catching, catchers, and caught. From laundry to balls, fish to family

WOW, Seems like I have been gone forever.

My dad did regain his sanity and left yesterday morning. I thought we had sucked him in. He stayed with us for 2 extra days! It was nice to have him here. He even took the boys to walmart and they got some plants and planters and put some window boxes on my porch. VERY pretty. This morning I even saw some hummingbirds out there with the flowers. I reckon that means I need to break out the feeders!

THe kids picked all kinds of flowers to plant. and one planter has like 5, the other has 12. LOL

We also repotted all the ivys'. THey really needed it. (did I already talk about this? oh well...)

Matt had 3 ball games this last week. He is doing okay I guess. But has struck out quite a bit.

Brett had 2 games. He is not doing as well as he could. HE walks alot. But he did manage to get a homerun. An IN THE PARK home run. I would actually be VERY proud, but it was on a walk.

How do you get an in the park homerun on a walk you ask? ( I know you didnt, and most of you are ladies so you really have no clue what I am talking about anyway, or could careless, but I will tell you. just cause, NOT very many people can say they got an in the park homerun on a walk.)

He went up to bat. 2 outs. Full count. NOONE on base. He ended up with a walk, on a very wild pitch. He took off running to first. saw that the 2nd baseman was nowhere near the bag and the catcher was still getting the ball. so the infuriating child RAN to second. He just rounded first and took off to second like he had good sense. Now sometimes where there is someone on third, you will pull this move, to draw the ball to second while the kid on 3rd scores. Its a sacrifice. BUT you dont do it with 2 outs. ANd NOONE on base. Anyway, he took off for second. the catcher got the ball and threw it to the second baseman, who was at the time in the middle between first and second. The ball got to the second baseman about the same time Brett was passing him (did I mention this child is slow as molasses?) Well the second baseman, either from shock of a walk running at him, or the ball being thrown to him when noone had hit it, missed the ball. WE are all screaming at Brett NO, and then when he got close to second we started hollering to SLIDE. His coach is hollering NOOOOOO! the whole time he is running.
He gets to second and never checks up. He just kept on coming. The ball was by now confusing the outfielders. It was rolling to the fence and they were scrambiling for it.

Bretts coach started waving him on, looking like a windmill. Then see's the ball is not even feilded yet, he sends him HOME. I promise you, this kid is so slow you can time him with a sundial. Brett did stop for a second on 3rd. He had to catch his breath. Finally he started home. Now the ball is fielded and they are trying to decide what to do. Throw it home, get him out? Throw it to the pitcher. Hold it so noone else misses it? ( remember Brett is the ONLY kid on base.) So Brett kicks it in high gear and comes running home. The ball is still out there somewhere, not even close to the infield. So he is running his little heart out, and then SLIDES home. The ball doesnt even get back to the pitcher before he is up on his feet and walking back to the dugout. and he SLID into home. Why on earth that he slid home I will never know. It wasnt a close play. He just wanted to slide I reckon.

Now I am glad he scored, dont get me wrong, but it was a 'WTF' moment. belive me. I am not really even sure too many people realized what he did.

Of course the time before he had walked, and got batted around the bases, then when he was sent home he slid. It was close, but NOT close enough for a slide. and slid about 3 feet from the base. The catcher by then had the ball and he jumped up, ran behind him and stomped on the plate. He wasnt out, and it wasnt even a judgement call, cause the kid catching wasnt paying attention to him. But it was funny. TO see him slide and stop 3 feet from the base.


Yesterday the kids went out and were playing in the field. They ended up picking dewberries. THey came in all smeared and sticky. I have NO idea how many they ate. But they didnt want supper. And then the boys realized they had left those that they picked outside, so they started back out. I had already put Rayley in the tub. When she got out she realized that they were outside with out her. THey had sworn they were coming right back in, but didnt. So she tried to go out. I told her NOT to let the dogs out. Just in case they had went back down in the field, I didnt want the dogs to follow and get in the highway. Well she fought the dogs, and fought the dogs, all the while trying to get the door open, keep the dogs back and get out the screen door. She whined and complained for a good 10 minutes. Trying everything. She got them treats, she tried to lock them in the bathroom, she tried to trick them. NOthing worked.

Finally she was standing on the threshhold, with the wood door almost closed behind her trying to open the other door with her other hand and Duke the older blue heeler was sticking his head through the door trying to get it open. She hollered to me "MOM, WILL YOU PLEASE sell these dogs and get us some differnt ones?"

