Cadet Airman

He's supposed to look grumpy. Military serious and all that. He is marching in a parade this evening.

I'm a dog magnet.

Why, oh why??. I love dogs. Everyone knows that. I think it is an inherited gene from my grandfather. Problem is, I already HAVE a dog AND 7 kids AND three guinea pigs AND two lizards AND two wild cats that *think* they are mine.
This evening while the little ones were playing outside what looks like a Cock-a-poo came up the driveway. He's pretty muddy but has been groomed in the not too distant past and even still smells a little of shampoo. I drove around with him looking for anyone calling a dog. Of course he has no collar or nametag and I, nor any of the kids recognize him and trust me, we know the majority of the dogs in the subdivision, at least by sight. No luck. I'll call the local vets and put up flyers tomorrow, I'll take him down to a vet and see if he was microchipped. He MUST belong to someone. Why would anyone bathe and groom THEN dump a dog? He and Murphy are getting along fine although Murphy is being his usual doofy self and trying to get this little guy to play and he just won't give up.

We aren't keeping this one too although the girls would love it. I think my dogs and I would have to move into the shed:-)

Making lemonade out of lemons...

Nasty storm last night

Usually our county seems to miss the worst of the storms. Our little corner got hit hard last night. Lots of trees came down-not branches, trees and some huge branches. Our gazebo is a loss-flipped over, cover ripped off. Neighbors a/c was crushed. Another neighbors windshield smashed. One house down the street is covered with large branches, roof damaged. Amazingly, we lost no shingles and my fragile glass hummingbird feeder is fine. Next door lost quite a few good sized branches and trees yet Sarita's little plastic play figurines she had lined up on her play set were still standing where she left them.

It's that time of year.

I'll get to the point. In a span of about 3 hours Ian was stung by a scorpion and we (meaning Chris) killed a copperhead on our driveway. Rural TX at it's best. :-p
Typical Circle K Ranch scene with the copperhead. 9PM and Chris is coming home from work. He spots something on the driveway in his headlights. Stops, looks at it it, realizes it is a snake and probably not a good kind. He backs up, turns his wheel and RUNS OVER the snake. POP! Of course, being a snake it doesn't die but is limply trying to crawl somewhere else to die. Chris comes in, announces his deed which gets all of us out in the driveway. I look at it, identify it as a coppherhead (glad at least one member of the family has bothered to look them up), make all the kids come look so THEY know what it is, attempt to drill it into their heads that this kind of snake will at minimum equal an unpleasant trip to the hospital if it bites them. Chris dispatches the snake with a shovel. Grace and Emma are in tears and the next hour is spent explaining to the girls that we don't WANT to kill the snake but it's our job to take care of them and we cannot just let a venomous snake go merrily on his way in our yard. They understand but my two little St. Francis' still get sad. We have a little tiny graveyard for all the lizards that have come and gone.
I did NOT take pictures for the blog but Chris, who is getting into the blog-spirit behind the scenes), did come in and ask if I wanted to get pictures of the (dead, half gutted, head smashed) snake for the blog. Ummm...no thanks...honey... I don't think those are the images my readers are itching for :-)

P.S. Ian is fine. That's what you get for not wearing shoes when you go outside.

Chess tournament

Jack came in 3rd in Division B (middle school) at the Guadalupe Chess tournament last weekend. 8th out of 23.
His trophy: