You're just going to have to wait.

It should be no big surprise to any of you that I still have a few dozen days to write about. Follow through is not my strong point. The good news is that I actually did follow through on the actual events for each day and we had 25 successful Advent activities. They kids had a blast and even though there were more than a few late nights when I realized that I hadn't come up with the item-for-tomorrows-box yet, every day included some special Christmas related activity. I even took pictures and wrote down what we did for each one. It's just going to take a little while to flesh it out here for you. In the mean time, enjoy the pictures from our Thanksgiving adventure with the Stockdales in southern Missouri at Pinecrest Camp.

A belated Merry Christmas to you and yours.
And a very Happy New Year, too!

Seven? Wow, I'm really behind.

We wanted to watch "show" (as our kids call anything on a screen) about Christmas before we put up our nativity set. Of course I specifically wanted one about the birth of Jesus and not one of the zillion Cartoon-Character's-Zany-Christmas-Special's that are out there. I picked up The Nativity Story from the library's video section but a quick preview showed it was too intense for the kids. (We're looking forward to watching it after they go to bed in the next few evenings.) But that left a dilemma as to what to watch. Blockbuster was NO help.

I called our local LifeWay bookstore and the lady there graciously looked through their available DVDs and read the description of a few of them to me. Since it seemed like one of those would work, I packed the kids in the car (including one with a fever) and drove toward Lifeway near downtown Orlando late on a Friday afternoon. Crazy.

Actually it didn't end up being that bad. I figured out how to get all the way there with out using any of the major (read: Colonial Blvd) arteries. Gotta love those honeycomb Winter Park neighborhoods. I guess all that garage-sale navigating is paying off!! It seems strange that I know this area as well as I do. I think I've lived here longer than just about any other place I've lived. Anyway... We made it there, picked up The Story of Christmas and got back just fine.

The DVD was... interesting. The animation from 1994 leaves a lot to be desired compared to the fantastic CGI of today. And the dialogue was a little… how shall I say... canned. But I really didn't mind that it was basic. That's what I was looking for: something basic for my preschool age children.

What I didn't like was that it was a little too intense. The story, told from a donkey's perspective, seems to be more focused on King Herod and his jealousy than on Jesus himself. The film starts with the villainous Herod and keeps going back to his murderous intent on Jesus life. Of course they don’t “show” anything, but the terrified mothers and the vicious looking soldiers raising their weapons were enough to give you a good picture of what happened in Bethlehem and why Jeremiah prophesied that there would be great weeping there. The story then follows Joseph and Mary as they take their child to Egypt to protect him from assassination. I can’t remember ever seeing a film portray the time Jesus spent in Egypt and, as an adult, I enjoyed this segment of the film quite a bit. I feel like it gave me a better perspective on who Jesus was, on His roots, if you will. (One of Rich Mullin’s final uncut songs comes to mind: “My Deliverer” on The Jesus Record. Terrific stuff.) Even so, it was too much for my kids. A good chunk of the film’s 45 minutes was “scary” for them. Not how I wanted them to remember their first nativity movie.

Now that I think about it, this DVD follows Matthew 2 very closely. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just not the gentle Luke 2 version to which we are more accustomed. Maybe I need to change my perspective. The Bible deals with reality and the reality is that Jesus did threaten Herod’s world, and ultimately He rocks the world of every person. Like C.S. Lewis noted in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, “Safe?... Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

Still, I think I’ll wait until the kids are a little older before we use this DVD again.

Enough with the DVD review. Afterward we got out the Nativity set. Cora kept calling it the "Activity" set.

Snow White is even curtsying in worship.

I'm trying to keep up!

December 6 found us with the folks from our Connect Group in Winter Park at a Carols-in-the-Park event. The Morse Museum of American Art lent a number of Tiffany stained-glass windows for the event that were illuminated around the park. The Bach Festival Choir performed for standing-room-only city park filled with picnic blankets and strollers.

We squeezed in with our friends and enjoyed a range of traditional and contemporary Christmas music. My favorite moment was when the first strains of The Hallelujah Chorus sounded and the entire park came to it's feet. I don't care if the tradition is true or not, or even if it's just because ol' king George needed a potty break. I think it's incredibly worshipful! I love that thousands of other central Florida music lovers willingly participated in something so worshipful, even if they have no idea Who they are worshiping. An interesting site with all the Scripture Handel referenced can be found here.

