Just falling from my head...

Warren is now using the toilet and we are starting to feel the pain of having one toilet shared between 5 people. Follows me into the bathroom chanting "Potty coming out, potty coming out." So I quickly set him on the toilet. Dallas comes running in and says "I need to poop real bad! Aw crap. He's pooping isn't he." shakes his head and walks out. The second Dallas leaves the room Robin come running in "What? Is there a line now?"


Dallas like his vitamins. He likes them a lot. He comes to me while I'm in the middle of cooking lunch and says. THe conversation went like this:
Dallas: Mama, stop what your doing and get me stars.
Me: No Dallas, Im in the middle of cooking. I'll give you vitamins after you have some food in your tummy.
Dallas: But I promise I won't get a tummy ache.
Me: Food will be ready in a couple minutes so I'm sure you wouldn't but I don't want to get them right now, I want to finish cooking.
Dallas: But my happiness will hold back my crazy because it's so strong.

Well what could I do. I got this kids his vitamins!


With lunch we tried out this new to us vegetable, garlic curls. Robin asked were they came from again, I told him the farmers market. Dallas chimes in "You know we are farmers. We have lots of cats and all farmers need lots of cats. We are rich too. We are rich in toys." Robin adds, "Yeah so rich we can't even clean them up. We should look into getting some one for that."

I did it. I took all four kids out alone. This might not sound like much but for some reason it was a big deal to me. Really big.

I took 6 weeks off to stay home except when we all went out as a family. At first it wasn't intentional time off, I just kept putting off going out. I felt guilty about it. I tried to make plans and had to cancel all the time. I stopped making plans all together. I still don't know that I can commit to anything with a definite time line yet. I can't put my finger on why it was so frighting to me to take all 4 kids out without Doug. It's true that Myrna went through a time where she needed a diaper change every 5 minutes, announced by the kind of crying that says "HELP ME NOW MAMA!", and some parts of the day are randomly like that still, it just is. I now see this was more of an excuse and inconvenience than something truly keeping me home.

It could be that Warren doesn't like to hold hands in parking lots and feels like he's 12 not 2. I'm glad he doesn't feel inhibited to do things on his own but I do wish he would take me seriously when I have to say "No really, you NEED to hold a hand. I need you to hold a hand." He's not nearly as much of a darter as Dallas was but I still have such fear because Dallas almost got hit once while I was putting Warren in his carseat as an infant. There was a sudden moment of save the baby or save the toddler but the balloon tied to the back of his pants made him visible and the car stopped just as I reached him not three steps from me. That day I learned the a good reason to use a baby bucket, it's for the safety of your other kids. If you carry your baby out of a building to the car in a infant seat, you can lift and snap in the toddler safely then get the baby in. I brought the seat with me everywhere even when baby wearing for a long time after that. I can't carry her in the infant seat right now. It alone is heavy. I hurt my upper back and neck while wearing her in a pouch, the only carrier she will tolerate yet and I have a huge collection to choose from. I can barely carry her right now and it's not without pain.

Now about today; we went to the chiropractor first, I won't tell you it was easy. I ran in to a problem when the two youngest were sleeping and I couldn't carry them both. Warren had to wake up and he wasn't ready so he cried through my whole appointment. He started crying about the receptionist holding Myrna. He had a hard time last weekend at the LIFE Is Good Conference with people holding her, in fact on a couple of occasions he demanded I get her back. He is very protective of his sister and after the conference at Folklife festival if people got too close while taking a look at her he would start growling "Don't touch Myrna." at people. This time he wouldn't be consoled by anyone at the chiropractors office, even when the receptionist got down on the floor with him while holding her. He was crying Mama get Myrna over and over so I asked her to hand Myrna to Robin. He changed to Mama let's go while pulling my finger towards the door as I'm laying face down getting an adjustment. It was heartbreaking. Had I not been in so much pain I would have just left. There wasn't time in the day to wait for him to calm down. My choices were let him cry for me to leave while I try to get fixed so I can better meet his future needs or leave and possible get even worse. I chose to stay because I couldn't live with the pain. Dr Jason came in and brought gummy vitamins and it didn't calm him right away but when Dallas picked them up to hold them for him, Warren wanted them and calmed down, stopped crying and loved on Myrna for the rest of the time. When we got back to the car I changed and nursed Myrna who had started fussing for a change at the end of the appointment. The whole time in the office was about 20 minutes. It felt a lot longer. We all made it through with no signs of permanent emotional scaring, not that I know what that would look like. I think we could go out again.

You know you've become one with the country life when you hear your husband say "That's some good smelling cow butt, not like that farm up the street. Now that's some nasty cow butt.

Today we left the children's museum before close because we were all too tired to play any more. This is a rare thing, but the boys were up late then up again early. No one wanted to walk back to the car so Robin and Warren were seated in the Chariot stroller and Dallas was on the end...siting backwards on the edge. I told him he couldn't sit there and needed to get all the way in or walk. "Why Mama?" he asked, like he always does before he will budge but before I could answer he promptly fell out backwards. He had on a toy fireman's hard hat and that broke the 6 inch fall. Dallas is very vocal and you can't always tell when he's really hurt or not. I suspect he doesn't always know at first either so I treat all accidents with the same level of concern, even though I wasn't worried about this one, he needed me to be worried right then.

There happened to be a Center House Security Officer riding his bike back inside to base behind us and he stopped to give us an ice pack. Dallas calmed instantly at the sight of him, he looked much like a police officer and Dallas always gets shy around police officers. He asked Dallas where he got hurt. Dallas just stared, but Warren, who now had Dallas' head in his lap, taps him on the head pointing and says with a smile "Brain". I started laughing and ask "Did you just say brain?" Warren looks and me and shakes his head yes and repeats "Brain." The security officer is cracking up and asks Warren directly "Where did he get hurt again?" To my surprise, the child who is least likely to talk to strangers answers again, loud and proud "Dallz brain. Boom brain!"

I don't remember teaching him specific anatomy, yet he was sure of it. Dallas is fine by the way. He didn't even get a bump on his head because of the plastic hard hat.

Today at the Children's Museum Robin and Dallas were playing with these two other boys who were about 6 and 4 who were being a little rough. Warren really wanted to be in the tent with them and older boy wouldn't let him in. Robin and Dallas got out and said "This is Warren and he's our brother. If you want to play with us, you have to play nice with him." They started playing again and went back into the tent and the other boys both start pushing pillows at Warren to block his entry. I hear Robin from inside the tent "Maybe you didn't understand me." He crawls out and the boys follow. "This is Warren, he's my brother. I'm Robin and that's Dallas, he's my brother too." pointing to Dallas who chimes in "I'm Dallas" then points to me "and that's our Mother."
Robin starts again. "We play together so if you want to play with us, you need to be nice to Warren too."
Warren was standing there looking at them smiling and nodding. These boys also have a younger brother, a bit younger than Warren and he's in the corner having a snack with his parents who are just as curious as I am, watching this interaction. The other boys introduced themselves on their parents prompting and they all started to play again.

There was a time the boys got too rowdy close to Warren and he ran scared behind Robin and Dallas stood in front of them and said "I'm Dallas and this is Robin and Warren. Don't forget to be nice cause he (Warren) doesn't like that." Then everyone went back to playing.

Eventually Warren went to draw and Robin and Dallas got hungry so everyone went their separate ways, but we were in there together for nearly an hour.

I found it interesting how they handled the situation without any intervention with a formal introduction. Robin and Dallas were playing with the boys for quite a while before Warren wanted to join and no names were needed before that point. It's as if Robin was saying my brother is little but he's a person with a name. That's certainly what his body language and tone said. Except for Dallas pointing me out as part of their family, then never needed to look to me for guidance.

I feel really proud of how they handled it. It could have gone so many different ways. This was a herd of boys romping roughly together. Although all good kids it could have turned physical just by the nature of how they were playing or most likely I would have though Warren would have been left out. I was prepared to step in and redirect him to another activity where he was less likely to be hurt but I never needed to. I guess I'm just in awe of my children's maturity today, combined with the love and respect they showed for each other.

I'm laying in bed watching Warren sleep. He's having a dream and twitching a bit when all of a sudden with the stealth of a ninja, he sits up and let's out a battle cry while attacking my arm with two hands, he pulls himself to me and tries to bite, almost before I realize what he's doing. his eye were shut the whole time. Just after I dislodged him I he babbled something that sounded like "and don't try that again!" then went back to sleeping. It was amazing the speed and purpose in which he moved. I'm sure it was a victorious dream.

I was reading a book to the boys called "Animals Nobody Loves". This book is about scary creatures like sharks, cobras and spiders. Between each two page spread, the kids would act out the creature and even Warren was getting into it. When we came to the cockroaches, for some reason, my near two week sleep deprivation caught up with me. I was out for less than twenty minutes, and it was when we used to have nap time, a few weeks ago when the kids thought sleeping was cool. When I woke up Warren was climbing on me, he had colored his hands and belly and markers were in a pile next to me. Robin and Dallas were snuggled up to me, trying to wedge themselves under me. They told me that we were baby birds and they were trying to sleep under me. Robin added that Warren just wanted to nurse because my boobies were the pouches I kept the bugs in and Dallas confirmed, "Yeah ,like ants Mama!" Warren just bounced up and down on me. After feeding Warren, checking my face for pen marks Robin brought the book to me and asked; "Can we hear about the crocodiles now?"

Now anyone who really knows me, knows I can't say no to a pet. Doug can so we aren't totally drowned in animals, we can still come up for air, some days. I digress. Here's the conversation:

Robin: "Mama? If we had a long neck dinosaur, would we still have any shade?"
Me: "What do you mean Robin?
Robin: "Well, would he eat all the trees so we wouldn't have any shade?"
Me: "I'm sure he would, those dinosaurs get pretty big and need to eat a lot of trees. I don't think we would have enough."
Robin: "We could just get a baby then."
Me: "Babies grow into big dinosaurs. What would we do with him then?"
Robin, as if a light bulb above his head had turned on: "We could butcher him!"
Now, This was a very serious conversation up until this point but Doug and I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the thought. As if taken over by the giddy teenagers inside us we both started listing dinosaur meat food items: "Dinoburgers!" "Dinostew!" "Dinosteaks!" "Dinoballs! Oh wait, maybe not."
You could almost see the lightbulb disappear in a puff of smoke as he thought about eating a dinosteak as he said: "Well, maybe we shouldn't get one after all. We really don't have room for it."

The kids have not been 100 percent this week. I didn't want to believe they were actually sick though. My head was buried firmly in the sand and only an over flow of poop could bring me out.

Yesterday on the way to Thursday morning Mom's group, Robin threw up in his car seat. He didn't want breakfast and said he wanted to wait to eat until we got there. That's not too unusual really. On the way out the door Dallas saw the vitamins and wanted one of each so we stopped for berries, gummies and bubbles then packed into the car. Since Robin puked a stomach load of vitamins and declared he was fine and wanted to keep going, he got really mad when I turned around to go back home, I was still standing in la la land. I figured it must have been because he had vitamins on and empty stomach because Doug complains about that too. Dallas and I have no problem with vitamins on an empty stomach, I almost prefer them that way. Robin didn't seem too sick the rest of the day. I was prepared for him to lay around and watch some muppet shows but he was up playing and singing all day. I was thankful no one was really sick.

Today I woke up early while the kids were still sleeping and took a shower, then I promptly go on packing lunch for our day out. While cutting apples, the phone rang, Robin rand downstairs and Warren started to cry. I went upstairs to find Dallas sitting up and Warren had crawled off the bed and was making his way to the stairs. He had poo soaked through his jammies.

