn has been crawling for over 2 weeks now. On Saturday, while I was home with the kids cleaning up, Madilyn sat up all by herself on the rug. And then, on Sunday, I was sitting at the table talking with my mom. Madilyn squirmed over to the bottom of my chair, and WA-LA. She grabbed the chair slats at the bottom of the chair and pulled herself up into a standing position. STANDING? She just barely started crawling and she just sat the day before?? I have a feeling that next week she's going to be doing the triple jump or running sprints. ;)

I don't know if I'm ready yet for the fascination of toilet paper and toilets which has plagued all of my children. I don't know if I'm ready for the excitement of electrical outlets and pouring/dumping anything out of a container. However, I do know that I sure like this wee one! She's a keeper!

Cheese

Secret confession. I love cheese. It's a great weakness of mine. I found cheese in college. BYU gave me my husband, my education, and a love for cheese. Okay. Not really BYU. I guess my love for cheese came from my cute mother-in-law who piles two cups of cheese on a tortilla and microwaves it for a "cheese crisp." Delightful!!
My latest obsession is feta. I can eat it on anything and since it's a strong cheese I can eat just a little bit and feel healthy! HA! Anyway, I had no idea that there was such an assortment of cheese growing up. My mom only bought the Kraft American slices.
Here's the point. The only cheese I've had that I don't like is GOAT cheese. I can't stand it!! I've tried it in various settings and I find it absolutely disgusting. I always try it again thinking that it will taste like feta and I'll like it, but alas I never like goat cheese.

There are a couple of things I can't stand about goat cheese:
1. The taste/smell of goat cheese reminds me of a wet goat.
2. Goats are cute, but they really stink when wet.
3. My dad had goats when we were kids who were frightening. There was one little black billy goat who was seriously the devil. We'd run across the farm yard to get up in the barn loft to our clubhouse and the black billy goat would chase us head on. He had some little spiky horns, some wicked eyes, and needless to say I got rammed in the back side several times. All of us were afraid of him.
4. One time in high school, when I was feeding some animals on the farm, I heard my neighbor's goat bawling. The sound scared me, but I walked down to the fence to see what was going on and saw a little goat with his head stuck on the far fence. I hiked over the dividing fence and valiantly went over to save the bawling goat. (I think it was a trick.) I reached down and grabbed the goats head, twisted his horns, and set him free. Oh, did I mention that the fence was an electric fence? Just as I twisted his horns, I somehow got my head on the electric fence, and ZAP!!! I got completely electrocuted in my attempts to save the goat!! Also I do believe it was raining.
5. I've eaten goat. I know I shouldn't admit that, but it was quite traumatizing to me as a child.
6. I've had goat's milk. Let's just say this was a dare. It was raining outside. My softball team dared me to run over to the field and "milk" a goat. I did. It was disgusting. I haven't had goat's milk since.
Perhaps my issues with goat cheese, don't just stem from taste. Perhaps I've been deeply traumatized by goats throughout my life. Perhaps I shouldn't admit to so much all at once. Alas, I love cheese, but I abhor goat cheese. Sorry, Mr. Goat!

Happy Easter!!!

We've had an absolutely fantastic Easter weekend!! So much family fun time!! Highlights from this week and weekend:

• David #3 praying every time he says the prayer for the last two weeks for: 1. "Please bless Ella and Brycy and LeAnn and Jared to come visit" (he's been counting down every day for 2 weeks. He got up every morning and yelled, "Mom it's 3 days!!", etc until they came) 2. "Please bless we'll go to the swimming pool for being a big listener" 3. "Please bless that we'll do Easter on the ground" 4. "Please bless Jesus that he died for us." (I love his prayers. They're so sincere and cute and everything starts with "please bless".)
• Jen coming home on Friday evening.
• Going to the Easter egg hunt at Church with all of the little kids and getting to see 4 new baptisms that same day. What a great time to be baptized!! Quite tender!
• Taking the boys and Madilyn to the swimming pool. There's a new community center here and they have a really nice swimming pool with a kiddy section/beach. The kiddy section has a really large 2 foot pool with all sorts of fun kiddy water things in it--wave pool, sprayers, etc. and a water slide. Jen came along and the boys were just SO HAPPY!! They love going swimming and we always manage to go when Jen's around and she's such a good sport.
• Jared, LeAnn, Ella and Bryce coming in. Spending time chatting, playing, building puzzles, eating absurd amounts of food, coloring Easter eggs, kidtastrophes, yummy Easter dinner together with everyone, lots of Easter egg hunts with the kids (Grandpa hiding the eggs and all the kids looking for them), going to church together, enjoying the Easter sunshine, snuggling with Bryce, and Easter baskets for everyone. A funny moment: Mom set the mashed potatoes on the table today and Ella picked up the massive potato spoon and shoved the whole thing in her mouth and then put the spoon back in the bowl. Now if I did that, not cute. But Ella--cute.
• And the real highlight of Easter had to be tonight. We did an Easter activity with eggs and pictures all about the Savior. The boys really had a good time and I think David got several of the concepts. It was a nice way to finish up a fantastic weekend. Thanks, Valeri, for the ideas on the eggs. We'll use this for many years to come and it can be tweaked for all ages. :) http://valeriandersen.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-story-egg-hunt.html

Hope you all had a great Easter!!