Enjoying the evening with friends made it all the better and the kids did pretty good even though it was crowded.

I'm not sure but this might be the first time Cora had been around a real horse. Check out her joy.

An Orlando Christmas

On December 5, my Aunt Beth was in town on business and we took the kids downtown to join in Holiday Lights Orlando. A fun time was had by all.

We made friends with the couple sitting on the steps next to us.

Cora shows Ms. Jean her snack.

The tree lighting was the highlight of the night. Too bad you can't get a good picture of the tree and our faces at the same. We'll settle for the faces. 

Aunt Beth enjoyed some Christmas under the palm trees. It was snowing at her house while we were at the tree lighting here!!

The other highlight was meeting the Mayor of Orlando, Buddy Dyer.

Another recap.

I really thought cutting out paper snowflakes would be fun for the kids... but it ended up being more challenging than I expected. First of all, did you realize snowflakes have 6 sides? YOU try folding a piece of paper in to a hexagon. See?

Even though Joel helped me figure it out the night before, it was still pretty  challenging to get the paper folded. I finally switched to folding coffee filters. Much easier. But Jason got bored pretty quick and mostly wanted to just cut paper for the heck of it. And Cora got really, really upset that she was having a hard time with the multiple layers of paper (and being left handed with the scissors didn't help) and just got down and left. That left me and our friend Becca to fold and cut to our hearts content. We made a few pretty ones and called it a night. 

The next day the kids were asking about when it would snow here. I really felt sad for them. It was in the 70s here this weekend. We did read a fun book about snowflakes a few days before we did this project. Snowflake Bentley tells the true story of Wilson Bentley who in 1885 developed the microphotography method that first allowed the world to get a glimpse of these majestic creations by photographing a single snow crystal.

It's amazing to me that God has been creating zillions of unique snowflakes for his own enjoyment since the beginning of time. No one else was able to see how beautiful they were with the naked eye. And then it wasn't until 1885 that people around the world could enjoy the vast beauty of snowflakes through Bentleys work. I'm glad we are able to join God in enjoying this part of His creation. I hope my kids get to enjoy it someday soon!

"For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." Romans 1:20

a few days later

For the great tree trimming, we decided to make it a party with finger foods for dinner.

Jason hangs up his "My First Christmas" ornament.

Now Cora gets her turn with her "My First Christmas" ornament.

Curly hangs up something homemade.

Mommy, is that you when you were little?

The Angel.

Story before bed.

it's just been a crazy 2 days

Just so you don't think I fell of the face of the earth, or assume I gave up on blogging about Advent already...

...here's a post to say I'll be posting more later. Today we had several very fun but last minute guests in our home after a day of getting ready for Christmas decorating the day before. Needless to say I'll have to catch you up on Advent Day 3 - Trimming the Tree and Advent Day 4 - Paper Snowflakes another time. Right now it's off to bed for me.

Good night!

wow... two in a row!

I actually have a pretty good list of Christmas-related activities and items for the Advent House but most of them require at a little preparation. Thankfully, I recently purchased hot cocoa packets 2-for-1 plus a coupon (Thanks, GroceryGame!) So this morning Door #2 had the the hot-drink image (right) folded up into a tiny message and they had to guess what it meant. They thought it was pretty cool to get a chocolate drink for breakfast. Although Cora didn't really seem to like hers. No matter. Jason was more than happy to help her polish it off.

This morning I asked the kids what Advent meant and they had no clue. I told them that it means we look forward to something or someone coming. They guessed "Christmas" and "Santa". I kept pressing them for other answers but they really didn't have a clue what we were looking forward to or as I tried to clarify, what the real reason for Christmas is. That really made me sad. I told them I would tell them the answer after we prayed for our meal, but Jason picked up on the fact that I thanked God for this time to look forward to the coming of his Son, Jesus as a baby.

I really thought they had a better clue what Christmas is about. I guess we have our work cut out for us. I think tonight at church they are going to have a daily devotional available that corresponds with each of the four Sunday sermons and Christmas Eve within Advent. I hope to incorporate that material into what I'm doing with the kids. Also I've been reading a little bit about the Jesse Tree. I want to have a better grasp of it first, but I'm pretty sure I'll use some of that with the kids too.

We're off to the 6:00PM service at Summit. Talk to you tomorrow.

with humble apology for the great blog drought

We started making paper chains to count down the days and weeks until big events: Aunt Roz arriving from Poland, driving to Missouri for Thanksgiving, that sort of thing. But honestly we would tend to forget a link or two and eventually the kids interest seems to wane so I wanted something different to help count down to Christmas.  Naturally I put off things until the last minute, so on the last evening of November I was running through the aisles of Target looking for in some sort of Advent calendar. I remember the paper posters that had little windows that you opened each day to reveal another character of the Crèche. No such things at Target. Enter the Advent House. (Yes, the kitchen window is open behind it. It got up to 77 here today.)

Mind you I only had one box filled this morning when the kids got up. But they don't know that. Behind Door #1 was a simple rhyme illustrated by a chair (have you seen the way I draw??): A clue to look under the chairs until they found a surprise. They were excited but quickly became frustrated when they couldn't see the surprise immediately. Jason would just glance on the floor and expect something to be there. After much encouragement not to give up (and actually several hours - we had to resume in the afternoon after a friend's birthday party) Jason discovered the surprise: an autographed book I won from The Great Big Book Giveaway hosted by Christian Children's Book Review.

The Stable Where Jesus Was Born by Rhonda Gowler Green is the Nativity story in verse in the style of "This is the House that Jack Built.” The book is pretty simple , but I loved Susan Gaber's detailed, earthy illustrations. My favorite page introduces Joseph:

This is the father, Joseph, so tall
who cared for the baby and animals all,
but mostly the mother, Mary by name.

I love that Mary looks wiped out and that Joseph, with a huge bushy beard, offers her a cup of something. He looks kind. And ready. What an amazing man he must have been.

Anyway, that was our first day of Advent. I tried to prepare the kids (especially Jason who likes to know what to expect) that each day of Advent will be different. Sometimes a gift like today, but most other things will be special Christmas activities or perhaps a sweet treat. But every day WILL be different. So I've got to get on thinking up 24 more things.

Our pastor wrote the following: Advent simply denotes "coming;" it means the same and more. This season has served the church for centuries as a liturgical reminder of the personal and universal truth: God has come, God is still entering into this world through the body of Christ, Christ will come again..... As the Advent season moves towards the crescendo of Christmas, I hope like Mary on the first Christmas who" treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart" Luke 2:19, you be able to take some time do the same.

This Advent, I hope to mirror the example of the Church in helping our kids look forward to Christ's coming, both as we celebrate his First Coming as a baby and and as we eagerly look forward to his Triumphant Coming as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

One of the things I really enjoy is reading to the kids some of the books I read as a child. Recently I was reminded of Kenneth N. Taylor's fantastic books for children and requested them from our library.  The colored pencil illustrations and short lessons in rhyme with accompanying questions, prayer and Bible verse are perfect reading for the many sessions of potty-sitting that have been happening at our house during Corrie's training. Which are numerous and never ending. But I digress.

Today we were reading GIANT STEPS for little people and found immediate application for the following page:  

God wants you to share with others/ All he's given you./ So give your money cheerfully,/ And share your playthings too.

Store treasures in heaven where they will never lose their value, and are safe from thieves. Matthew 6:20

The illustration showed boys and girls and teddy bears bringing cans and boxes for a food drive. Several kids are helping stack and prepare the food to be given to children who are hungry. I took the opportunity to share how some children don't have enough to eat and they are hungry when they go to bed. One of the ways we show our love for God is by helping others. (Thanks, Boz!)

I asked the kids if they would like to share some of our food with kids who might be hungry and Jason got very excited. He quickly went to put on his shoes so we could take our food to a boy just like him. My heart just melted. I tried not to be too teary as I showed him the flyer we received yesterday from the National Association of Letter Carriers.

This Saturday, May 12, is their Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. You simply place some non-perishable food items in a bag and place it by your mail box. Your letter carrier will pick it up and deliver it to local food banks. I told the kids that we could fill up a plastic bag with food and our mail carrier would take it to the boys and girls who don't have enough. We went over to the pantry to select items for out bag.

Like many families, not only do we have our regular kitchen pantry filled with food, but we also have a spare pantry with a variety of items tucked away, perhaps purchased 2-for-1 or in a multi-pack at Sam's Club.  Our spare pantry is full with everything from extra boxes of cereal to cans of soup. And not just the basics either, but yummy sweet-treats too. And here lay the real lesson. As Jason stood on the step stool to peer into the pantry and select some items for the bag, his little heart, like all hearts, began to reconsider.

