Welcome to the Himalayas!!

*Snow blows with the wind and beats against your face and the temps are freezing! Needless to say, it's cold!*

How does that fit with Himalayas? Anybody ever seen Monsters Inc.? The abominable snowman who is banished to the "Frozen waste land"? The place where Mike and Sully get banished after helping Boo? Yeah, kinda like that. Sarcasm and all that jazz.

Aaaaaaaannnnyway, it was snowing and blowing and freezing yesterday. It was pretty, but cold and cold and snowy and cold. Something that is better observed from the indoors. Or from a hot tub? :)

Greta Rosie had her first hot tub experience last night and she was so cute!! Well, I guess she sat on the step of the hot tub and only her feet dangled in the water, but I guess you could call that "in" the hot tub.

But, I'm just saying hi, since it's been a while. And I'm sharing Greta pictures and wondering how your Thanksgiving went. Let me know! I was with my Grandma, Grandpa, Caleb, Katie, Greta, my family, and a bunch of cousins and aunts and uncles. :) It was great! It was warm and we stayed outside almost the whole time. We had dirt-bike races and some of us learned to ride the bike and some of us just watched the whole thing (yes, I'm lumping myself into the later category on that one). Either way, it was really fun. So, as I already said, fill me in on your thanksgiving! Tell me how you're doing in life in general and anything else you wanna share ... I'm always excited to read comments about everyone!

Anyway, here are the promised picture of Greta "in" the hot tub! (First picture taken by Ethan. The others are taken by moi. Auntie Leah is tickling her, that's why she looks like she's squirming. :) ) Enjoy! Leave me a comment! Talk to you later but hope to hear from you sooner!

Leah's weight loss program

I went from this ...
To this ...
In less then 5 minutes!!!!!

Leah was taking apart a dress that she'd made before and she had about 4 yards of material for the full skirt.

"Bed of Roses"

I found this little guy/gal "sleeping" in my rose the other morning ... the first thing that came to mind was "What a bed of roses he's got."

Making Potpourri

Starting the drying of rose petals.

After a day of drying ... this is going to take a lot of rose petals. :)

Also drying Peonie petals.

More rose petals to dry.

The edge of my "Junk Squad" find.

The book that started it all...

Making Potpourri

I'll try to keep you up-dated.

I--I--I can do this, I'm big I--I ... Ahhhh!!!!!! It moved!!

I took my evening shower. I was all clean. It was a wonderful feeling. And, to top it off, I was going to sleep in my own bed again (two nights in a row! Wahoo!). I had been sleeping on the couch, well, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night. I did so due to mold in the basement and the tearing apart of the walls and the ceiling. So since my room is in the basement my parents wanted me upstairs, away from the mold ... I don't know why. ;) But anyway. So I was excited about sleeping in my bed again. I was walking down the stairs, my arms full of my clothes (I was now P.J. clad), I had my glasses on, instead of contacts, and I was barefoot. I was happily walking down the stairs, looking down at the stairs to make sure I didn't fall and out of the corner of my eye I could see something on the stairs, from under my glasses (which means it was blurry). I instantly froze. I knew what that shape was even if I couldn't see it very clearly.

It was a big, ugly, black spider. The kind that crunches when you squish them. The kind that move really fast. The kind that look really scary. The kind that are just ... yuck!

Now, I'm just going to come out and say this ... because you'll probably figure it out anyway ... so here'goes ... I HATE SPIDERS!!! Especially the ones that are big, black and crunchy. I don't mind Daddy Long legs. I can kill those things. And actually, I can kill the little black crunchy spiders too, but this one, with legs and all was around the size of a quarter!! Icky!!!

So there I am, two or three stairs from the basement trapped on the stairs by big, icky spidy. He was just ... well, I don't know if it was a he or she, but all spiders are just "he"'s to me so ... there he was, just calmly sitting ... er ... being there, on the stairs, completely unaware of how scared I was of him.

I took a few big breaths to calm my quickly beating heart (I always get a little start when I unexpectedly come upon a spider) and decided I could make it the last few steps down without suffering too much harm. So, I made a break for it. I don't know when the last time it was when I went down the last few stairs so fast.