I changed his very wet and poopy clothes and diaper and went upstairs to nurse. Dallas climbed from his bed and quietly and timidly says "Mama, there's poop everywhere and I stinky." I wrapped him in a towel and set him in the tub. The pants got thrown away. It was that bad. I cloth diaper and I didn't feel I could save these pants. It was bad. The poor little guy was such a trooper though.

Dallas discovered the joy of standing in the shower with warm water running over you. He wanted to stay there after he had been all cleaned up. For several months he would not get his head wet voluntarily and would not let you wash his hair but here he was, completely cured of that fear standing under the shower with water running on his head. I've never been on to like water in the face myself. I don't see how people in commercials can smile with their faces pointed into the spray of water. I can't wash my hair with my head hanging down either but that's what he was doing and he didn't get water in his eye either.

So on to what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful that I was too busy to eat breakfast before the kids woke up. Cleaning up Dallas caused heaving and it would have been so much worse to have to clean up vomit too. I'm thankful Costco sells boxes of exam gloves for days like this when you just can't bare to stick your hands in it. I'm thankful for my children's adaptability since we had a really fun day planned and we had to change gears so fast. I'm thankful for a stocked kitchen since the new plan is to cook with the kids today. I'm thankful for these new lights that I had not previously mentioned because they are really brightening up my day.

I went to find my iPod shuffle and I knew I had dropped it into my purse but I couldn't find it. This caused an impromptu cleaning to happen. I was surprised at what I found when I laid it out an looked at it. We all know the purse is a sacred place. A mystery of what wonders it contains. I'm going to share with you the contents of mine.

The purse it's self isn't huge but it's not small either. It's waterproof inside and out as it's really meant to be a nice diaper bag too.



Now I have said before but I'll say it again, I like to be prepared. In case of emergence, I'm your go to girl. Let's go over the picture.

All this stuff came from inside. It often also holds my D90 but today I had left it out.


.

In the left hand corner we see the medicine cabinet. If you have a cough, sniffle, flu, gas, diarrhea, sore muscles, teething, low energy, bad breath, dirty hands, migraine, tummy ache or any other ailment I could probably help you out. These are mostly homeopathic with some essential oils, enzymes and cough syrups in there.

There's a small selection of cosmetics including three lip colors, three hair doohickeys and moisturizer. I'm not sure where the ear plugs fit in.

The right hand corner holds 1 lb dark chocolate covered apricots, half a bar of dark chocolate mint, one sucker, two buffalo bars, i package of baby rice crackers and four chai tea bags (two regular and two decaf. It's all sitting on a baby bib.

Back to the left we have all my tech gear: Macbook power cord adapter, 16g sd memory card, GoWear body monitor, Flip, Shuffle, iPhone, two sets of head phones. Yes, two ways to listen to music. There's also a headlamp that was very helpful in seeing into the bottom of the bag and a polishing cloth for removing finger prints. There is usually a Coolpix in there too but it's out getting charged.

I roll with a healthy assortment of toys such as two baby wearing figurines, a frog, pig and prickly polar bear, a deflated balloon (You never know when your going to have a balloon emergency) and four marbles. There's a roll of golden confetti in case the need for a party arises.

There's the expected purse things too such as keys, coupons, receipts, pocket knife, paring knife and a photo CD. I also had one mini purse, a phone case, wallet, coin purse and folding grocery bag.

Arts and crafts are very important to us. I come prepared with two crochet hooks and and a set of needles. Those egg cartons with the pipe cleaners are barnacles the kids made last week that they keep taking with us and putting back into my purse.

Office supplies are also a passion of mine. Here I have two mechanical pencils, three pens, a highlighter and a binder clip. I'm using a paper planner this year because I'm trying to be a little less techie and a little more tactile.

