An Extra Day, A Pretty Girl and A Houseguest

Leap Day
What do you do with a whole extra day that only comes along once every four years? Well, if you're lucky, your cousin Zoe will call you up and ask you to play. Henners, Reese, Cousins Zoe and Isabella and Aunt Kimberly decided that an extra day makes them hungry. So we took the kids to Arctic Circle. The folks that own this restaurant claim "it's where the good stuff is". Henry claims it's where the indoor slippery slide is.

Here's the kiddies eating and surprisingly behaving. Maybe that "good stuff" is some sort of sedative to relax the kids.


Turns out, there is no sedative in Arctic Circle's food. After the kids finished their meals and Henry got over his corn dog envy (don't get me started) they still had enough energy to run around and play on the indoor play equipment for over an hour. I didn't document this playtime, but it DID happen. Oh yeah, they also saved room for ice cream.


After all the fun had been had and there wasn't any more to have, it was time for the cousins to say goodbye. Zoe wanted a hug. Henner's thought he'd make her want it a little more.


So Very Pretty
Thursday nights, Reesie and I spend about an hour or so alone together before the boys get home. Sometimes we play, sometimes we read. This Thursday, we posed for pretty pictures. I didn't caption them because I can only think of so many ways to say how very, very pretty Reese is. The little bear she is playing with is so special to us. Keely gave it to Reese the last time we saw her. We call the bear Teely (for Tim and Keely).


The Uninvited House Guest
Also on Leap Day, I decided it was time to do a headcount to make sure all of our family was accounted for. I began counting the four of us, I added two extra for the cats, plus two more for the dogs. I even counted Master-P (Henry's fish). The crickets were dead so no need to count them. Just then, I noticed one more thing lurking about.


Wait. That wasn't a very good look at him. Let me zoom in a little closer.


A spider! A spider? Yes, a spider! Well, this would not do. I didn't have nearly enough fresh sheets and towels for the little guy and the crickets were long gone so I had nothing to feed him. Just then, Jeremy sprung into action. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a handful of rubber bands. He began shooting.

And shooting.

Still shooting. The spider was getting wise to him now and began almost taunting my husband. Even Henry was getting impatient. Here he is saying, "Get 'em, Dad," or shouting, "Let me do it!"

Reese and I were nervous and a little embarrassed for Jeremy.

Eventually the menacing spider was extracted from his perch near the ceiling. Good. Jeremy would like me to let you all know that he successfully shot the spider down. I would like you to all know the truth. Jeremy had to resort to snapping a twin sized blanked up and down the wall to broadly sweep the thing down.

Here's the two men of the house inspecting the spider.

Here's me and Reesie so happy that this whole ordeal is over.

Crickets and Outer Space

Jungle Love
If you're lucky, one Wednesday morning, your husband and your son will come home from the store with this...

Henry calls it a "Jungle". This jungle is actually a very cheap aquarium type thing for growing tadpoles into frogs or housing an itty, bitty frog. Henry was beside himself all day with excitement waiting for his Dad to bring home a promised frog to him. But when Dad arrived, all he had was this...

No matter, Henners was so excited for the crickets. Apparently itty, bitty frogs are in short supply these days. Who knew, right? Well, to Henry, the crickets were captivating. He must have watched them for at least an hour. What cheap entertainment! We asked him over and over if he wanted to go pick out a frog, but he insisted that he only wanted crickets.

The next day, however, the crickets were no more. Poor little guys didn't survive the night. We explained that the crickets were now sleeping. Henners decided it was time for a frog. But luckily he forgot again...for now.

Moon Madness
Did everyone catch the lunar eclipse February 19-20? Just so you know,this eclipse is the first of two lunar eclipses occurring in 2008, the second being the partial eclipse on August 16th. The eclipse this month was part of series 133 of the Saros cycle, an eclipse cycle which repeats every 18 years and 11 days. Series 133 runs from the year 1557 until 2819. The previous eclipse of this series occurred in February 1990 and the next will occur in March of 2026.

This month's eclipse is the 6th of 21 total lunar eclipses in series 133. The first was in December of 1917. The last (21st) will be in August of 2278. Right now you're thinking to yourself, "Wow. When did Jen learn so much about outer space?"

Jeremy and I took these awesome shots during the 6 hour event...