Wheew!!! Safe at the bottom of the stairs I quickly made it to my room and deposited my clothes on my bed. I was a little skittish because of the thought of the spider. I knew I needed to kill him before he killed me (yes, I know he probably wouldn't have done anything to me, but in the moment it sounded like a completely possible thing).

Walking into my room I was aware of the fact that my feet were still bare. The thought that I could unknowingly step on any amount of icky crunchy spiders with my BARE FEET made me shudder. I quickly scanned the floor for my faithful clogs. Unable to find them I looked for different foot ware. Seeing my slippers on the floor I thought of putting them on, but it occurred to me that I have not worn them for a very long time and that there could be something living in them! Not wanting to find out what might be happily abiding in my slippers I headed for my closet, and then the "shoe rack". Without hesitation I grabbed what I knew would make me feel much "safer" then bare feet. What did I grab, you ask? My favorite brown high heels, of course, just like anyone of you would have done. *rolls eyes* What was I thinking?!

Yessiree, with my brown heels, over-sized Dr. Pepper sleeping pants, brown Curious George shirt, and a pink polka-dot robe armed with a red and black broom that I found I was every spider's worst nightmare! Or ... maybe I was EVERY ONE'S worst nightmare.

So, bravely I walked over to the stairs, click-clicking on the floor as I went (heels are such wonderful sneak-up-on-people-and-spider shoes). I made it to the stairs, but made sure to keep my distance until I was ready to attack. Why get too close before you have to?

My eyes went to the place I last saw the spider, and to my great horror it wasn't there! My eyes widened, but soon I found him, just the next step down. I didn't think of it at the time, but I see clearly now, he was chasing me down the stairs, and was going to eat me, of course.

I calmed myself again and prepared myself to "attack". I readied the broom, telling myself all I had to do was smack him really fast and really hard and it would all be over. But then a thought came to mind. What if I missed? What if it was a jumping spider and it would jump on me if I missed? I could just imagine myself being slowly and painfully devoured by small, black spidy.

Great! Now I was totally ready to kill him ... not! I told myself to calm down. I was practically 100 times bigger then he was. But, I reminded myself, he could move much faster then I. I shook my head, removing all scary thoughts from my head. I took aim and shuddered.

"I can't do this" my mind said over and over, to which it responded "Yes, you can. You're so much bigger than he is." As I stood there, thoughts rolling over and over in my mind I knew what I had to do. I did what any other sensible person would do.

"Dad!" I called, hoping he would come quickly before spidy decided to move on. Nothing happened, no footsteps, no sound, no aid ... nothing. "Dad!" a little louder this time. Yes! Success, I could hear him coming. Then a thought struck me. "When dad comes down the stairs he's going to scare the spider and it's going to jump at me and eat me." I tightened my grip on my "weapon" ... trusty red and black broom.

There I stood, waiting at the bottom of the stairs, but thankfully not for too long. Soon, dad was nearly down the stairs. I pointed to the spider. "It's really big and scary, Dad. Can you kill it?" I tried to give him a nice smile, hoping he wouldn't actually voice the thought that I knew was in his mind ... because it was in mine too. I'm how old and I can't even kill a spider? *Sighs* Somethings just can't be done peeps.

So, Daddy to the rescue. He walked down the rest of the basement steps, seemingly un-bothered by the threatening spider, grabbed a rag, and went back to kill the spider.

I was so scared it was going to come after me that I actually turned away to make sure I couldn't see it ... also so I wouldn't have to see it get squished and hear the crunch. My father straightened, spider dead on the rag. Wahoo for brave Fathers!!!

So, why do I tell you all this nonsense? Because it made me laugh, the fact that I'm so scared of spiders. But also because I had convinced myself that night, in just a few short seconds, that my brown high heels would be a great defense against little spidy on the stairs. Although, now that I think about it, I don't really know how I would have run away if I was actually being chased by the spider in my heels? *Shrugs* I guess we'll never know.

We have such a friendly stove ...

Hello stove ... :)

Tag

1. Fill in your memories of 2008.
2. Link my blog to yours. (Or my profile, at least.)
3. Tag others, and comment on their blogs so they know they've been tagged.

I was tagged by Rosebud.