Then there's the change. That's quite a pile of it. It totals at $5.50 not counting the $3 in bills. When I went to shake the purse out on the porch sixty-two cents came dumping out on to the ground along with enough crumbs to feed at lease a dozen mice really well. It's the magic purse that just keeps giving!

I think what I've learned from this is: change is heavy, carry less change.

I now challenge you to post what's in your purse....

I just got this phone call from a number I did not recognize. I cautiously answer the phone "Hello?" A man with a rather stoned sounding voice answers back "Is Silver there?" I say "Excuse me?" He says "Um yeah?" I ask "Whom are you looking for?" the man replies "Oh yeah, Silver. Is Silver there?" I tell him "I belive you have the wrong number unless you are calling for my cat." He pauses for a second "Um ok, I guess I have the wrong number." then hangs up.

Robin hands me the bag of pretzels we are all sharing. He tells me "Your going to have to feed me one at a time." I ask him to put out his hand so I can just give him some and he yells "No!!! I can't!! I touched the cats butt with this hand!" While cracking up, I suggest that he go wash his hands. The look on his face was like watching a light bulb go off over his head. You've got to love little moments of honesty like these.

Today we have the fortune of seeing two Captain Bogg and Salty concerts and gleaning a plum tree in between. The first concert was at the Bothell Library. For the first time ever, I was at a library before it opened. This was mostly a coincidence though, we left Doug's car at the park and ride so we had to ride out together. We got our tickets and had a nice spot in the front on the side of the room.

Dallas wanted to be held, Robin wanted to dance and Warren didn't want the same thing from minute to minute, he likes to change it up. I'm finding it hard to meet all the kids wants while at times like these. The odd thing is, the most difficult part seems to be that my kids, although eating all the way there and with the promise of food immediately following, feel like they are starving to death it they have to stop eating for half an hour. Doug joked we should try worming them, lol.

On the drive down to Bothell we were listening to Emphatical Piratical and Robin wanted to request a song and we couldn't agree. Dallas clearly wanted Purple Tikki because when asked which one he liked he would chant back wee oh-oh wee oh-oh, although it's heehoo heehoo he most often sings which is Treading the seas for pirate gold. Robin said Buccaneering Bunny Rabbits aka Bunnyjacks and I really wanted to hear Who's At Captains Table. When we had the chance ask for these requests, regretfully they were not on the days playlists. I was asked if there was any other song and my mind just went blank. clearly the answer should have been Wind from Prelude to Mutiny. It's the song that draws us to the Pirate Festival in hopes that we get to hear it again. It has to be Captain Bogg's finest. When that song plays the energy in the crowd changes and you get a shiver down your spine of excitement. Perhaps it's too much energy for a mall to hold. Then again, the celling was pretty high.

After the Bothell show I packed the now half starved kids into the van and loaded their little laps with snack foods and headed for the plum glean. It was a glorious tree overflowing with mid sized yellow fruit that was quite delicious. The home owner and I picked as many as we could reach and as we did, Robin would find one in the tree and ask me to hand it to him. I asked what he was going to do with his plums and he said he wanted to give them to the pirates because they couldn't have trees on a pirate ship and it was sad that they don't go home at night to sleep in a bed because they have to stay on the ship. This spurred two topic: 1) boats, especially ships have beds and food, and 2) The band is made up of real people who have real lives. I didn't know he believed they were really pirates full time. I know we had this conversation after the pirate festival, perhaps it didn't really sink in. We talked about how all the band members have real names and stage names, they don't have to stay on a ship, and they get to go home to their own families too. He was much relieved. He was highly concerned that they didn't have enough to eat seeing as how Sunny Jim only makes cinnamon toast, which Robin has never had but he knew they needed fruit too. So here comes the plums. He had carefully selected what he deemed the very best from the tree to give to his pirate friends and I had just told him they didn't need them. He looked crushed. I quickly realized that I couldn't let his last hour go to waist so we decided that they were still a nice gift because the library and the mall wouldn't have great plums to offer so he should go ahead and take them.

