All Things Anne

Jumping Jellyfish!

Things are really popping over here. Let me fill you in on a few of the things that have happened lately!

1. Snakes. Yes, Grammoo. The other day Kate saw a rattlesnake out near the water truck (the neighbor across the street is having the girls water the horses in his field next to us, so the water truck is on our side of the fence). It went down a hole, though, and didn’t get killed. Then, the other night, somebody thought they saw a snake in the tiger lilies. The boys poked through it (shovel in hand) and used a flashlight to look, but didn’t see anything. THEN, today, the little kids called me out this morning to look at a bull snake that was on the driveway! It was sunning itself right across the driveway, blocking the kids’ path. Rase had a dried weed that was like a stick, and I kind of nudged the snake (we keep bull snakes since they eat rattlesnakes and are harmless). It flicked out its tongue, then slithered off. Snakes are weird…they are like liquid moving on the ground!

2. Mice. When Pi scratches at the screen door, that means she wants out. Now, this silly cat wants you to leave the door open. If you open it for her and she goes out and you shut the door, she scratches to come back in! Once she’s in, of course she wants right back out. So anyways, we let her out, and when she was gone somebody shut the screen door. Well, later on, she came back and scratched at the screen. I went to let her in, but she had a mouse in her mouth! So she couldn’t come in. Then, we get up this morning, and there was a purple laundry basket beside the lazyboy and in it was like…a mouse stomach or liver and a patch of blood! I think she was saving it for later! Sure enough, when Mom was eating breakfast, the cat came back and was sniffing at it like she wanted to eat it! Mom was thoroughly grossed out and had me go wash the laundry basket out!

3. Sick. Yesterday Abby had a fever and threw up on the couch. I shall…spare the details, other than it was very disgusting!!! If she has the same sickness I do, she’ll be sick for a few days! (Fever the first day, stomach pains and other bodily discomfort for at least four days…I’m on my fourth day.) Poor Abby!

4. Abby. Abby is funny. No duh, eh? Well, yesterday when she was feverish I sat in the lazyboy and had her on my lap and since I had the footrest up, Jay sat on that and we talked. So what if she’s two and he’s four, little kids are fun to talk to as well as big people! (And sometimes funnier!)
“When the baby is born, you’re going to be a big sister, Abby!” I said.
“Uh uh.” She wasn’t convinced!
“Yes, you are! You’re going to be the baby’s big sister, like I’m your big sister!”
“Like me!” Jay said.
I laughed. “No, you’re a big brother, Jay.”
“I can go on the tile and the kitchen because I’m big,” Jay said proudly.
Then a thought occurred to Abby. “If I’n a big sisser can I go in da kitchen and on the tile?” Smarty!

5. Barbecue. Yesterday we had hamburgers, and Eric barbecued them on the grill. Mmm they were good!! Our first barbecue of the summer! (And, also the first time we’ve had hamburgers two nights in a row!)

6. Tornado. Last evening there was a tornado watch until 11pm. Fortunately it didn’t come near us! We did see lightning over Shepard and the clouds forming a huge circle, which was weird!