~A good book I read~
A trilogy actually: "The Door Within" by Wayne Thomas Batson

~A great film/movie I watched~
Prince Caspian

~A new place I visited~
The Bad Lands, in South Dakota

~An inspiring verse or quote I read~
"...And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You." Ps, 73:25

~A new skill I acquired~
Playing new games.

~A lesson I learned~
That God's timing is always right, even when I don't think it is.

~A moment I will always remember~
A walk in the woods in the falling snow.

I tag: Leah, Katie, and Melanie.

Tagged

Rules:
* Post the six to ten things that you do on a daily basis.
*Link to the person who tagged you.
*Tag five other people.
*Leave a comment on the blog of the person that tagged you letting them know you posted this on your blog.

Melanie tagged me for this one. And I'm going to tell you right off that I'm not selecting five people to tag, I'm going to leave this one open. If you stumble across this post and want to do your own tag, please do. Maybe leave me a comment to I can see your tag. :)

Six to ten things I do each day ...

1. Wake up
2. Get dressed
3. Drive to work
4. Hold M.
5. Love my job!
6. Come home
7. Love my family and home!
   
8. Check the blog
9. Check other people's blogs
10. Teach piano

So there you go! Random, I know. But still, the rules never said anything about making any kind of sense with your ten things.

My Christmas letter to you ...

I've seen that my father has blogged a Christmas letter and my sister has blogged a Christmas letter (check them out) so I thought, to keep it going, that I should blog a Christmas letter for all of you peeps as well. So, here goes!

W

Merry Christmas all ye peeps.

Tagged ...

Natalie tagged me. The rules are:

Go to your Picture file, go to the 5th folder, open up the 5th picture, post it, and then tag 5 people.
I tag ... Charity, Lady Heather, and Tiffany (I know it's suppose to be five, but I could only think of three people who haven't been tagged yet. :))

In which we learn the proper process for adding large numbers

Good evening ... er ... morning ... ahhh ... very early morning (happy for me, I haven't figured out how to make the "posted at ..." clock on my blog accurate, so you don't really know what time it is). All you smart peeps out there should have been asleep awhile ago. Me, well, things happen, they run in your mind, they keep you up, you can't sleep, so what do you do ... post and tell people about it. :) So now you all get to read my late-night-should-be-sleeping-way-to-crazy-for-normal-people post. Such lucky peeps you are.

On a different subject, during church tonight a little six-year-old girl sat next to me. As she comes from an artistic family she asked if she could draw, so I handed her my notebook. She drew actual pictures of things for a little while before, when I looked down, much to my surprise, I saw this ... (note: pictures were not taken during church, but after I'd arrived home with said notebook :) )
























She was, as you can tell, practicing her math. :) How cute is that!? But as I observed, I watched her try new things such as adding "large" numbers. It greatly amused me how she came up with the "hard" answers. Observe ...




In picture #1 we see the easy problems (thus the texts and lines (please click on the pictures to get a better view)) but the hard problem is what we're looking at ... 6+8=? We see in neon greenish circle the first number is 8. The next line shows that 8 can become two 4's + 6. :) Or thus ... 44 6. (I'm not quite sure what the other 6 is doing down by the ones, but it's there because it needs to be, I'm sure.) We then see that because it is still to hard to add them up that we write the correct number of ones (backward mind you) that equal the two parts of the problem. She wrote out eight ones, then she wrote out six ones and then she counted them all. :) Thus ... 6+8=14. Got that? Good, moving on ...
In picture #2 we see much the same thing, only the problem is now 7+6=? But instead of trying to figure out how to break down the different numbers as before (ex. 8 is two 4's.) we just start writing ones (also, they continue to be written backward, it's easier that way). First seven ones, then six ones. And then we add them all together. Yup, you guessed it 7 backward ones + 6 backward ones = 13 backward ones! And then we discover that if we make one number change (ex. 6 to a 7, figure it out, then change the newly changed 7 to a 8 for the next problem and figure it out) we can easily figure these problems out as well! How fancy is that?!Well, I hope you've all learned as much as I did. But, seriously, I loved watching how she figured it out. I could see her mouthing different things, see her counting, "see" the wheels in her head turning. It was great joy!

Advice from the little brother

While walking home from church on Wednesday night I was talking to Dad about getting a different car for myself so Leah can use my old car. He said if I did get a new car my insurance would jump way up (for different reasons) so I asked him when it would go back down. He said the rates would go down when I turned 25 or when I got married. My little brother Ethan, who had been quiet until then, now spoke up.

Ethan~ "You should get married."
Me~ "I can't do anything about that."
Ethan~ "Yes you can."
Me~ Very interested how he figured this whole thing out before me. "How's that?"
Ethan~ "Go to public places. So they can see you."
Me~ Laughing silently. "Did you know God can make the perfect man for me show up on our door step?"
Ethan~ "Without the guy even seeing you?"
Me~ "Yes."
He didn't seem convinced but said no more.

So, all in all, what we singles have to do is go to public places ... how easy is that? :) Why didn't we think of that? Of course as soon as you go there, you see someone you find attractive, you're instantly going to get married, don't you know? No courtship, no getting to know each other. Just ... *poof* ;)

Although we know there is much more to waiting for the one God has for you, it still makes for good laughs. :)

Hellllloooooo?!

This little guy/gal was on our screen the other morning. I love his eyes, they are so big, like a little kid trying to see inside the house. Or a little kid peeking over the side of a counter to see some cookies. It almost looks like he's smiling, too. These pictures crack me up every time I see them. Click on the pictures for a better view of his face. :)

Fabric

Is it already July?!

I can't believe it's already July! Is anybody else still stuck on "Happy New Year!"? Okay, so maybe I'm not that far off but I'm so not up to July yet. But whether I'm up to July in my mind or not, it is July! So I flipped my calendar this morning and the picture made me giggle. So as you start your first day of July maybe this will bring a smile to your day as well! :)

The Simple Woman's Daybook

*~::June 24, 2008::~*

Outside My Window...A gentle breeze blows, making the lacy looking coral bells dance in the sunshine.

I am thinking...About what a wonderful God we have, Who always provide what we need, maybe not always what we want, but what we need ... I shall NEVER be in want!

I am thankful for...My family and the joy and love we share in our house. I'm thankful the Lord graciously put my in the family I'm in ... how wise He is!

From the kitchen...M&M/chocolate chip cookies for piano students ... and the left overs for us. :) Yumm!
I am wearing...Bare feet, new jeans, a white spaghetti strap under my new favorite white spaghetti strap that has pink flowers on it with a pink silky ribbon, which is under my long sleeve khaki-colored snap up, the sleeves got hot so I have rolled them up. I have a new vine-y hair clip in my hair, cooking cookies gets hot, and just moments ago I was wearing an apron to protect my beautiful frilly shirt.

I am creating...Cookies!! :) But you already knew that.

I am going...To teach piano this after noon and then spend sometime doing different things around the house.

I am reading...The recipes for dinner (Texas Hash), the cookie recipe (Color cookies) and the timer on the stove that tells me how long it is until the beeping tells me the cookies are tired of getting baked.

I am hoping...That dinner gets done in time for my brother to eat with us (his wife-y is gone for the day so he's eating with us) and also for some time outside today, in the hot sun and warm breeze, smelling my roses and letting my feet enjoy the grass.

I am hearing...Fernando Ortege, The Shadow of Your Wings, playing on my MP3 player and the timer beeping on the stove ... just a moment please, I must rescue the cookies.

Around the house...The fans are blowing, keeping the air moving so we don't roast in the house. The breeze moves the curtains that adorn the windows.

One of my favorite things...Is (are) the little glass bottles holding roses in the window that I put there yesterday. They are so cheery!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: I'm not really sure. :) Teach piano, as every week. Work on my crocheting project, make an apron for cooking that I've been meaning to make for ever, etc..

Here is picture thought I am sharing...The new favorite shirt I was telling you about earlier. :)
Remember if you would like to participate be sure to visit The Simple Woman blog and see her guidelines.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY *~ June 4th ~*

Outside My Window... the sun is warmly falling down upon the strawberry plant leaves, it is dancing and shining on the birdbath water and is gently gracing the little male goldfinch that has ended his search for food on the bird feeder.

I am thinking... about the time when the Lord blesses me with my own home, when He blesses me with a husband to love, cherish and adore.