We go to the Crossroads mall and he gathered his treasure to deliver and he was a boy on a mission. When we found the stage he froze and whispered "Mama, I need you to do it. I just can't." The band was still setting up so I carried them to the stage and set them down off to the side telling them briefly how Robin picked them some plums. Looking down at Robin, I could see he felt he did a great deed. He was very proud. To him, he was feeding some starving pirates who surly would starve on just limes and toast and four little plums would save their lives. When Doug met up with us the first this that came beaming from Robin, before even saying hello was "I gave them plums!"

We had a great time last night at the aquatic center. The first thing to note is it's well staffed and clean. there are several family bathroom/shower/changing rooms as well as the separate ladies and gents. I would have preferred larger lockers for that quarter they cost but we just locked up our phones and keys and brought the huge bright gym bag to the beach chairs and loungers. There were many. Warren was asleep and Doug didn't want to get wet and cold so he stayed out with the baby.

Since it was night, although it wasn't a very warm night, it wasn't particularly cold either. The thought of getting wet wasn't exactly appealing but I didn't feel like I would freeze either. I was glad to find that Pavy was not kidding, the water was heated! On to the features of this cool water park.

There is a lazy/rushing river depending on if your trying to go against the current to get out or not. There are plenty or intertubes of varying sizes. At one end there is a constant shower of water that fills these buckets that dump down on you. I don't really understand the appeal of suddenly getting drenched from above. The kids didn't either. It must be there to keep the staff in good humor. This river connects up to the landing pool for two huge twirling water slides. You need to be 48" to go on them. I'm not a fan of water slides myself but Robin was highly disappointed that he could not go.

They have a wave pool that has some really strong waves and goes to 6.5 ft. Dallas kept falling down and both kids went under for a second and decided they didn't like it after a short while. Robin kept braving it from the side and then backing out but I was worried about getting washed over Dallas or his falling under so the kids had to move on. The waves crashed pretty hard even in the very shallow part. I sent them to the spray island wading pool and got to go in the deep end for a wave or two. It was REALLY fun.

The shallow spray island/wading pool had many fountains spraying out but you could go under then if your not keen to be sprayed in the face. The kids could choose to stand or crawl for most of it and there are blue tile lines to clearly mark when it changes from one to two feet so the kids could see where too far really was. I didn't notice a line at the two to three foot mark but by then I was holding the kids so it didn't really mater. They were like fish there, not fearful at all just going for it.

When 10pm came around and it was time to leave we got a family restroom and found they have a shower in them and the water is also warm, warmer than the pool even. It made getting out and getting cold to change bearable. You pay to get in whether you swim or not. The cost was only $22 for all of us at the non-resident rate for the Wednesday night twilight special. It was a really great time and well worth the drive and expense.

Ah yes, the drive. We got back to Doug's car where he was too tired and had a nap, then we stopped on the side of the road so he could sleep a little more and I could change and feed the baby, After sleeping in the driveway, we didn't get to our own beds until 3am. Warren had been asleep since 8pm so after a couple change/feed combos, was ready to start his day at 8am again. I'm exhausted today after all the swimming and dragging kids through the water then staying awake to make sure we all arrived safely. I still hope we can go again next year.

But maybe I have said too much already. I feel like a dork.

I always feel like blogging in late summer. I think it's when I first started. Why? Captain Bogg and Salty I'd guess. I always right about the summer library tour. It's getting harder to find time to write though and as I found out today, it's getting harder to take photos too. I had a hold of two kids at all times at the show today. I hope I can get enough shots for a decent slide show.

I noticed on my phone, in my iblogger program, I have several unpublished blog posts. I realized the reason is I fear feedback or lack of. My blog auto posts to my facebook page. Is this a good thing or a bad thing, I have not yet decided.

Robin says: I love to laugh so you can tickle me all the time, anytime and all day. Well, maybe not when I'm sleeping because then I would think you were a monster trying to get me. So tickle me all the time when the sun is up.

