Life on Courtney Lane.........

Oct. 21, 2008 - Going Batty!!!

This afternoon Timothy comes downstairs and tells me that the mouse is in the bathroom.

Two days ago..........

Tyler wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks he sees a mouse. Two of the other kids comfirm this. They've seen it in the upstairs bathroom. "Oh, please don't tell me that!" I'm thinking. Mice are so evasive. We haven't had a mouse in the house in four years.

Yesterday.........

Another confirmed mouse sighting. I decided I would go this week to get some traps at the store.

Today............

Timothy tells me that the mouse is in the bathroom. I said, "Is it in there right now?" He says yes, and I think that's odd because mice tend to scurry away when detected. "I better go investigate this", I say. So, I went upstairs and Timothy shows me that the mouse is on the wall vent. Hmmm. How would a mouse get on the outside of that wall vent and stay there so still and not moving? I walk over to the mouse thinking that it must somehow be dead and rigormortised to the vent. After closer examination I realize that indeed it is not a dead mouse, but a bat! I was a little freaked out because we've never had a bat in the house. I wasn't sure how to get it out and I didn't want to risk getting bitten. And,the kids sure weren't volunteering!

Brooke let me know that she'd seen it last night and it flew by her head. I knew she'd come and told me about seeing a mouse, but she never mentioned that it flew. So, I asked her why she hadn't mentioned that little bit of information last night and she says, "Well, I thought mice flew sometimes." No, sweetie, not usually............

I didn't know how it would react. Would it go bonkers like a caught squirrel? Would it lash at me with it's vampire fangs? I put on a pair of winter gloves and a pair of latex cleaning gloves over those. Then I walked over and very carefully picked it up off the vent and walked outside. The little thing just sat trembling on my hand. It was so incredibly cute! We talked to it and stroked it and tried to feed it banana for about 15 minutes. Then, it decided to stop socializing and spread it's wings and flew off. The kids wished we could have kept it as a pet. Tristan suggested we could have made a cage for it. I agreed that if a bat ever gets stuck in our upstairs bathroom again, that we would make a cage and keep it for a while.

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Sep. 13, 2008 - Tae Kwon Do mini tournament

The four oldest kids were in a Tae kwon do tournament this morning. It was very last minute that we decided to go ahead and let them participate (their instructor had called us and asked if they could) and they were a little nervouse since we hadn't been in five months. Timothy and Bethany only did the sparring event, Tyler did sparring and weapon's form, and Brittany did sparring, weapon's form, and regular forms. Of course, they had nothing to worry about- they all did great. But, of course, I am a proud mama who would say that anyway. :)

Bethany took 2nd place in sparring. I couldn't seem to get one of her facing me. She's the black belt.

Timothy took second place in sparring, also. He creamed the kid from the first round, but then his best friend creamed him in the second round! I don't think Timothy was too upset, though! (Timothy is facing the camera.)

Tyler took first place in sparring and in weapon's form. Tyler is wielding his numchuks. (I'm not even sure how to spell "numchuks".) Tyler is in the blue top. That means he is a junior instructor under the age of 12.

Brittany took first place in forms. She was competing against four 3rd degree black belts who are all older than her, and she nailed them in all. However, the tide turned in weapon's form. She did fine, but had only been practicing numchuks for less than two months before we stopped going. The other girls had double numchuks and she only had single. So, she placed third out of five. And, for the first time in a tournament she didn't place at all in sparring. She was up against the 3rd degrees again, and although she earned two points for kicking the opponent in the head, the other girl got to five points first. Brittany is in the red top-that means she's a junior instructor over the age of 12.

A red-headed spectator.

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Jun. 24, 2008 - Daufuskie Island

We went along with my husband to Daufuskie Island for the summer regional meeting for Edward Jones. We had an AWESOME time! We left on Thursday to drive down, it took abou three hours. You have to catch the ferry over from Hilton Head Island, and the ferry ride lasts an hour. Well, we did not crash in with the sharks, nor did we have to wear our "life coats". Whew! We finally got to the resort Thursday around two and checked in. We weren't sure what to expect because we didn't have any room information or anything, and when we got our room we were totally shocked. They had upgraded us to one of their new villas. It was amazing. There was a king sized bedroom with a huge bathroom and jacuzzi tub/seperate shower, another bedroom with 2 full beds, a fully stocked kitchen with washer/dryer and living room with large flat screen Tv and pull out sofa bed.

My dream bathroom.........

We had a couple of meetings to go to the first night, and the kids went to the children's program. We had a nice catered dinner and afterwards the kids couldn't wait to get into the ocean.

Friday morning there was another meeting, we had a nice catered breakfast all three days and David wasn't done until noon, so we just hung out at the villa and enjoyed the beautiful golf course view from the screened in porch.

Friday afternoon we went down to the beach at low tide and found some nice shells, and stepped on quite a few Horse shoe crabs. Ouch! So, we went to swim in the pool instead. We had a nice Italian themed dinner that evening.

Saturday, David was in meetings til noon, so the kids and I went down to the beach again at high tide this time. That afternoon we decided to go do a little exploring in the golf carts we were provided. After we left the villa, it started to pour down rain. Our friend, who had gone exploring earlier, took us down some dirt trails. We were totally off roading and mudslinging in our little golf carts in the middle of the woods in the pouring rain. It was totally just like a scene right out of Jurassic Park, even down to the arrows on the posts to point the way. (It was the trails to the spa.) My older son was even in the back of the cart like the guy with the broken leg. It was hilarious. Our cart ran out of battery, so we had to call a shuttle to take us back. We had a blast.

That evening the kids had a pizza party and David and I went to the awards dinner. We had a nice surf and turf meal and David got a total of four awards. We have a really neat (and fun) bunch of folks in our region.

Sunday afternoon we had to get back on the ferry at 1:15, so the kids and I did some more golf cart exploring while David stayed behind with Thomas who was napping. We went back down the dirt trails, much less Jurassic-like when it wasn't raining. We stopped at another small beach to find some more shells. And I just loved this purple house. There were quite a few multi-million dollar homes, belonging to obviously the rich and famous. It would have been neat to find out exactly who.

"Jurassic Lane"

Hurry! Run!

On the return ferry.......

On the ride home.........

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May. 3, 2008 - Horse back riding........

The girls were invited to a birthday at a farm in Lexington. They had a blast. They got to horseback ride, each getting three turns for a total of probably 15-20 minutes of riding. We all got to go on a hayride and Farmer Mike let each of the kids take a turn driving the tractor. Then afterwards, he showed them all the animals. There were different types of birds, a sheep, pigs, goats, a llama and a bull. They also got to hold some chicks and bunnies. The two little girls were very reluctant to get on the horse at first, since they've never been on a horse before. But, after they finished their first ride Brooke said, "Can we get a horse?"

I remember having chickens, a cow and goats, the baby of which I named "Sassafrass", when I was a kid. I have such fond memories of that. I would love to have that for my kids as well, so that is our dream for the future- having land, a big house and animals. We've never even owned a pet since we've been married. So, one day we'd love to have the whole nine yards-literally.