I am thankful for... all that the Lord provides and how wonderfully He provides it, even when we hadn't even thought of asking for it. (Can any one guess what I'm thinking about?) :)

From the kitchen... fresh baked Brown Sugar Crackle cookies. Yummm. And supper: Texas Hash.

I am wearing... an old, comfy t-shirt, faded and worn bluejeans, fuzzy pink and purple socks that are tucked safely inside my faithful black clogs. Comfort itself!

I am creating... this post and hoping it is satisfactory to all who choose to stop by. :)

I am going... to church to night. To spend time learning the Word the Lord has graciously given us and to spend time fellowshipping with believers in conversation and in prayer before the throne of grace.

I am reading... Pride and prejudice and loving every moment of it. Jane Austen has such a way of capturing ones attention.

I am hoping... (and praying) that one day I will be the wife, mother and homemaker the Lord has called us as women to be. What a joy to wake up every morning and know that I'm doing just what the Lord created me to do!

I am hearing... the birds chirping happily outside, the cars that drive by and the oven heating up as it cooks supper.

Around the house... is the cozy atmosphere my Mother works so hard and faithfully to create, and is wonderfully doing so.

One of my favorite things... being bare foot in a long skirts outside in the sunshine with the grass between my toes as I look at my roses.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: to continue teaching summer lessons, get ready for the MMTA convention, deep clean my room, go through some piano books.

Here is picture thought I am sharing... (Well, actually two.) new iris bloom with sparkly petals

If you would like to enjoy doing this fun idea visit The Simple Woman blog. Please make sure you read her guidelines before using her idea.

Look, look!!!

I'm related to Marianne Dashwood!! :) Hurrah!!! *Giggles* Isn't Kat so beautiful?!! Yes, I agree!! My very own sister (-in-law) a Marianne Dashwood (or Lizzy Bennet, or someone), who knew? :) It's such a rotic (romantic without the man) thought! Sorry the first one is blurry. I don't know why.

How one should NOT get ladder ball balls out of a tree ...

... and why one should not get them stuck up there in the first place. :)

Check out Leah's side of the story as well!!!

It was just another ordinary day. Loving the sunshine, loving having Grandma and Grandpa from Wyoming visit, loving being outside, taking silly pictures with best buddy Leah, trying to play ladder ball and completely not getting it, getting bored of completely not getting it and then trying to throw the little bolo balls (ladder ball balls) at my best bud with my feet. Ahhh, yeah, that didn't work. Then, being more weird then usual, I decided I was going to see if I could throw the bolo balls with my feet and make it on the ladder. :) Yeah, this is the point were the little common sense man should have appeared and said, "I don't think that's such a good idea." Or maybe he did and I just blew him off. Either way, I kicked the bolo balls and away they sailed. Up, up, up past the ladder ball thing-y, up, up, up, into the sky and down, down, down onto a tree branch. Yup, should have listened to Mr. Common Sense. And not only were they up in the tree, but they were way up(!!) in the tree, I couldn't even reach them with the very, very high ladder that we have. *Sighs*

Okay, as I'm writing this, I realize what a complete weird-o I am and I question why I'm writing this for all the world to see. :) If you prefer to avoid really weird, strange people and really strange happenings I would recommend that you cease reading right now. And please, just so you know, I'm not usually this weird, :) so I ask that you do not assume that the very weird way I'm acting in the videos is the way I always act. :) 'Cause it's not.

I also realize that loading all of the videos will take a substantial amount of time, so I'm going to write the gist of what's going on in the videos above them so if you choose not to load them you'll still get the basic idea of what's going on. Also, I'm sorry about the shakiness of the videos, it's hard to hold a little camera still and laugh at the same time. :)

So yeah, this is the video of me trying to throw the bolo balls at Leah with me feet, obviously that didn't work so swell. Then I tried, as I said, to throw the balls at the ladder and then succeeded in getting them stuck up in the tree. How smart is that?

The bolo balls stuck around the branch (the little blue things). They weren't just in the tree, they were on either side of the branch.

So, we decided to survey the damage. This is where, when we realized what 'fun' it would be to get them down, we should have called for help. But, feeling guilty and responsible for getting them up in the tree, I thought it only right that I should get them down from the tree.

See where I circled? That's about where the balls were. Up ... nice and high.

