Texas for Thanksgiving!

I'm trippin' for Thanksgivin'!

My dear family had their turkey and stuffing on Saturday before I left to visit my sister in Southwestern Texas for the week.  She lives in the Chihuahuan Desert and this is my first time out here.  Paige and I have been having a such a nice time relaxing, sight-seeing, and checking out a couple trails here and there.  We visited the Chihuanhuan Desert Research Institute on Monday and hiked one of the trails there, then walked through the botanical gardens and the cactus greenhouse.  I have other photos on another camera, which I'll share once I get back home, but these are some I'm able to upload right now.

The first night I was here, I had the pleasure of seeing the full moon rise over the desert.  Wow, it is big country!

Yesterday we took a road trip down to Big Bend National Park and drove around a bit to see inside the basin. 

Then we headed back out to the Grapevine Hills trail.  Our hike led us through some pretty flat, easy terrain, then up the "hill" to Balanced Rock.  It wasn't so much hill as it was the side of a rocky mountain.  Paige has a lot more experience hiking this stuff (something about spending the majority of my hours at home teaching school to my children that limits my desert trail hiking opportunities...), so she found it to be a very easy hike.  I had a few thrills here and there with being up so high, but as long as I stayed behind her, I was okay.  It was a great trail, because it wasn't so long that we couldn't do anything else the same day, and it had plenty of variation in the views and difficulty so that it was interesting and very photographic.  I had a great time!

 Standing by a tall ocatillo cactus on the side of the 6.5 mile gravel road leading to the trail head.

At the top, in front of Balanced Rock.  I don't look too much worse for the wear!

 Looking back down toward the trail, from about 1/4 of the way down the "hill".

The view through the Balanced Rock, looking southward toward Mexico.

After our hike, we drove around the west side of the park to look at the view near another trail, but decided it was too long to give us time for dinner.  I did get to see two very fast road runners crossing the road, of course.  They were too fast, and I was too slow, to get their photos.  Then the "check engine" light came on in her car which was good for a thrill.  However, there was no problem with the engine temperature or anything else we could find, so she topped off the oil and we went to dinner.  The Starlight Theater restaurant served a delightful meal--superb chips and guacamole--and the country-fried antelope with Shiner Bock beer gravy was excellent!  Next time I'm going for the pork medallions in chipotle reduction.  Mmmmm.

We got home at a reasonable hour, and only had to drive over one dead javalina on the highway.  Those are nasty animals when they're alive, and they're a couple degrees nastier when they're dead.  Ick.

Now we're hanging out after a breakfast of home-grown chicken eggs, country ham, toast, and figs.  I could get used to this....

And a big thank you to Ringo, for letting me use his laptop.

God's Schoolroom

Today is one of those days when God confirms my choice to school my kids at home. I love those moments! As we were heading out on our way to Friday Classes, already a little late, I spotted a just-born calf being cleaned up by its momma. I turned the car around, caught the farmer just as he was coming to haul the calf away, and asked him if he'd mind if the kids got out of the car to see it. I didn't want to stress the momma if the farmer didn't think it would be okay. He said it was fine, so we all got to see the baby, watch the momma clean him up, and even pet his sticky, wet curly hair. It was a priceless moment!
So even if we were a little late for Spanish class, we had a wonderful lesson in God's creative hand.
I love these moments!
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Fort Night

I've neglected the kids quite a bit for the past couple days as I've been on the computer doing paperwork for our adoption.  I've accomplished a lot, but feel pretty bad about making them eat lunch without me and read their own bedtime stories at night.  So last night I tried to make up for it a bit.  I think I got some extra Mommy Points, so hopefully that will cover my deficit and I'll come out even in their eyes.

Since Jay was out of town, I knew I could let them get away with a little more noise and a late night if things got rowdy.  So I made the kids a "fort", as we used to call them when I was little, and let them spend the night in it.  It was just your run-of-the-mill sheets over some furniture fort.  Nothing fancy.  But they loved it.  It's not something I usually allow, mostly because we are always using the space they're in, but also because I'm all too aware of one particular child's difficulty in maintaining self control.  His behavior often results in something getting broken or destroyed, then I get mad, and finally all the fun gets canceled and everyone goes away unhappy.  I have learned to pick my battles carefully, and setting up forts in our house just isn't one of those things I enjoy.  But last night I made the fort.