7. Summer. Summer is most definitely here, for a week, at least! It’s been getting up in the 80’s and 90’s, although today is supposed to be cooler. We went swimming on Friday (we were going to on Thursday night, but I was feverish and the boys had to take wood to Kelly’s) and it was sooo nice!
Speaking of swimming, I should tell you about the logs. Every time we go to the lake, the boys (and sometimes some of the girls) go to the far end of the lake to get a log, which they bring back to directly in front of Mom, then jump off of it and float around on and stuff. Well, on Friday the three big boys, Beth, and I went across the lake to get a log. We found a suitable one, huge and forked, and embarked on our voyage back to the little bit of shore we had claimed. They asked if I wanted a ride so I said sure, and sat on it. Ben sat on the front to be the lookout and use a broken board for an oar; Beth had the flippers so she was in the crotch of the fork using the flippers (she was the engine), and Joe and Eric each had an end of the fork. After a while they all traded…Joe went in front, Ben and Beth in back, and Eric in the crotch.
Suddenly, Joe yelled out, “SICK!! Oh man, that is GROSS!! I felt something go between my toes and it wasn’t a fish!” He stuck his feet straight out in front of him.
We all laughed, then Ben yells, “GROSS!!! EW!! Something went between my feet and it wasn’t a fish!” He scrambled up on the log on all fours so his feet were out of the water too.
We all laughed and I put my feet on the log, so the only ones in the water actually were Eric and Beth! It was rather amusing. Eventually we all put our feet back in the water though!
To tell the truth, I’m always afraid of stuff bumping into my feet or nibbling my feet or stuff like that, even in the lake! If I was shipwrecked in the ocean, I think I’d die of fright thinking about creepy things under me!
Oh, and one more thing. All of us wore rather normal-looking clothes (shorts and t-shirts), but of course Joe had to make a statement…he has bright blue swim trunks in a funky pattern!

8. Music. Never fear, you who are waiting for our CD! It is forthcoming shortly. I know, I know, we always say that, don’t we? Well, it is truly almost done! Dad is mixing the music (the last step before burning it onto a CD) and will be done within the next couple weekends (I think)!

9. College. Beth’s starting college this week or next. Well…she’s going to be taking her recorder lessons there (from the same lady she has been taking them from) instead of at the lady’s house because she moved and she’s coming back here every week to teach.

10. Marriage. Beth says I should get married so she’d have something to post about on her blog! (Unfortunately, there’s nobody to get married to yet, that I know of!) Y’all remember the boys’ dreams that I have to marry a redhead guy who has guns and pickups? Well, a couple weeks ago us girls had a tea party with some friends of the girls’, and the oldest girl, Emily (who’s 17…she’s also Emily M.!), said they know a family with seven redheaded boys who like guns and have pickups! (One’s married, but that leaves six!) Maybe we should meet them! *snicker*

Well, that was a whole 10 things to be covered! Pictures of the boys’ camping trip are forthcoming, sometime soon! (Soon as in, whenever I remember to finish uploading them!)

The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (I’ve only read the story, mind you, not seen the movie) is very famous, and our own miniature The Birds has been happening all day. We’ve got these little birds–canaries, Mom said–who build their nests in the woodpile downstairs or in the eaves just outside this room, and what we think is the female has been flapping her wings, singing, and pecking at the windows all day. She came to the screen door, even, and people weren’t but four feet away! This morning she came and flew up between the open window to my left and the screen, and sat there looking at me for a minute. I have never been inspected by a bird like that! Wonder what she was thinking!

I’m a bad girl.

For being a young person, I have a horrible short-term memory. (Long-term isn’t too much better!) So, I always write myself notes…on pieces of paper that I put in my pocket, or on my hand. The bad thing about writing it on a piece of paper is because I fold it up and put it in my pocket and sometimes forget about it. On the other hand (pun intended) if I write it on my hand (the palm), sometimes it washes off before I remember to look at my hand and do whatever the note said! The other bad thing about writing on my hand is that somehow, in my sleep, the ink rubs off and gets everywhere. My cheek (I have a habit of putting my hands on my face while I’m sleeping!), my clothes/pajamas, the sheet or pillowcase (fortunately I use a dark blue pillowcase and sheets, the light blue sheet I had was very ink-spotted and stained!), my other hand, etc. So, I wake up looking like I have bruises on the sides of my head!

Abby came and sat on my lap earlier, and she saw the writing on my palm. Now, being two years old, writing on herself is strictly off-limits! So is writing on anybody else, or anything but paper.
“You co’red on your han?” she asked, her blue eyes wide.
“Uh huh.” How to explain this to a two-year-old? “I’m a bad girl and I colored on my hand.”
“You a bad girl?”
“Uh huh.”
Somebody passed by, and Abby told them, “Anne’s a bad girl, she co’red on her han!”

I just hate to think of what I’ll be like in 20 years! :-S

Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don’t have film!