Today has been a crappy day. Robin woke up early, before I was willing to get up and he woke me up every 15 minutes for the next 2 hrs but I was able to stay in good humor. The trouble started when I heard a car in the driveway. It was the same guy who always comes to leave us a pamphlet called The Watch Tower I called out the window to the man on his way to my door asking him to leave his literature on the table in the yard. I didn't want the dogs to get excited before they had been out to potty. I didn't hear them freaking out, but maybe they had.

When I came down after he had left, the kitchen floor was covered in urine. I got towels so mop it up, sprayed enzyme cleaner on it, walked to out of the room to get some gloves on and came back to Dallas slipping in a puddle of cleaner. He needed a quick shower to clean him off then I go back to cleaning it up.

I opened the door to let the dogs out now that they wouldn't be splashing through pee and find a dead baby red breasted robin and 3 rodents in various stages of being consumed, all involving entrails on the mat. The kids are used to seeing rodent parts by now but I know I have to dive out to get that baby bird before Robin sees it and we start in on a day of "Why did the bird have to die?" "Where/what is he now?" "How can we save the next bird?" It makes for a trying day because no possible answer will bring back the dead creature and that's what he really wants.

I let the dogs back in and by now the children have all been very patient but are very hungry so I go to get the milk from the fridge and almost step in a fresh bit of dog poop. I though animals didn't poop where they sleep. Everyone knows that right? Not my dogs. I don't know if it was Pokey or Junior but that the heavens it wasn't Titus. Clean that up and back to breakfast.

Fast forward two hours and I hear a goat yelling. I go outside and can see them down in the woods, not in a fenced area. The yelling is Kay Kay. She has horns so probably doesn't fit through the hole the others escaped from. I have to go to science group but can't because I now have to find a way to get the goats back in the yard because if they wander into the neighbors yard we might get a visit from the cops for having livestock at large or they might just shoot them, either is as strong a possibility. I come back inside to ponder my next step and slip in a puddle of....you guessed it....dog piss.

I'm going to give up now. I'm calling it a day. I'm not leaving the house, just going to watch to make sure the goats don't leave. They won't come to me, they know they are getting the greener brush on the other side of the fence right now. As long as they don't leave or eat my fruit trees, and the kids are still happy as they have been all day, I'm going to just go with the flow even if it's only a trickle.

This year Papa got the platinum edition of Arbans Method for the Trumpet, the trumpet bible so to speak. Here he is playing with Robin. Robin can buzz a mouth peice pretty well.


Robin gets a turn to play the horn.



A trumpet mouth peice no longer needs to be a unitasker since Dallas' discovery of it's handiness as a banana holder.

On the way downstairs this morning, I asked Robin what he would like for breakfast, either flakes (bagged cereal) or oats (cooked steel cut). He said "I've been thinking about this Mama, and I want junk food for breakfast today." "Junk food?" I ask. "Yes, flakes." he replies. "You know why I call it junk food? Because Papa gives it to us and it's just fast. It's the good kind of junk and it's ok ya know?" "Ok then, junk food it is. Do you want raisins or blueberries on your junk food?" "Both!" he joyfully answers.

Maybe I'm the only one who didn't know this before but having eagles in your yard isn't always a good thing. They can and do carry off cats and dogs and other small animals. Today while making lunch, Doug say an eagle swoop down into our yard and land it a tree. We have 8 cats out there and Junior (yorkie mix) was out in the yard too. It didn't move on so we ran out to scare it away. Doug beat me around the corner and started clapping to scare the eagle away. As he took off over the shed, Raven called out from across the yard, then 7 ravens took off out of the cherry tree. These are very large birds, not to be confused with crows in the slightest. We stood there for a minute, a little stunned wondering what we just interrupted when our Raven, the one that says good morning to me, the one that kept the hawks away from the chickens came swooping down over our heads calling out again. We said hello and then he was gone. Yep, Raven has our back.