Update

Hello again! It has been a very long couple of weeks! We are now fully into the new house. I will have pictures up soon ... I hope. I wanted to document a couple of events even though I didn't have the camera with me.

Robert got to go fishing a couple of days ago with Ed (thanks again Ed!). He came back with one fish (about 8 inches long) which Ed obligingly cleaned for him after I informed both of them that I was NOT cleaning fish under any circumstances. Josh came into the picture just after the cleaning while I was inspecting the headless (and gutless) body and complimenting Robert. The conversation went something like this:
Josh: Mommy, is that a fishy?
Me: Yes it is
Josh: I don't like fishies
Me: Yes you do, you love them.
Josh: Are we going to put in the water?
Me: No, we're going to put them in our tummies.
Josh: They can't swim there! I want fruit snacks.

Don't ask me what the connection between fruit snacks and the fish are, but Josh looked in the fridge every couple of hours to see if the fish was still there and to ask for fruit snacks.

Today we restarted our Canebrake Thursday ... going to get the horse poop, as Josh likes to say. This time, I took the horses out of their pens so that all of the kids could help. Josh and Ben were so excited! Ben spent more time running through the piles of the freshest (and greenest) horse apples he could find. Josh, on the other hand, really wanted to help. I finally got him a rake and he picked up more poop that Robert initially (he ran out of enthusiasm after the second pen, so Robert came out on top of that contest). Ginny ran around coaxing the horses to come to the edge of the pen and the swatting them on the nose when they got there. I'm not sure what charm she was using because the silly horses kepy coming back for more ... but it kept her entertained for a solid hour (I kid you not!).

The kids are really enjoying the new house ... and trying to see how fast they can find new things to destroy. I can't wait until we can get a fence in so that they can run a bit without my having to run after them! Robert is loving the tree - and he has found that under the house is fun too. He had a friend sleep over last night and I let them sleep on the back porch. It would have been fine except that our bedroom window is right next to the porch (we only had to tell them to be quiet a couple of times). Robert decided to set his alarm clock for 1:00 am - not because he had any intention of getting up, but because then he could tell himself that he had 5 more house to sleep. Please let me know if any of you actually follow that logic. What actually happened, however, was that the alarm went off and went off and went off and went off until Byron got up and killed it (killed the alarm, not the boys although he might have been tempted - I know I was). The boys, of course, slept right through it ... I'm still trying to follow the logic.

Byron is doing well in school and I am still doing well as the official "study buddy" (Byron prophesied before school started that we would end up strangling each other). In fact, he has taken to heart one of the first lessons and is trying to develop his sense of humor. He even remembered and passed on a couple of Viagra jokes at dinner with the Tuckers. That has to be the first time in our entire marriage that I have heard him tell a joke on any topic. The jokes were pretty good (you'll have to ask him for them - he needs the practice). He then managed to inadvertenty top himself by referring to event as his contribution to the "stimulating" conversation ...

In other news, I have decided to swear off moving for good. This move has all but killed me. I have also decided to blame it on the kids rather than, as my mother suggested, old age ... kids are convenient scape goats that way (right Mom?). Now I am trying to get that 900 page book I mentioned read. The problem is that I stop so often to follow a tangent on paper ... a great thing for studying ... that I haven't gotten as far as I need to. So, now I am trying to just read. It is really frustrating and I wish I could just speak my thoughts out loud as I read and have they somehow simultaneously appear in note format. The class in is less than two weeks and the clock is ticking. I am slightly intimidated by not having been in a class like this before and I don't really know what to expect. I only know that I need to be prepared to discuss the book in general and roughly 2.5 minutes of a specific area of interest ... presumably with outside resources if I really want to impress. Well, back to it. I'll get the virtual house tour up soon!