Creatures

Meet Katie's newest friend. Not another turtle. We have too many creatures already.




Cutest little baby frog. I don't know how she found it.


First night there Jesse comes in with the biggest frog I've ever seen.

Amy licks her lips in anticipation. Mmmm, frog legs!

And Jacob just chomps down on the head. Yuck!




Jacob's catch. He actually cooked and ate these tiny fish.

Lake Caddo

We decided to run away for Easter weekend. We found a great swamp house for rent and made the plans. Jacob drove up to spend the weekend with us too. We went to a place called Uncertain, TX and stayed on a river leading into Caddo Lake. The house we rented had canoes and was in an ideal location. The weather was perfect! Jesse hunted alligators both nights and found one each time. He was able to find the alligator because of his mating call. He is quite the alligator hunter. Fortunately, the alligator ran away and we didn't bring one home. In fact, he didn't get near this alligator. I stayed behind in the house just in case Jesse got crazy and I had to raise the kids alone. Luckily it his adventured didn't come to this morbid end, this time. He had the time of his life fishing, canoing, hunting creatures, etc., etc, etc. This was definitely a vacation for Jesse. Me... not so much. But I didn't get to relax and thanks to my absent-mindness, I didn't study the entire time. I took the wrong text book and couldn't work on my study guide. Oh well, life goes on.

The wisteria was in full bloom. It climbs up the trees and takes over. Beautiful to behold.


The trees grow in the water. It's very strange but fun to canoe through. It was like playing bumper cars with the trees trying to get the canoe through.

Meeting Baby Maggie

On our way to Lake Caddo we stopped in Tyler to visit Sam and Annette and meet their new baby girl. It was a lot of fun. What a beautiful little family.

Sheesh, I need a vacation!

It's been crazy around here. Every once in a while I hit a small window of time when there is not too much going on. The house starts staying cleaner, the meals are a little better quality, the laundry is folded and put away, and I'm getting decent sleep. And then.... Boom, it hits me and I am spiraling out of control again. It's mostly self-induced so I really shouldn't complain but when it's happening I just feel like I'm drowning. Lately has been that way around our house. Things always seem to hit us at once too. It can't be spread out over periods of time making life more manageable, it all has to happen at the same time. Crazy how that works. So here's an update on our happenings lately. (I use this blog for journaling, so bear with me).
Katie is doing great. Nothing new to report. Reading up a storm. She is preparing for Kindergarten graduation on May 19th. Yea!!! Weep:( I was a little worried when I found out the day and time because I start my externship on May 10th and I will be in a hospital M-W-F all summer long. We don't get to take time off or get vacation from this. I told Katie I didn't know what I was going to do. She said "That's okay Mom, you can go to my next Kindergarten graduation". I cried. Not a happy mom that day. But all is well. I talked to my supervisor and she said that it won't be a problem, especially letting them know at the very beginning and I will just make it up at the end of the summer. I was very relieved. I went back to school and decided I wanted a career for many reasons. One of those was so I didn't just waste away all day at home while the kids are in school. I had no intention of missing important moments of their lives though. Sometimes this truly is a challenge and I feel very pulled between my two worlds.
Jack's just being Jack. I don't have much to say because he doesn't really talk to me much. He went on his first scout campout last weekend. Jesse went with him. They had a lot of fun. He's also getting ready to register for Middle School. CRAZY!! I can't believe he's already this big. What am I gonna do???
Sydney didn't get into FWAFA (as I already reported) but I called and it turns out she's 5th on the waiting list and the woman I spoke with said she would not be surprised at all if she didn't get a call this summer. 5th is a great place to be. So we are hopeful. She just auditioned for the school musical and landed the lead female role. Yea!!! But we found out today she has to kiss a boy in the play. Ugh! Not good. She's not quite sure what she's going to do. Also, we finally allowed her to have her first boy friend. She's so excited. He's a very nice kid too. He came to dinner the other night per his request. She asked if he could have dinner with anyone in the world who would it be. He responded "you and your family". Smart boy. So we had him over for dinner Tuesday night. He was respectful from the moment he entered. Yes Ma'am, no sir, can I help with dinner, let me clear those plates, do you need help with the dishes? All night he was like this. I have to say, I am very proud of Sydney for choosing a nice boy. But it's also very hard to accept that she is getting to this stage.
That's all for now. I hope to have pictures from our upcoming trip to Caddo Lake. I'm so excited to go somewhere new.