My favorite Tuna Vision

Go to Tunavision.com and watch "Cooking with Hickory" It's my favorite.

Videos on YouTube

I don't have anything worthy of Funniest Home Videos, but there are some cute ones of the kids.

http://www.youtube.com/yocat12

Pumpkin patch

I took the kids to a road side stand to pick out pumpkins. Michael picked out the biggest one (weighs more than Rachel) to bring to Sunday School for a contest. We bought a few little ones too. Rachel has been carrying one around calling it her "pumpkin patch."

Chicken Pox

I didn't think it was possible to get them after having the vaccine. Apparently I was wrong. I took Michael to the after hours care clinic last Sunday with a bad rash. It turned out that part of what I showed her was the chicken pox.

So, he couldn't go to school, but didn't itch and only had about a dozen very small marks. He stayed home with Dad and played Leggo Batman two days and went to Rachel's babysitter the third day.

At one point he turned to Chris and said, "I can't believe I have a runny nose and the chicken pox at the same time."

However, when Mrs. Eldridge sent home a book about chicken pox, he was really glad that he didn't have them very badly like the kid in the book.

You can tell by the scream...

whether the kids are playing, fighting or severly injured. Each scream has a distinct sound that mothers pick up on when their kids are very little.

So, I'm sitting at the computer earlier and I hear a scream. It wasn't a normal playing scream, then it got more frantic and it became obvious in milliseconds that someone was injured.

I ran to the back door and couldn't see Michael, Rachel or the neighbor boy. I yelled, "MICHAEL, COME HERE, WHAT'S WRONG!?" He came running and screaming from the woods. Thoughts of sticks puncturing flesh crossed my mind. Awful thoughts of what injury could cause this tribal scream to come from my son.

Then, he yelled, "BEES!!!" I worked frantically to get his clothing off of him when I realized that the bees were on his shorts, his sandals and they were being very persistent. While doing this I was looking for the neighbor and seeing Rachel had not been affected, I brought poor naked Michael into the house. He was able to tell me that the neighbor had run home.

I got Michael into the tub and let him run cool water over the stings while trying to calm him and assess his condition. He was terrified. Rachel was so concerned for him. She stuck right by us. We could find 10 stings from his buttocks to his ankles. I gave him a Benedryl and put Calidryl lotion on them. He was calm enough to sit on the couch with ice packs by this time. I called the neighbors who were going through the same thing with their son.

I can bet that Michael will never go into those woods again. We aren't sure where the bees came from since Chris couldn't find a hive. They could have been in the ground or in a dead tree.

He seems to be fine now. The boys are back together and playing Star Wars Leggos on the Playstation.

Frogger

I'm so grossed out at two times of year when the weather is raining and the frogs are on the move. It's usually in the spring (May ish and then now, Sept ish). The weather is muggy, there's been a little rain, and the frogs are just all over the road at night. Big ones, small ones, frogs of all sizes, jumping in all directions as my headlights pick up there light green bodies. I cringe as the jump toward my tires' path. I yell, "JUMP!" There was one that was jumping like 12 inches off the road. I was coming up behind him thinking I could probably straddle him, but if he jumped, he was sure to hit my van. I swerved a bit, he jumped the wrong way! BLEHCH! Then, the grossed one, this HUGE frog jumped toward me from the left. He made it passed my driver's side tire, but then jumped his last jump as I heard a loud THUD and he hit my bummer. ICK!!!!!

Impatient

God has really shown me that I have an impatient heart. I try to be patient, and always fail in the end, because he puts me in circumstances that bring me to that end. Like in the Dr. office where I waited with a 2-year-old for 1 hour and 45 minutes to be seen for a 10-minute check-up. And trips to Wal-mart with the two of them. Yesterday I told Michael emphatically, "THE GOAL IS TO NOT MAKE YOUR SISTER SCREAM!" after she'd screamed a couple of times. (didn't she do that in church Sunday, too?! when he grabbed her foot?)

So, I've given up on pretending that I'm patient. I'm NOT! The only patience I get is the grace of God and I'm so thankful for it. I just have to keep remembering to ask for it.