She finally made it outside. Pissed at the dogs, and at me cause I wouldnt help her ( I really didnt want her back out there, she was fresh out of the tub after all). And about that time the boys came walking up. this made her even madder. She had worked so hard to get out and go with them and they were coming back in.

They wanted me to make a cobbler with the dewberries. And they had about 8 cups of them. I told them to set them on the counter and I would make a cobbler. And to go and take showers. I was feeding Bow and Rayley was in her room playing. I thought.

The boys came back out and asked if I had made the cobbler yet. Uhhh NO. I hadnt planned on it tonight.
So they went in the kitchen to get that 'last drink' and found Rayley. SHe had ate all but about 2 1/2 cups of the berries.

Boy were they mad! I told them we would get more later. Not to worry about it. They made me make her quit eating them. I was more than happy to. THey kept screaming at her for eating them all. And she kept screamin at them for leaving her in the house.

They got mad and left the room. She looked at me and said "well, that'll teach 'em. They ought not sneak off and leave me like that"

I went to bed last night about 11:30. I am fighting a headcold and was miserable. The kids had all been quiet for 2 hours. I sent them to bed around 8:30 and let them watch a movie.
BR woke me up at 3 when he came in. He and Brett were talking. And Rayley was sitting in his lap. Matt was still awake too.

I dont know what had them so wired. But it seems they decided to stay up all night. ANd I guess they were pretty good. No fights or hurt feelins, cause noone woke me up. Of course they were NOT happy when I woke them up this morning to go to the ballpark.
THey were awful out there. THey looked like idiots with hangovers. I swear, they drug ass so bad that we just quit and came home.

We are going to go back tomorrow and I fixed their late night escapades. at 7 tonight I gave each one a healthy dose of benadryl. They were out like lights before 8:30. THats what I like to see!!

We did stop and get some fish. Thats what the boys wanted to spend their birthday money on, so we did. I have a few tanks that have been up and running for a few years, but empty for a while. Between the kids spraying febreeze one day and then me getting some bad fish food we kinda had a major die off.

Anyway, I had a few fish left in my planted tank, and so I kept with smallish fish in there. BR likes BIG fish and thats what we put in the other tanks.

We ended up with neons, otto cats, a pleco ( I hate common plecos, but BR thinks you have to have one..), angel fish, some guppies and bala sharks.

THe kids begged BR for a hamster. or a guinnia pig, when he said no, they asked for a snake, or a lizard. He is pretty good about not bitching about the animals we bring home. Heck I had a pig in the house for years. (He told me when we first started dating that he would NEVER allow a dog in the house. I had grown up with one. So I asked if I could have a pig in the house. He thought I was being a smart ass and said yes. 2 weeks later I bought a pot bellied pig. He slept with us for about 6 months. Then BR drew the line. BUT, he never told me again no dogs in the house. And when his bull mastiff came along we had BOTH in the house. Till they both got to be 200 pounds! LOL ) He has also never taken for granted that I was kidding again either.

ANYWAY, BR draws the line at what he calls 'rodents' and snakes. He hates snakes. and isnt too fond of any type of rat. So he WILL NOT even let you say how cute a hamster is.

I am with him on the snakes, lizards, frogs and such. I am not scared of them, but just not real sure I am fond of them. And I KNOW one would get loose, I would be laying here on the couch minding my own buisness and it would crawl across me and scare me to death.

I know my kids, they wouldnt deal with it just being in a cage. They would have to get it out and play with it.

Now I DID secretly admire the ferretts. I just love those little buggers. But I dont think it would fit in to the house. Duke would kill it. quick. he doesnt let anything live outside. at all. And I think he would NOT like something like that INSIDE.

There was slight problem on the guppies. The kids each picked one out. and its almost IMPOSSIBLE to get a certain guppy out of a tank of 80. The girl really tried, but finaly I took the kids over to the salt water fish and BR told her to just get 3. They'd forget what they picked by the time they were home.

And the saltwater fish are BEAUTIFUL. I want a SW tank so bad. but I dont have the gumption to do it. I cant imagine flushing a 50.00 fish.

Anyway, I came home, threw the bags of fish in the seperate tanks and got started. I wanted to empty out some of the existing water, fill with new, fresh water and let them aclimate a little. This took me 2 hours. I hadnt realized how bad the algea was on one of the tanks. But I got them all clean and everyone is in their places. Its actually nice to have fishes swimming in the tanks again.