After a quick survey of the problem I decided it would be best to try and throw a lager ball at the smaller bolo balls and try to knock them down. So I produced a softball. I tried throwing the ball numerous times, failing each time (I decided to spare all ye peeps from that very embarrassing vid. :)). So Leah, softball child, decided to give it a try. I love how she takes off running away from the ball when it comes falling down. :) She's amazingly brave! Wahoo, go Leah!

After all three of us kids, Leah, Ethan and I, tried our hand at throwing the softball at the bolo balls, Dad came to save the day. He threw it a few times unsuccessfully. The last time he threw the softball it went up and then straight down onto Leah's freshly planted cantaloupe plant. Needless to say, he didn't retrieve the ball, but quickly decided he'd tried enough and headed inside. Leah was quite disturbed that things kept landing on her pour little cantaloupe. :)

Obviously the whole softball thing wasn't workin' out so swell, so I looked for a new weapon ... I found a board. :) I threw that many unsuccessful times as well, as did Ethan. :) Actually, all my plans were unsuccessful, Leah was the one who actually got it down. :) But in this video I'm standing with the board under the tree, ready to fire and dying of laughter telling myself, aloud, that our family is totally normal. Every one gets bolo balls stuck in trees and then throws very large pieces of wood at them to get them down, right? :) As I was dying of laughter Ethan chucked the softball up again and then the softball got stuck in the tree. Yes, things were flowing quite smoothly I think.

Yes, not only did we get the bolo balls stuck up in the tree, Ethan managed to get the softball stuck up in the tree as well. I have never seen anything like that before.

You might have guessed that the whole throwing of the board thing didn't work. :) So Ethan grabbed his soft pellet gun and tried to shoot the softball out of the tree. Why? I'm not really sure, because his pellets are smaller then a pea. You might have also guessed that the gun thing didn't work either. :) He did, however, manage to shoot some leaves down.

As the gun didn't work I went to work looking for the next object to throw and I found a very, very large sick. :) I tossed it straight up quite a few times, then switched to throwing it like a 'harpoon' as Leah said. Although I didn't manage to get the bolo balls down I got the softball down. :) Wow, 'mazing! :) And I did it without taking out Leah's cantaloupe, which is a HUGE plus. :)

Soooo ... after the stick failed we reverted back to the softball. Having that fail again I decided that I would just jump and my fingers would slid perfectly around the branch and that I would just pull the branch down and retrieve the bolo balls from the grasp of the tree ... hummm, how high can I jump? Probably not the 10-15 (or maybe 20) feet needed. Also, if any of you have seen the Veggie Tails 'Jonah' then you know the part in them movie when the little caterpillar thing is listening to the tape and it's telling him that he's a great something or other. :) That's what Leah was telling me when I was jumping. :)

As I couldn't reach the branch from the ground I scaled the tree in hopes that I would be able to push the branch down from the top ... yeah, I couldn't even see the bolo balls from in the tree. So much for that idea. :)

Finally we broke out the ladder. As we should have long before. So Leah climbed the ladder, softball in hand. (We have such a faithful softball, we used it three times, getting it stuck once and it still stayed around. Such a nice softball.) She was so sacred up on the ladder and she was trying to keep her hat in place ... needless to say she didn't throw it very well but it makes for great footage. :) So she slowly made her way back down the ladder. This is where the tree turned against us.

When Leah was climbing down the ladder the tree threw this branch at us. Okay, okay, I know, not possible, but hey, if I was the tree that we were attacking, I'd throw something too.

Celebrity sighting!!! It's Rudolf, the non-red nose non-reindeer. A.K.A. me. (I circled my "antlers" so you can see them better. :) ) Shortly after Leah climbed down the ladder, Ethan climbed up, and then he pulled on one of the branches to see if we could pull the bolo balls to a place where I could reach them, and in the process Ethan pulled this very large branch out of the tree. My face looks a little weird in the picture, I think Leah took it just as I started to laugh.

Our last plan of attack was actually Ethan's plan. I had run inside the house to get something and while in there Mom made of list of things she needed from the store. So I grabbed my purse and headed out the front door. When I exited the house Ethan was on the ladder with, I kid you not, a rain gutter, or more properly a downspout ... a very, very long downspout. :) It was certainly an interesting sight. :) I grabbed the camera from Leah and filmed as she bravely climbed the ladder with the extremely long downspout (after Ethan climbed down after he tried and failed). Finally success!!! (This movie is VERY long, just so you know.)