"Mom, we can give them this (a soup that he really doesn't like) but not this (a particularly sugary treat)."

Ah ha. Sacrifice that costs us something personally is not as easy as giving away our cast-offs. I guess that's why it's a called a sacrifice. I had a good opportunity to talk with Jason about how it pleases the Lord to give not only of the excess of our lives, but of the things that are most dear to us. Sugar, in his case. I think he understood a little when we looked through the pantry again and I helped him to choose a few of his favorite things for a boy just like him, who would be so excited to open a bag and find those very same items.

As I write I am reminded of the things our pastor shared on Sunday. He talked about David exemplifying holiness in his own life, even after the Lord rejected his offer to build a permanent home for Him. (David's son Solomon was chosen by God for that task.) Instead of sitting on his laurels, David led his people in providing the resources for his son to use, not only from the national treasury but from his own personal stores. He then invites the people to participate with him: "Who is willing to consecrate himself to the Lord?" 

David understood that a sacrifice that cost him nothing was worthless. The benefit of true sacrifice is not merely the satisfaction of some legalistic decree, but the acknowledgement of a very basic truth: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Hopefully Jason got a little taste of what this means in his almost-4-year-old world.

And that is one giant step.

So I guess it would be good would be good to write something for this blog more than every few months. I read several blogs daily and interact with many people through a variety if media, but I can't seem to get around to narrative on Rannebarger life.  And actually I got a kick in the pants to get going since our good friends just started a family blog. Not that we're trying to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak. We could never keep up with our neighbor Bill anyway. We just read and laugh instead...

So the past few months...  In January I (Ann) went to Canton, OH with the kids to visit my Dad and Roz and our extended family. The kids got to enjoy the cousins, the cold and an extension on Christmas. We started talking about Roz moving to Orlando from Poland after her graduation. Yeah!!! We drove back to Orlando with my grandparents in their motorhome - lots of fun!

In mid February, my mom came to the states for about 5 weeks to help Esther sort things out medically as she has been dealing with many consecutive illnesses. We drove to Missouri to spend time with my US siblings who were gathering to support Esther and see mom. Jason and Corrie got to meet their first cousin Andrew and enjoyed running and playing with their aunts and uncles. We traveled the day that tornados were tearing through Georgia and much of the mid-west and were very close to some of the bad weather. We were so thankful for the Lord's protection while traveling!

Joel's dad was here in March. He chauffeured the grandkids around the neighborhood on his scooter and enjoyed a day at zoo with us all. He and Joel also took off to Gainesville for the day for Gatornationals. They brought back a toy dragster car for Jason and it has only added to his great love of wheeled things - he spends hours driving, and more importantly crashing, cars around the house!!

One of the highlights of winter has been our regular visits with  my grandparents who spend a few months enjoying the Florida weather every year. At this point, we think they come more to enjoy the Florida great-grandkids and we are so glad. We met weekly for lunch and always had lots of laughs. We enjoyed each minute we were together.

Somewhere in there since the beginning of the year we have also...

• painted all of the main living-area walls in the house.
• hosted several toddlers/preschoolers overnight a few times... what a party!
• started going to a new church
• helped Jason through several more rounds of breathing treatments and ear infections. And we all got the flu too.
• took the kids to their first big airshow
• said goodbye to our dear neighbors
• took down one fence, built another, tore out the hugest (is that a word?) hibiscus bush you've ever seen
• and probably a bunch more things, but I can't remember them right now, and it's past my bedtime, and the dinner dishes haven't even been touched, and... you get the idea.

Until next time...

Because He is worthy,

Ann

One more thing - I actually do update my "personal" blog a bit more frequently. Please drop by and say hello anytime!

Before I get anymore frantic calls.... Cora is just fine! There. That's out of the way. On to the details.

Sunday was pretty hectic for us. Jason has yet another cold with greater-than-cold symptoms. We took both kid to our the on-call doctor Sunday morning because Jason was coughing incessantly and kept saying that he couldn't breath. Not good. Turns out he has croup, along with a double ear infection. It seems that his respitory system has a hard time dealing with the extra mucus from a common cold so his airways get inflamed and close up in an asthma-like response. It's something that he will probably grow out of by middle school, but in the mean time, we'll probably have to do breathing treatments with him when he has colds to help him get through. Thankfully my mom had a nebulizer for my youngest sister and passed it along to us a few years ago. We've been putting it to good use. Thank you Mom!

Anyway, back to Cora. Sunday night we were finally got through all of Jason's medications and I was sitting with him on the couch while he did his breathing treatment and watched a show (big surprise). Cora was all ready for bed and snuggled up in her new winter PJs on the loveseat. The leather loveseat. Whoops! Slipped right off.

"Are you all right Corrie? Be careful sweetie!"

She got back on the love seat and kept shuffling around, getting her blankie and pillow just right and then once again, down she goes... only this time it was pretty obvious that she wasn't alright. Lots and lots of crying. She hit her head on the coffee table and was pretty shaken up. After a few minutes of holding and comforting her I said to Joel, "What's that on her head? Turn up the lights!" Sure enough, blood.

She actually settled down pretty well by this point and we took her into the kitchen for a more through exam. Yep, a pretty good gash on the top left part of her head. For the life of me I don't know how she did it. I mean she did hit her head on the coffee table, butt has got to be the most tame coffee table you've ever seen. Rounded wood corners, the whole thing. But somehow she managed to bust her head open pretty good.

We debated for a while if she needed stitches and determined that it was probably a good idea. We called out neighbors and Bill sweetly volunteered to come stay with Jason (I'm sure catching the Bills/Bears game in HD was in incentive! No really, thank you, Bill!!)). It seemed like it took a while to actually get out of the house. Jason needed to get to bed and Cora was obviously tired, following me down the hall with her blankie and saying, "Me, too!" Finally we put her in the car, opted to avoid the ER and try out After Hours Pediatrics.  They specialize in urgent care for kids when their regular pediatrician's office is closed (we figured we'd already seen him once that day anyway:))

Things went pretty quick at the clinic. Everything there is geared for kids and they have TVs everywhere with cartoons on to keep their minds off their boo-boos. Two nurses applied some sort of topical anesthetic to Corrie's wound and tried to secure it was a bandage. It was like watching a circus act. Cora kept moving her head and the nurses kept trying to readjust. Let just say the bandage didn't stay on all that long. But after a second try and 30 minutes of waiting, her wound was finally numb and it took the doctor just a few seconds to clean and close it with 3 staples.

Cora was very brave (or perhaps mostly tired) and snuggled with daddy or mommy the entire time, except during the actual procedure. She was a little traumatized when she had to lay flat on the table but there was a TV screen hanging just above her so we tried to distract her with Dora while the doctor did his thing. She wasn't too crazy about the thud of the stapler on her head, but otherwise she did fine.

I think we were home in less than two hours and Cora snuggled with daddy and mommy a little more before going to bed. The next day she seemed only slightly concerned about her head and by the following day I think she completely forgot the wound is even there. We need to have the stales removed at the end of this week or beginning of next.

I have a feeling this will be only the first of many ER visits for Cora. She is a monkey-girl through and through and climbs on things constantly. I don't plan on writing a book every time she gets hurt but we figured the pictures needed a little explanation and, after all, this was Mommy's first time taking her little girl in for an emergency so it does her some good to get it all out. We are so thankful that she's all right. She keeps living up to her name, Cora, which means a full heart. She certainly has made our hearts full.

We love you, Corrie Princess!

I discovered this great book series by HarperCollins Children's at the library. It's called Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science. The series has two stages. Stage 1 books are geared for children ages 3 to 6 and "explain simple and easily observable science concepts." Jason seems to really enjoy the each of the titles we have checked out from the library using their home delivery service. (Of course opening up the yellow Priority Express Parcel bags from the library is almost as fun as learning about the world around us!) So far our favorites are probably From Tadpole to Frog and How a Seed Grows. I don't think the OCLS has every title in the series, but we are working our way through quite a few. We hope you'll join us in discovering the some of the joys of God's beautiful creation together!

Both the kids are talking so much now. It's amazing to hear the phrases Jason comes up with and so sweet to hear Cora try to hang with the rest of the crowd. I don't think either of them will ever have a communication problem! Here are a few of the things I've heard them say lately:

Jason

• Mom, let's walk and talk.
• I need to get some shuteye.
• Can you superbise me? (so he can play on the computer)
• What are we going to do after breaktis?
• Come on, Corrie - Let’s run!
• Good morning, princess! (to Cora)
• And my very favorite of all... Mom! You look like an angel!