He is gona order me a dragon fish ( I wanted a rope fish, but BR says it looks too much like a snake, so a dragon fish it is), and some new frogs. The underwater kind. not the front yard kind.

I was tempted to get a red eared slider, they are so cute. BUT I dont want another tank. and I dont think it would do well with my crabs.

I did end up putting the guppies in my large community tank, so that leaves a 3 gallon still empty. BUT the filter on it is broken, ( didnt know this till I plugged it in) so to save money I am gona buy a betta and put in there. That way I am not spending money on a new filter. :)

One of the angles is PURE black. well navy blue. BUT honestly, its so black its blue. in the right light. Rayley hates it. she says it looks 'evil'. It does have little white stripes on its lips. and she says they look like fangs. She wants me to sell it too. I reckon to the same person that I sell the dogs to.

Anyway, As I was turning out the lights and debating on traping all the Malasian trumpet snails that survived NOTHING being in the tanks or being FED in the tanks for months, I saw that one of BR's angel fish had its mouth open. I looked closer. it had a MTS STUCK in its mouth, The snail was strait up and down, and holding its mouth open like a stick. These are long cornacopia shaped snails. This one was tiny. But so is an angels mouth. And it was the angel that was UNLIKE any of the others in the fish store. BR picked it out special, so no tricking him if it dies. I watched it for a while, it didnt seem to be able to dislodge it. It wasnt stressing yet. BUT couldnt even eat. So I went and got the net. I could just imagine doing a snail removal on a flopping fish, Not fun.

I got it caught and then didnt know what to do. I had the tweezers. Like I was going to be able to hold down a fish and extract the offending object.

I pulled the net out of the water and it went to flailing around like a .... well. you get the point. I put it back down a little. just to calm it down. then I tried to fiqure out how to stick the tweezers in its mouth and get the stupid snail, it would just turn around. I couldnt get near its mouth. and fish dont listen. You can talk in a soothing voice all you want. They could care less.

Finaly I decided it would just be best to pull it out and do it on dry land. It started flailing again. I resisted the urge to dunk it again. Then everytime I would touch it and it would flop it would startle me. I would jump back. Then miracles of miracles. it managed to dislodge the freakin snail.

The whole episode only took about 2 minutes. But I can just see me explaining to BR how I killed a fish, the first night it was home.


Bow is really advancing. He is crawling all over. and is starting to pick things up really well. And is trying to fiqure out how to put a binkie in his mouth. Then he chews on it and it pops back out! He chased one for 45 minutes today. He would put it in , bite it and it would fly about 2 foot. He would go get it and start over. He also is taking to a bottle well. He will even hold it. sometimes.

And he found his feet. Not 'ohhh look toes'. but 'yummy, toes!' and will get them in his mouth. then get pissed when he bites them. go fiqure. I been tellin the little brat that it hurts when he bites. I swear this baby has been teething for 3 months and it doesnt look like it will let up any time soon. He just wants to bite EVERYTHING. and DOES! And he is IN LOVE with food. I started feeding him mashed taters and carrots. ( we had a stew and I smushed up the left overs and froze them in ice trays... WHOO-HOO!) Talk about a kid going nuts! He loves it!

Then one day I just gave BR some rice cereal to give him. BR said it was too bland. and added a little syrup. OMG, you would have thought we hadnt let this kid eat in weeks. He was taking the spoon AWAY from BR. he LOVED it.

And BR told me to buy him some applesauce. I did. and gave it to him one night when my dad was still here. He loved it too. and apparently, got a sugar rush. cause he was a live wire for HOURS. and it was WELL past his bedtime. I learned my lesson. No applesauce after 4 pm. EVER.


One night while my dad was in a friend of his came through on buisness. He was staying in Jasper so we all met out at the lake and went to a restuarant for supper. We didnt take the older 3 hoodlems, just Bow. Well he was a hit from the get go. Total strangers were walking up and talking to him. and then he got passed around the resturant. Customers, waitress's, the owners, even the fisherman, all were holding him. He LOVED it. There was never a fuss out of him. Even when it passed his bedtime by an hour!

I think thats about it. Rayley has gotten some WONDERFUL comments on her new shoes. Another mom wants me to make her daughter some. Its been a slow week around here. I havent done anything but visit with my dad and sit on my rear. :)

I should get back to posting regularly now. thanks for continuing to check back, and I hope I didnt loose anyone. :)