Okay, maybe we didn't take these images after all. Turns out we have children and jobs. Both of these things start early in the morning. We weren't able to stay up until 4:00 am to witness lunar history. We are intrigued enough by them to look up all things lunar eclipse on the internet and pass this information off as our own. There's always next time... See you August 16th 2008!

Dirty Word? You Decide.
Lately, Jeremy's been calling Henry "dudebag". Kind of funny, no? He doesn't say it in a derogatory way or anything. Instead of calling him Henners or Hank, he calls him dudebag. The first time I heard it, I was kind of shocked, because it sounds like it might almost be dirty. But it's not. I looked it up on urbandictionary.com just to be sure. The word comes up as "not defined yet". Wowsers. Jeremy needs to jump on this one! (BTW: don't click on the urban dictionary link above while you are at work or if you are semi-easily offended)

Where Have We Been?

Summer is Like, So Over..
Hooray for the cooler weather. Any colder temperature fans out there? It was too hot to blog...or at least, that's my story. I'm including some pics below of random activities I wasn't able to post earlier. They include hunting for varmits in our backyard, Henry seducing our server (not actual incriminating evidence, just photos to remember the night by) and cousin lovin'.

May Days

Leapin' Lizards
Mother’s Day this year was so much fun. Jeremy and Henry really spoiled me and treated me so special (not unlike any other day of the year). The night before, Jeremy promised me a breakfast in bed of fresh fruit and yummy baked goods. However, when morning rolled around, Henry jumped in our bed and loudly announced that he would like pancakes. So, pancakes it was!

We spent the rest of the day visiting all the Grandmas and stopping off for lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Toward the end of our meal, Henry was restless and began playing with some toy cars and small rubber lizards that we brought for him. Henry decided that throwing the lizard at Mom would be fun. On his first attempt, he over threw me by about 2 feet and the lizard landed in a plate of food of the family seated directly behind us! They laughed it off, as did the rest of the immediate restaurant. I asked Jeremy what we should do. He replied, “First, let’s pay for their meal, then let’s get Henry a sports agent.”

Speaking Too Soon
Wednesday Jeremy and I thought it might be fun to take Hank to the Dinosaur Park for the evening. We told him to pack himself up and get ready because we were taking him to see the dinosaurs! All the way there he kept asking if he would see the “Sharp Tooth” (Tyrannosaurus). He was naming all the dinosaurs he knows and we even made a little song about them too. As we pulled up to the park, we noticed a special function was going on and that the park was closed to the public. Jeremy and I had the privilege of explaining to a 2-year old the concept of “closed”.

Dinosaurs: The Sequel
Friday morning Henry and I headed back to the Dinosaur Park. This time when we pulled up there were around 8 elementary school buses. Again, I feared we wouldn't get in. This time I was going to do whatever I could to sneek us in. But, it turns out I didn't need to. We just had to share the park with lots of roudy elementary school kids. Can anyone say fun?

Liar Liar!

The Great Serpant
Henry is a liar! A few days ago, my alert neighbor and Henry's crush, Michelle, notified me that there was a snake under my car in our driveway. Hearing this, Henry got all excited and just had to see the snake. It ended up being a very small, very fast water snake (about 12 inches long, and as big around as my pinkie finger). So, picture two women, shreiking at this fast and slithering thing and a 2-year old trying to chase it. Well, this beast was far too crafty for the three of us, so help had to be called in for the job in the form of Michelle's husband, Paul.

Paul reluctantly arrived on the scene only after we exaggerated the size and aggressiveness of the snake. After he finished laughing at us, he quickly gathered up the snake and brought it over for our inspection. I tried to get Henry to pet it, but he was having NO PART of that! He recoiled and clung to me for dear life. I even touched it a few times to see that if that would coax him. Nuh-uh!

After thanking Paul for "saving our life", Henry and I went back inside the house. Henry then immediately went to his cubby where he keeps all his rubber and wooden snakes and played with them for the rest of the evening.

The next day when Jeremy got home, I overheard Henry telling Jeremy how he "petted the snake" and he "caught 'em". I corrected him and told him that he didn't even want to touch the snake. However, Henry insisted he had "petted" that thing. I've also heard Henry and Michelle talking about the events of that day and every time, he says he helped Paul "petted the snake" and "get 'em".

The great snake hunter


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