They thoroughly loved it, everyone went to sleep immediately, and I felt a little less like a rotten Momma.  And although the one particular child had ruined his half by morning, I would say it was a success.  I think we might allow a few more forts in the future.

Kitty Klinic

I walked into the girls' room unannounced one day a few weeks ago, just to check on a very quiet Katie Mei.  She rarely misbehaves, but I was curious so I took a peek.  This is what I found.

 Very thorough ear exam going on here.

 Mom, you're interrupting my work.

 Hmmm.  Let's see.  Could be wax buildup.

 Better check the other ear.  Flip over, cat!

She took good notes, and probably had to write him a referral for a specialist.  This exam went on for about half an hour.  Poor kitty.

The end.

Pizza!

Two happy kids got their free pizzas from the Pizza Hut Book It! program today. They each read 32 chapters in their Bibles last month. Good job, kids!
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Good-Bye, Summer Frog

We have many residential frogs in our back porch area this summer.  More specifically, this blog post is about our pool frogs.  Seems they'd only visited after dusk and stayed all night skinny-dipping in our pool.  I confess, I am a frog buff.  If you could look through the photos on my computer, you'd see a lot of frog photos.  We have to have at least six different kinds of frogs that call our address their own, and I love every one of them!  We have barking tree frogs, squirrel tree frogs, spring peepers, and many others.

However, these special babies seem to be your typical Bullfrogs, rana catesbeiana.  Our largest one was about 7 inches from nose to rear when squatting.  But if you stretched that sucker out, you'd have a good 12 inches of ribbit!  The smaller one was only about 5 inches long.

Every night before bed, I'd check to see if the frogs were there.  They rarely missed a night.  And every morning they'd head back for their hiding place, presumably under the deck, around 6:45 am.  I'd always try to get up early enough to check on them.  Sometimes I'd see one on the edge of the pool waiting for the other one to jump out.  And as soon as the second frog got close enough to the edge, the first one would pounce back in to drive the second one away. I am sure they were not friends.  The usually kept at different ends of the pool.  On some mornings I loved to scare them back into the pool and make them hang around a little longer.  I'm sure they found me quite irritating!

Well, we finally covered the pool a couple weeks ago, and the first night without pool water, the smaller of the two showed up and looked confused as he hopped onto the pool cover and didn't get wet.  I went out to pester him, and he hopped away so fast I couldn't catch him.  I was very eager to get my first grab on one of those frogs!

The second night with the pool covered, Mr./Mrs. Big showed up.  The poor frog found the un-wet pool equally confusing, but because of his/her large size, hopping was a little sloppier.  I was able to route the frog to one side of the pool and as he struggle to get up the slope of the pool cover, I pounced!  I caught the frog!

Of course, I had to call the kids out, and they finally got their first taste (okay, slight pun intended) of frog.  Merrilee and Jacob were eager to hold it and I had to show them how to do it without 1) hurting the frog, and 2) getting peed on.  All went well, and everyone was excited.

That is, until it was Katie Mei's turn to hold the frog.

She just isn't quite into critters as much as the rest of us.  She was hesitant at first, and would venture one finger forward for a touch.  But when I urged her to hold out her hands to grasp the frog, she was unwilling.  I'm not really one to let my kids be squirmy about picking up harmless creatures, and I insisted that she would hold the frog whether she wanted to or not.

After much coaxing and guidance, she finally held the frog, but it was not something she was enjoying.  And all jokes regarding kissing the frog were beyond acceptable.  We had to settle for just having her hold it for a few seconds.

 I LOVE the expression on the frog's face in this photo!  Click on it to see it up close if you can.  Apparently he was enjoying the moment as much as Katie Mei was!

Anyway, that is my beloved frog.  I'm so glad Jay took photos for me.

The two frogs came back one more time before they finally gave up hope of bathing in my pool again.  I assume they're now safely tucked away under the porch and hunkered down for colder weather.

Wishing them both well until next spring, when I hope they venture forth once again.  But hopefully not with lots of babies to share the pool!

Seven Years of Costumes...Wow!

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