100 Books

I love to read. I especially enjoy reading classic books. I'm posting this for future reference as I'd actually like to try to read all of these some day!! Thought some of you out there might enjoy as well.

Here's how it works:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE

The premise of this exercise is that the National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (I have to admit that I have not finished this one)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (I've read book 1&2)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (I feel like it's mandatory to underline this one)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (I haven't read the COMPLETE works, but I've read a lot of Shakespeare)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (I read a junior version of this when I was in middle school, so I'm not sure it counts)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (I love these movies. I definitely need to read the books)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (I'm actually currently reading this one)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (Also read this as a junior classic. Need to read the full version)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (Also read this as a junior classic. Need to read the full version)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Also a junior classic)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (I actually really liked this book and probably shouldn't admit it because it was darkness)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (one of the best quote books ever)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (I read this on the buses of El Salvador the complete unabridged collection. Pure perfection. I love this book and I even enjoyed all of the history)

The good news is that at least I've read more than 6 of these books. The bad news is that I haven't even read half of them. Maybe that's a new goal for the year.....We'll see. :)

Valentine's Day!!

I finally found my camera cord and so here's the post I've had saved for months.

We had a super Valentine's Day. I know I'm a little bit late, but we had such fun. We made Valentine's for everyone with sweet treats. We also decorated sugar cookies together as a family. This year the cookies look the very worst ever. But, we made whipped cream cheese frosting and it was divine. Completely fattening with heavy whipping cream and cream cheese, but absolutely delightful (see recipe below). Anyway, the cookie decorating wasn't very great as my icing pens somehow got dried up. So, none of the frosting would come out of the pens. But, we had quite the fun together!!

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Set aside. In another medium bowl, beat whipped cream until stiff peaks form (it helps to use a chilled bowl and chilled beaters - and make sure the peaks are stiff not soft). Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture and mix carefully (so as not to deflate cream) but well.

(Be careful if adding coloring - the liquid food coloring found in the baking aisle can quickly thin your icing so you may need to add a bit more powdered sugar to compensate. I prefer to use Wilton's gel coloring but either will work.)

Please note that I hate this picture. I don't like pictures of myself. The boys gave me a heart sticker which they insisted I put on my face. And something looks funny with my tooth. Just ignore my face. I'm only posting this to show a person out there who shall not be named my short hair cut. I donated all my hair to locks of love several months ago. AND then, I got real highlights (which I've never done).

Mice

I'm sure that there are people out there who read my blog who love mice. I can't stand them. I find them disgusting. I hate that they like to invade houses. I hate that they leave their little poo tracks everywhere. I hate that they poke their little noses into any possible food that they can. I think mice and snakes are equal in my things that I hate most scale. Well, except rats. Rats top both. But, in my mind, mice and rats are basically the same thing. I'm sure that PETA would be apalled by my disgust.
So, several weeks ago pre-Christmas I had quite the mouse experience. I'll have creepy mouse dreams for the rest of my life. I was sitting at my parent's computer early in the morning working. My parent's live in a very old farmhouse that they've fixed up. I'm sitting in the chair, typing an email to a co-worker and all of a sudden I feel something down in my pants. I feel around and there's nothing there. So, I completely think I've imagined that there's something in my pants. And then, I feel something moving up behind my leg. I feel around again and there's something with a little body up my pants leg. I jump up screaming. Screaming is an understatement. I kick my legs all over the place and out flips a mouse. Not just a cute little mouse, but a big fat one. The understated screaming becomes much worse.
My brother jumps up out of bed and comes running in to see what's going on. I can't even talk. My voice is completely hoarse. I take off running downstairs kicking my legs. David comes running to me to see what's wrong.
I scream, "David, a mouse just ran up my pants!!"
He responds, "What?"
"DAVID A MOUSE CLIMBED UP MY PANTS!!!!"
He doesn't really believe me. So, he runs up the stairs. And sure enough, the mouse is scurrying through the house. I see it and I start freaking out yet again. David pulls out a shoe and saves my life.
Yes, I realize that I shouldn't be afraid of mice. I grew up on a farm for goodness sakes!! I've been bitten by mice in feed bins. But, I just can't handle them. And big fat mice just make it even worse. I will no longer wear baggy pajamas while sitting at the computer.
I'm planning to write a new book in the series.... and the first line will be "If you give a mouse a pants leg, he'll take a whole leg."

Wise words to the weary: Be very careful where you sit.