Who knew?

Who knew that when I open my door at night to let the dogs out before bed that those pesky moths and other flying critters that like to try and get in my house would actually serve a purpose? Normally I would say that their sole purpose, besides just trying to survive in the game of life, even if it us just a bug's life, is to annoy me and tease my cats, but alas I have found a great purpose for them!

They are now mantis food!

That's right, I caught a little moth and fed it to our mantis. I stood outside with the lights on and held a jar up to the lights and watched all kinds of flying bugs enter into their doom. Well, not all of them. By the time I finally was able to get one that was substantial enough to take inside, a lot of others flew back out. But that's ok, there's always tonight, and tomorrow, and the next night...you get the idea. And yes, standing there with all those bugs flying at me was enough to make my mom crawl out of her skin!

But, it was so worth it when I got to watch the moth fly by Mr. Mantis and bite him, rip his head off and eat his body (he actually dropped the wings to the ground!) like it was corn on the cob. It was so cool that I'm gonna do it again. This time I'm going to try and video-tape it. Hey, this is science!

It's also an addiction.

At least it's better than my addiction to e-bay!

********UPDATE********
I did manage to get it on video! So cool!!!

********UPDATE #2********
I tried getting some more bugs tonight, but I wasn't enjoying the fact that they seemed to like me more than the light. So, I hope Mr. Mantis doesn't starve before I send Steve out to get some crickets. BTW, Zachary told me not to feed the mantis crickets "cause I like them". But it would have been ok if we fed him lightning bugs. WHAT???? They're cool bugs!

I can't help myself!

A couple pics from today. I thought they were too cute not too share. Most of my pictures I think are too cute not to share, I just don't have the room to share them all.

Also, I thought maybe if I put these pics of a certain someone's favorites, she may decide to come home, sooner rather than later. I hope it works...we miss you!

Just a few pics that I promised

Here's just a few of the many pictures I've taken over the last couple weeks. The one of Zachary is at the baseball game the other night. He said to me, in this position. take a picture of me. So here it is.


The ones of Eliana are at practice last week. She sat in the grass for the longest time.




And now for my little baseball player...He's so fast around the bases! He's missing the game tonight cause he chose to go to Pow-wow. So, his next game is next Friday. Here's a picture of him leaving 2nd base, one of him playing around short stop and the other is of him before his first game in is uniform. And yes, he is a south paw!


This is the newest addition to our family. My friend says we're going to have a zoo here. I hope she's right...I love having animals. But, as a homeschooling family, this is science! This little guy (or gal, have no idea what its gender is) is Mr. Mantis. I caught this baby praying mantis on Saturday when I was burying our electric fence. What a find this was! We've seen them grown up, but never as a baby. So, I bought a jar, added some sticks, ants, a little spider and made him a new home on my kitchen counter. I've since added a bunch more ants, another little spider and last night, a moth. The moth is still there. I had visions of him eating Mr. Mantis last night and if I woke up to a dead mantis, I was feeding the moth to one of the cats! How's that for revenge? LOL

What are we going to do???

I'm left with just 2 kids this weekend. Oh what to do??? Steve and Christian are going to Pow-wow, a 2 night camping trip with Royal Rangers. For dinner we're eating at the land of the golden arches and we'll get a free kiddie cone for Zachary. We'll snuggle in my bed and watch a movie while eating twizzlers and I just let him stay there when he falls asleep instead putting him up in the top bunk already asleep. During the day, I have no idea what we're doing. I'll leave that up to him. Tomorrow...well, I'll worry about that when it gets here. Of course, all this will depend on Her Royal Highness!

Mommy's Diary

Where do I start? I have a lot on my mind and I don't think I want it all out here.

First I ask you, am I wrong for not wanting my baby girl to crawl until she's 10 and walk when she's 20 and move out of my home when she's 50? She's my last, my only girl, I want this "season" to last a while longer, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Someone has a mind of her own! I can no longer put her on a blanket and know that when I leave the room for a minute she'll be there when I get back. This is just so upsetting! Why does she have to grow up????? For a month now she has been doing what we call the low crawl. While on her stomach, she'll stretch her arms out and pull her body. She does this all over the place. Well, she's now trying to master the art of crawling on all 4s. She gets on all 4s, can move her legs forward and her arms are almost there. In no time will she be even more mobile! One thing she's never done that the boys did was go backwards. The boys on the other hand never did the low crawl. And she is not satisfied to sit still either, she HAS to be moving! Why can't she be like the 2 babies that are 2 weeks younger than her. Neither one of them are in a hurry to get moving. They are super content to just lay there. Both of them have only turned over once. What am I doing wrong that mine doesn't want to lay there? And I can assure you, I've had many talks with her telling her to wait 9 1/2 more years before she crawls. WAIT...THAT'S IT!!! I figured out what I'm doing wrong. I'm telling her to WAIT. Everyone with kids knows that they don't do what you tell them. So, maybe I should try the reverse psychology. "Hurry up and crawl" and then she won't want to do anything. But then again, if she does listen to me about that, I'll have the horrible guilt of knowing that I was encouraging her. I can't win!

The boys are doing great. Christian is still in t-ball and doing AWESOME!!! Last night he played 1st base and he actually went and got the ball 3 times and tagged the base and got the runner out. He even got the ball and threw it home and got the runner out. He even got a homerun and passed 2 of the 3 runners on base. I know, normally he would have been out, but you know, I just don't have the heart to tell him to not do that. I think it's cute that he's so fast and passing everyone and LAUGHING as he's doing it! When he goes to coach pitch next year I'll make sure he knows that he can't pass the runner in front of him or he'll be out, but for now, they're playing for fun. I see so much of me in him when he's playing, some is great and some kind of scares me (like the "I have to win" attitude). To be honest though, it's hard for me to watch; one because when the coach isn't telling him something right, I want to jump in and fix it (I want him to learn correctly) and two, cause ball was my first love and I really miss playing! Steve has even had to tell me to calm down and be quiet and let the coach handle things. Not easy for this momma!

Zachary is just so sweet! When I think back to my pregnancy with him and remember that I said "he was supposed to be a girl" I have tremendous guilt. He's so loving and so affectionate and all around joy to be with! I feel bad for him though. I wants to play ball and do all the things that his big brother is doing, but he can't. I'm tired of everyone telling him he's "too young". Steve and Christian will be at Pow-Wow (camping with Royal Rangers) Friday through Sunday. I'm going to do something special with Zachary since he wants to go camping with daddy, but he's too young.

Also, this time 2 years ago I was preparing Vacation Bible School with Rob and Tami. Last year, they had just moved and we didn't do one. This year, I'm in charge of all the decorating, taking us to the arctic. I have mixed emotions about this. It's a challenge and I love being challenged but then I think about the last time I did this, I had Rob next to me all the way. We worked great together and right now, I'm just thinking about how I'm going to get through all this without Rob and Tami (and the kids!) Someday I hope to be living near them again and be working with them! In the meantime, I have to settle for being able to visit them when we go home to PA. Speaking of which, we're talking about going there for Christmas this year. Steve and I have been married 10 years and we've never spent Christmas with his family. By going out there, we'll get to see his entire family, my grandparents, aunt and uncle and Rob, Tami and kids! Plus, we can take a trip to DC and that could be a historical field trip! With our grandparents getting older, we want them to be able to meet Eliana and see the boys. So Rob and Tami, I'm hoping that we can get out there for Christmas and see you guys! Oh, and Rachel got engaged on May 26th and they plan on being married within a month!

Ok, so that's all for this edition of the craziness inside my head.

I have pictures but not the time to upload them, so that'll come at another time!