So in all, our plan of attack went something like this:

1. The softball
2. The board
3. The gun and softball
4. The stick
5. Back to the softball
6. Jumping to grab the branch
7. Climbing the tree
8. Setting up the ladder to grab the branch
9. On the ladder with faithful softball
10. The downspout

One time I threatened to grab a shovel. :) But I didn't.

The little golf ball sized things that we were after. Such big trouble the little things caused. In all it took us nearly 40 minutes to knock the balls out of the tree. :) So the point of this whole post is this ... don't play ladder ball, and if you do, don't throw the balls with your feet, and if you do, don't get them suck in trees, and if you do, you're on your own.

And that, dear Peeps, is our story. :) Was it worth waiting for?

The disadvantages of being an older sister

It all started out with the innocent game of "Egyptian Rat Killer" (I haven't the slightest idea why it is called that) my little bro and I were playing. In the game, if the cards are alike you slap them. As this was near the first time Ethan had ever payed it, I was quicker at slapping things then he was. So he warned, as he made a fist with his right hand, "You'd better watch out." I should have listened. A few minutes later my fingers were throbbing and tingling after he pulled his fist away, but hey, I got the slap, so I got the cards. Wahoo!

I creamed him, of course, in the game. So what does he do? Playfully he picks up a bag clip. Yes, the ones with the "jaws" to hold the bag closed, and then he chucks it at me. Shocked, I picked it up and playfully threw it back, right before it came flying back at me.

I held onto it this time, so he searched for another weapon. What does he choose? The deck of cards. I was lying on my back, covered with a blanket to help fight off the chill of the house and recovering from the recent attack of the bag clip, when 52 cards came flying at my face.

Needless to say, Ethan left the room (rather rapidly, his excuse, he had to use the bathroom. *Rolls eyes* Riiiiiight.) as I picked up the cards.

After picking them up, I shuffled into the kitchen to refill my tea cup. I had just picked up the tea pot, with hot water in it, when Ethan comes running into the kitchen with the blanket I had abandoned in the living room, yelling something about the attack of some vicious sounding blanket. I was then pulverized, tea pot still in hand.

Amazingly I didn't even spill, though I was being rammed into by killer boy and sidekick blanket.

Setting the pot down I managed to free myself, then *Ahem* ran him over, all in self defense, mind you. :) He backed off.

At this point I realized our dog was outside and wanted in, so I walked over to the door to let her in. Just as I was about to close the door a half eaten baby carrot was flung my way, quickly followed by a whole one.

Not wanting to be "carroted" I retreated to my bedroom.

Moments later the door opened and Ethan appeared, armed with ping-pong paddles (I kid you not). :)

He tried to give me a pair, of course I refused and told him to put them away and go find somewhere else to play. He then proceeded to squish his cheeks with his set of paddles repeating over and over (yes I know that's redundant.) "I'm a scared boy." (He told me later he had said that because he was pretending I was angry and that he should be scared.) I, however, thought he was saying, "I'm a scary boy," (which I thought fit better with what was going on) to which I would have replied, "Quite".

He left and so did the paddles shortly after that, thankfully, only to return a few seconds later with a pillow on his head. He was holding it down on the edges so it covered his ears, almost like a bonnet, but not quite.

I rolled my eyes and turned my back to him because I was working on something at my desk. But soon I turned back around to see why he was making gorilla noises.

What met my eye was him, still making gorilla noises, dancing, yes dancing, with the pillow as he watched himself in my floor length mirror.

After repeatedly telling him to leave my room, and having him not leave, I thought of the only place where he could not get to me ... yes the bathroom. :)

Sitting on the bathroom floor, I waited until I knew it would be safe.

I was laughing my head off the whole time, (from the very first time he chucked the bag clip at me) which of course encouraged him. At least I was not mortally wounded.

It sounds, perhaps, slightly violent, but please know he was playing the whole time, as was I. :) I'm sure if any of you have younger, sometimes crazy brothers, or any siblings, know all about this type of thing.