Colorful eggs, Colorful creatures, and Colorful excuses

Today was fun. It was a surreal day. A definate day for miracles.

Matt woke up first, he woke up around 8. He came in here and saw the baskets sitting on the table. He immediatly wanted to know if the Easter Bunny had been here. I told him that I reckon so. If the baskets were on the table and the eggs were gone. I hadnt seen him. And thats true. I hadnt. I was just Thankful that the eggs were gone when I got up!

Matt spotted the first egg right off. It was directly out the front window on BR's truck. He wanted to go and just get 'that one little ole egg'. I told him no, he had to wait. He had some cereal and then came in here and played with Bow.

Brett got up right at 9. He got up and Matt told him that the Easter Bunny had came. Brett came in and asked me where I had hid the eggs. I told him I had NOT touched the eggs since last night. I swear. Then he and Matt started fighting over Bow.

Neither boy wanted to wake up Rayley, BUT they also didnt want her to sleep. Finaly Matt was able to drop something that woke her up. She came out all happy. I told her if she would eat we could get dressed and hunt the eggs. It was 9:45. Before 10:10 all 3 kids were dressed and ready to go. Brett even put on boots and a belt, and I didnt ask. All I did was ask them to wear a certain shirt. Rayley was trilled with my choice for her (this NEVER happens). And Matt found both boots with little effort.

All three of them were in nice clothes, and it dawned on me. Bow really didnt have anything like that. I went to look and decided that I would put an outfit on him that I just love, but is a 6 to 9 months and looked real big. I would just safety pin it and get them to hold him just right. it was just for pictures. It FIT!

I told the kids to get their baskets and lets go. We opened the door and this is what we saw.

We really tried last night to make beautiful eggs, but nothing we made compared to Gods Artistic Talents.

I just wish I could have gotten it to open up.


Once they were pulled away from the moth the kids went WILD. Brett more than the others. I am glad, I was afraid he would be stand offish. I know this is probebly his last year. But I think he enjoyed it.

We found 34 of the 35 eggs. We looked forever for that LAST egg. Couldnt find it.

So I loaded them up and we went to my Aunt Jeans and took some pictures. You can NOT get 4 kids to all
1. Look at the camera
2. Smile, a real smile, not a fake one
and
3. be still
all at the same time to get a good picture. Or at least I cant.

But here is one of the better ones.



And Bow, with his first taste of Easter morning.




Little Miss Rayley was even sorta angelic. ( I said SORTA!)



I also wanted to try and get a picture at Aunt Etta's of the kids in front of the old Home Place. Its a log cabin built in 1865, by my 2 times great grandfather.
Her grands and great grands were all in and just fixing to hunt eggs. I went in and said Hello. They asked if Rayley could stay and visit. 3 of the great grands are about her age.
I loaded up the boys and we came home to wait on BR to wake up for work. I was in here getting the house clean. Or trying. and a cousin from my other side drove up. She had some clothes that might fit Bow.
Her and I were sitting here BSin and I see Brett walking up from the pasture. He has about a foot and a half stick in each hand and Matt is followin. Now I dont see real well. To be flat out honest, I am blind as a bat. But I dont wear my glasses in the house cause I cant see the computer screen if I do. But I swore I saw one of them sticks move. Kinda constrict up and get curved and then fall back into a strait stick.
I asked Aunt Sonya "what does that child have? it looks like a snake! LOL" Since I knew it was just the blurriness and his walking towards me, I just rubbed my eyes. Then the whole thing kinda whipped cause Brett shook his hand.

OH! he had some sort of rope. The kids are ALWAYS ropin stuff, and then tieing it up. I came in to the kitchen one morning and they had ran a 30 foot long peice of haystring around every knob in the kitchen and cinched them up tight. I couldnt open a single cabinet. I am constantly reaching down and picking up a stuffed animal and its tied to a chair leg.

Anyway, I went back to talkin to her and then I looked again. "I swear that kid has a snake.
no, its not a snake, he has TWO snakes"

I jumped up and ran to the door. SHe said "your kidding"
Belive me, when you have 4 kids there are alot of things you kid about. "yeah, come on over my house is clean," and "Sure I dont mind, I mean whats 2 more kids?" ( actually I never say this. I dont like kids. I dont want anyone elses. My nephew is the only one I bring around. Cause I can treat him like my own. ). But I never ever kid about my kids bring a potentially deadly creature up to the house.

Anyway, I walked outside and asked him what the hell he thought he was doing.

Matt says "well, we was wonderin what kinda snake this is?" Now this kid is country as cornbread. And DEAD serious.

"a real one you idiot! why would you catch not ONE but TWO live snakes?"

"cause they were there I reckon, Brett caught 'em, I didnt, holler at him."

Now I wasnt hollerin. I really wasnt. I was trying to stress why he shouldnt have not ONE but TWO possibly dangerous snakes in his hands, ALIVE, without him getting scared and dropping one and it biting him, or Matt, or both.

"what have I told y'all about doing stupid crap?"
Brett says "not to do it?"
I said "why?" thinking one would be smart enough to say 'its dangerous' instead I get "cause we aint got no insurance and you are not dressed for the ER" from Matt.

I'll be damned they do listen.

Brett tells me, "but this one is dead" and he shakes it- its the one he is holding by the tail, its starting to curl up a little like a snake will do when they are dead. Or NOT dead.
I asked him if he was sure. He said, "well it should be, I done killed it twice."

I dont trust that its dead dead. But asked what he was gona do with the other one.
"I dont know, I didnt think that far after I caught it"
YEP! That I will belive.

he is holding this one by the mouth. Holding its mouth shut between his fingers.

Matt asked if they were poisenous. I said "I dont know, I'd have to look at the head.
Well BRett starts to move his hands around to show me the head. I made him stop. and told him to wait there.
I came in, to get the .22, something to put it in to shoot it and my camera.

Then I thought about it, and went back outside. Then I came back in to get the gun, the container and the camera again. Then I went and talked to BR. I had to wake him up. I told him he needed to get up and see if they were poisenous. He just looked at me. I walked back out, and looked at them again. I even brought one back in to show BR. (the dead one. I had no desire to get bit).

BR is a big ole boy, and can handle most anything. But he doesnt like snakes. at all. He didnt start freaking out, but he wasnt taking it from me either. matter of fact he was still in bed. Since its head was pretty much destroyed we couldnt tell much about it.

I went back out and looked at the nose of the one Brett was holding. Aunt Sonya asked if it might be a hog nose. I told her I thought it was. And I told went back in to BR and told him I thought it was a hognose. I asked what I should have him do with it.
"let it go I reckon, FAR, FAR away from the house"

I went back out and told Brett to take them back and let the living one go. It probebly wasnt venemous.
"can we"
"NO!, you are NOT keeping a snake. Forget it."

"what about the dead one?" Matt asked
"take it too, let the living one eat it"
"but it was attacking Darla"
"So?"
"you just want me to let it go?"
"unless you want to hold it while I shoot it in the head."

Matt wanted to keep the dead one, make a hat band or something. I told him no. Off they went. With their prize.

Now I am used to them bringing home lizards, salamanders, scorpions, spiders, crawfish. But I KNOW I have told them to NOT pick up a snake. EVER.

They went back down in the woods. and an hour later I had to call them back up with the Truck alarm.

They said that Darla had found the first snake and had it in her mouth, it was trying to bite her and so they saved her. This is the one they killed. Then while they were looking at it, Matt saw the other one and Brett caught it. He wasnt going to till it puffed up at him like a cobra. ( we were right, it was a hognose, they do that) I dont doubt this. I have seen this kid catch a lizard in midair when it jumped from a tree to the ground or another tree. He cant catch a fly ball but can catch a lizard flying through the air in the blink of an eye.

I never did get a picture. I wish I had, but then again, I dont want them to think they did something good enough to document.

They ate lunch with us and then they left out again to play after giving me the 'reason' behind the snake catch. And this time they had Rayley in tow. They did come home empty handed. THats always nice.

My mother in law came over to visit for a few minutes and we were talking about the crosses on pine tree's this time of year. Its a really neat thing. and I told her that although I loved that, the dogwood and the sanddollar were my favorites. This hill I live on was nothing but dogwoods before I got it. But logging knocked most of them down, and those that lived were destroyed in the huricanne that never was.
She had never heard about a sand dollar, So we looked on the 'net for it. The kids got real interested, I need to find them one. They were enthralled. I remember having one when I was a kid. Well I had two. One for the flowers on the outside and the other was broken open so you could see he doves. I hope I dont have to drive to the beach to find one. But I need to get one for the kids.

Of course the whole time we were visiting Rayley kept wanting me to 'draw her a bath' cause she had 'fallen down in the mud'. Draw her a bath.. Great, I am raising Scarlett O'Hara.

I only have one more day to survive this spring break. I hope I make it. I think next year I am gona get me a bikini and go to Galveston beach or Padre Island. Pretend like I am a college kid.