For Mothers Day, Joel let me pick what I wanted to do and the choice wasn't difficult: go out to breakfast and go to the beach. Neither thing ended up being very relaxing but the whole day was fun!

We went to Bob Evans for breakfast with about a million other moms and their families. We saw lots of grandmas there and Jason and Cora smiled and waved and said, "Dra'ma! Dra'ma!" We sure would have loved to see our Grandma's on Sunday but we talked with each of them on the phone Mothers Day Weekend for at least a few minutes. We love and miss you all! Breakfast at Bob's was pretty stressful with so many people there. The food took about 45 minutes to arrive and things were pretty disorganized. Jason spilled his "big boy" lidless cup of OJ. Cora tried to paint me.. . I mean "share" her strawberry yogurt. I dumped over one of the syrups. But a fun time was had by all and Joel and I always enjoy eating at Bob's and recounting our BE days flippin' pancakes and pourin' coffee.

Cora napped in the car on the way to the beach and Jason demonstrated a new found skill: Are we there yet? Are we there yet? And it was just 45 minutes!!!! Just wait 'til the drive to our Stateside Stockdale Sibling Spectacular in NC next month...

We went to Canaveral National Seashore just above Kennedy Space Center. It's fun to see the launch pads in the distance. The not so fun part of CNS is that there are a number of steps on the boardwalk over the dunes to the water. Trying to navigate a wagon full of stuff over all those steps and keep track of two excited toddlers at the same time was a little challenging. The other not so fun of the National seashore is that there are no showers and or running water in the restrooms, which makes cleaning off all that sand a little challenging. I ended up using some ice water from our jug to rinse down Cora's bottom before I put on her diaper. Needless to say, she was not amused.

But the time in the ocean was a blast! Both the kids loved it! Jason spent all his time running in and out of the surf and didn't seem fazed at all by the saltiness - "Delicious, Mom!" or by getting knocked off his feet. He'd just get up and wipe the water out of his eyes and say, "This is fun!" Cora seemed to have a great time running around too, although she wasn't quite as enthusiastic about getting water in her face. She bit the sand pretty hard once and had a strawberry from her nose up to her forehead the rest of the day. What a sweet little Princess!

After the beach we went to Shawn's house in nearby Titusville. We tried without success to nap the kids - too much excitement I guess. So we let them up and they had a great time running around with Esther and playing ball. Esther fixed tacos and my favorite, strawberry pie. Fantastic! Then as we were getting ready to go Esther said she had something for me - she got me a sewing machine!! She is so amazing at giving gifts that the person would love and I've been talking about getting a machine for months. What a good listener, and a great sister! I'm going to really miss her while she is gone.

Of course the kids konked out on the way home - no naps plus fun in the sun equals very tired kiddos. But a great time was had by all. Like I said before, it wasn't necessarily relaxing but it was great to enjoy God's creation together.

It was a great Mother's Day!

There are lots of critters in Florida. Lots. But our least favorite, by far, are the fire ants. Jason has quite a knack for finding them. And they have quite a knack for trying to eat him alive.

I thought you could always identify their colonies by the sandy mounds that would pop up around the yard. Easy enough - just sprinkle a little Amdro on the mound, avoid it for a few days and things will be safe and sound. Not so. Turns out they can live quite happily and stealthily in any ol' patch of grass, just waiting for the unsuspecting toddler to walk into their lair.

Apparently they use some sort of hormone communication to alert each other - "Hey guys! I found a live one! On the count of three, let’s unleash our furry! One... Two... " You get the picture.

Recently Jason has been stung (or bitten or whatever) when we're out to play in the wading pool. He goes from happily distracted little boy, filling up his watering can and "watering" my yard, to hysterical in no time flat. Joel thinks he's going to have permanent scar tissue around his ankles from all the bites.

We're going to try some sort of total yard treatment instead of spot treatment. I hope it works. It's frustrating for us when he's playing along so happily to see him get attacked. For some reason Cora hasn't seemed to get into them as much. Maybe only once.

And extra frustrating, yesterday I was talking with Joel on my mobile phone when it happened, and in my rush to help Jason brush off the ants, I dropped