trouble with toads

Well, Frogs actually. I just liked the alliteration.

Friday night I heard the croaking in the backyard. It was really loud and close to the house which led me to believe the little froggies had hopped their way onto the pool cover and gotten trapped. Our pool cover is a tarp that is weighed down on the edges with logs and cinder blocks because the fancy water weights thingys all popped shortly after we purchased them. Bummer.

Anyway...I went out to the pool with the net in an effort to rescue the frogs. There were FIVE of them! In my pool! I mean - ON my pool cover. Poor guys. Lured by the reflection of the moon and now stuck. But they probably didn't know it yet. They would when they tried to go home though. So I began my efforts to catch the frogs one at a time and transport them to what I thought would be a fabulous froggy place. A large puddle next to the pebble pile in the woods. Perfect.

I labored and felt like such a hero. I had to recapture some of them because they kept jumping off the net, so, yes...I touched them with my bare hand! Kind of freaky at first until my mental vision of 'fangy frog teeth' was replaced with more a more realistic 'no fangy frog teeth'. (I have limited experience with frogs...until we moved here.)

Now. Frog #4 was a little tricky. He kept swimming away. He was a big sucker too. I followed him around the pool until I stepped on the liner that happened to be pulled taut OVER THE STAIRS! In I went right on top of that frog. AND IT FREAKED ME OUT!!! Luckily, it was the shallow end stairs and I was able to grab onto the railing like a flailing crazy woman after a few seconds. But let me tell you - my heart was in my throat and I felt sick. If that had been the deep end with no railing to grab I'd have been a goner. Seriously. Bad News.

After I caught my breath and calmed my thumping heart I looked for frog #4. He was sitting right there on the cover. Like nothing had just happened. Or laughing at me. I couldn't tell if he was phased by it or not. I scooped him right up and plopped him with his three other friends and went back for the last one.

He was little, but I caught him with the ease of a professional who has been through a lot for the experience she has gained. He would not cooperate however and I ended up just leaving him in the grass near the edge of the woods because I remembered about the coyote I have seen a couple times running around. A wild coyote. Scary place I live, I tell ya.

I trudged back toward the house and see my lovely daughter standing on the deck. I guess she heard me scream when I fell in the pool. She was upstairs in her room reading. Bless her. Came to check on her momma.

Frogs "saved" (except for the whole coyote business - I didn't think of that), I went in and changed. Debating on whether to make this public or not. I decided not, but at the risk of much snickering and such, I did tell Brian.

But - I changed my mind about the public thing because guess who we saw last night in the pool?

ALL FIVE FROGS!

So the story had to be told. sigh. I have learned my lesson. What do I know about nature?! They were probably in there to escape the predatory snapping jaws of the coyote, eh? I left them alone and all but one were gone this morning. If that one is stuck that's okay. His friends will be back tonight and bring him a little supper I am sure. He may be a little more "jumpy" about fangs than his buddies. Har. Har.

,

be prepared

Yea! We finally have long term storage. There's rice back there too. It will be boring fare if we have only that to live on, but it's a start. We still have to get it to the basement. Wheat and beans are heavier than rice. The oats are the lightest. I helped the FedEx guy hand cart them up to the house from the street. It was a good workout.

I got some of those mylar water bags and box things and have been filling them up. Brian says we have our pool too, but...ick. I guess in an emergency.

I'm trying to work out a menu thingy to get the right stuff for my 3 month supply.

But, like, what if there is a MAJOR tornado that knocks out a sub-station and we don't have power for a month. That would wreck all my chicken and stuff in the frezer. I'd like to get a generator, but then you've got the problem of storing fuel. This is a lot of work.

I feel better now that that is here.

K- waiting for exciting happenings or thoughts to entertain. Until then you get Food Storage.

Maybe this will help:

My brother. The master Hula Hooper.

change of heart?

Finally...I can post something.

Oh, wait...Erin wants me to read her a book.

Let's see. It has been a while. Since I posted that is. We read books yesterday. And the day before. And the day before.

(Erin is repeating "Just click that button, Mom. The red one at the top. Click that button.")

I have some thoughts in this here head of mine, but nothing tremendously interesting has happened lately. Except for the snow on Sunday! My thoughts are about Blogger friends I have never met but feel like we are best buds and should meet for dinner. Is that wierd. It's wierd.

("Just click it mom! It's just up there. The one that looks like this." She drew a X on the table top.)

But this is the thing. We went to a few preschools this morning to check them out for next fall and, well, I got a little meloncholy. One more year until my baby is in Kindergarten. Then I am childless all day long. Excited - Yes. and no. Did I just say that? Going grocery shopping by myself would be great! And lonely. sigh. I...

("Mom. Now can we read a book?")

'Tis a short time the wee ones are mostly mine. Three are out there already. 15 minutes away! I may never know some of the things they hear or experience during their day. Something someone says may stick with them for life and it might not be from me.

K-No post today. At least not one with pictures. Or an appropriate song. All right, maybe I've got a song. I'll just quick pull it to the top for ya. I love this song. Why? Because.

Off to read some books.

in case you were hesitant to start watching because you were so far behind

Cally - if you never got around to watching your taped episodes - this'll catch you up right quick!

oh what fun

We had a STORM! With Tornadoes! Right close. Eeeeeek!

I actually had just gotten my freebie emergency alert radio in the mail a couple days before and hadn't even taken it out of the box yet, but when I realized the kiddos bus was already 15 minutes late and ventured a look-see out the window, I hurried and plugged that bad boy in!

Tornado's a comin'! Tornado's a comin'!!!

So I flipped on the TV and checked out the radar thingy. I watched it approaching and called Brian at work who said that everyone at the plant was shut into this one room (4,000 peeps!) and that his co-worker got a call from her son who goes to my kiddos school and rides a bus home. The kids are all waiting out the storm at the High School. At least they were together and hopefully putting their sibling rivalry aside to comfort/reassure one another. I really wanted them home though.

I called Julie up the road from me to make sure she knew, 'cause last time she was hanging out on her bed with a bowl of soup and a movie and barely made it to her bathroom when the tornado hit and blew out her bedroom window! Eeeeek! She knew.

Erin and I gathered up a bunch of snacks and flashlights and headed to the basement, where she promptly opened all the food by herself (she was very proud) and I promptly went to the window (duh) to see what was going on. It started to hail like CRAZY! It was awesome. And I can only say that because nothing bad happened. We only got the outside bit of it and no real damage done. I did find a shingle in the driveway today though. And Boy did it smell like pine! Loved it - 'cause nothing bad happened. Except Brian said it blew off three doors at the plant.

He's about 7 minutes away from home.

Here are some pictures.

Seriously. How cool does that look.

Except the landscaping. We still have a ton of work there.

I stuck my foot out there so you could see the size of the ice balls in relation to a size 8.

I just happened to have painted those little piggies the day before. I usually don't in the winter because I'm always wearing socks, but I felt I needed a little hidden color. Like a secret. The secret is out. oh well. It's just toes.

So goes the excitement of a Mormon girls 'wild' side.

Painted toenails in the winter...

accumulation of hail stones on the deck


Oooooo. Eerie. See the swing?


Don't look into the sun too long. You'll go blind.



do you love the music? Lord of the Rings. Riders of Rohan.
I am so ready to hunker down and watch that trilogy again. Start to finish. So good.

music and motivation

(FYI -I know some people don't like it when the music just starts and I know you are familiar with my blog so you have your speakers off OR you've already paused the music, which is not difficult because I have purposefully kept the player close to the top so it is easy to pause for those of you who are at work or don't like my music selections. I have to tell you, however, that for most (not all) of my posts I search for a coordinating song to make the reading a multi-sensory experience. Like, when I did that half-marathon and had "Chasing Pavement" by Adele on there! That was a quite clever pairing. I was pleased with myself on that one.)

I have been struggling with getting back into the swing of exercise. Ugh. Just not doing it. My excuse was that it was too cold. Even inside. Lucky me I live in the south now and on Monday it wasn't too cold anymore. So I put on my new 'slickdeals' runners, put in my headphones and headed out the door. As I was running along I was trying to decide WHAT IS MY MOTIVATION? As I began thinking about what would keep me out there week after week the song "Everything I Do" by Bryan Adams began playing in my ears (and can in yours too if you turn on the player to your left!) and I chuckled and sang aloud (in my head) to those things I had deemed

My Motivation:

Pants.

I bought these right after that stint of exercise for the HM. And now they are quite snug! Darn the yummy food/cold weather of the Christmas season!

Heart Health, of course...

I guess, chocolate in general, but that cookie sure looks good! And if you are exercising it gives you a little more leeway when it comes to treats. I like the treats.

The kiddos and the Hubs. Duh.

But, yeah. You know...the pants were running alongside me throughout the song. I was singing to the pants. "Look into my eyes, pants. Look into my eyes."

I want those pants comfy! No WAY I threw that $ away.

Music is fun. I LOVE it when the right song comes on at JUST the right moment.

Tra la la.

(Does that song give you butterflies? Remember? It's one of those 'brings back memories' songs.)

curtains anyone?

My Mom got me a new sewing machine for my birthday and I have been using it! My first curtain panel wasn't too great. So I was a little (a lot) discouraged (and cranky), but when my second panel turned out fabulously I felt a lot better. I lined them with this real life liner fabric. I have four more panels to sew for the little windows on the side. Yea! It's fun to make stuff that actually turns out well.

Isn't that fabric beautiful? I love looking at it. Now I just need to find some more awesome fabric and re-cover a love seat and chair and a half. I wonder if that is hard? I found some tutorials on-line that make it look not too tricky. But then again, the tutorial for these lined curtains said she could make a pair of panels in a night and it took me pretty much the whole day (-ish) to make one panel. Soooo...

AND it is pretty cold outside. BUT it is supposed to warm up to 62* by Saturday.

LOVE THE SOUTH!

Wanna see the curtains again?

K! Here you go: