I should be cleaning my bathroom

Grace and I found a tiny baby robin underneath the slide at the park at the end of our street yesterday. He looked healthy but very small and didn't move very quickly. We quickly ascertained that leaving a slow moving baby robin underneath a slide in a park would be to its detriment, so we brought him home to our garden.

He snuggled right into my hand without a fight, looking around and occasionally chirping while Grace and I walked home. When we came home, Abby quickly found some earthworms which our little robin nibbled from her hand. He hopped around some, and when I checked on him a while later, he was gone. I think he'll be a success story; at least I prayed that God would watch over him, and I thanked Him for the opportunity to witness His creation up close.

We also have a huge caterpillar nibbling away at a Missouri primrose in our garden. We're hoping for the chance to watch the chrysalis stage. He's so large and fat, it can't be too far away; and that Missouri primrose was one we had tried to dig up and transfer - so, bon appetit!

I love summer.

The third of July

Today was the day of THE BIG TENNIS TOURNAMENT that always caps off about six weeks of lessons and play dates for Abby and Emma. We had a great time. I love tennis tournaments, especially on a beautiful day like today. I don't think it ever got out of the 70's (if so, not by much), and it's all about the time outside with friends and snacks and some tennis.

Now the pre-fourth of July (as in the 3rd) celebration is in full-swing outside our open windows. It is 10:10 p.m., and my children are "trying" to go to sleep with all of the boom-hiss-screech-light show beckoning them to the window, while I remind them that the big party is tomorrow and late night tomorrow will be more difficult after a late one tonight.

I don't think my logical reasoning is terribly convincing.

On Fish Tacos and Exterminators

First of all, I have to share one of our favorite family dinners with you. It is sooo easy and sooo yummy and pleases, get this, every single member of our family! That in itself is such a rare occurrence that I felt obligated to spread the news.

The award-winning dinner I'm referring to is (drum roll please)...

FISH TACOS

The original idea and inspiration comes from Brian and Melanie (Greg's brother and sister-in-law), but I'm pretty sure I remember theirs having a bit more of a gourmet touch. Here is what our version has evolved into:

FISH TACOS

1 box of inexpensive fish sticks (of course, you can feel free to get expensive ones if you'd like, but the point is: fish sticks - it's all about the crunch). Make sure there are enough for about three per taco.

flour tortillas

small grape tomatoes, cut in half or quarters

coleslaw (we buy the shreds and use T. Marzetti's original slaw dressing)

Colby jack cheese, shredded

fresh cilantro

chipotle Tabasco sauce - it's awesome and on the mild side

Throw everything inside the tortillas and enjoy! Make sure you heat the fish sticks according to package directions first - forgot to mention that part.

O.K., on to exterminators...

When we first moved here to Hesston, we had the disturbing experience of finding and killing about 11 yucky, scary, brown spiders a day. They were everywhere inside our new house, and we were a little creeped out about the potential of them being brown recluse spiders. We did some online checking and became even more panicky as we read "Brown recluse spiders, otherwise known as common Kansas house spiders,..." right there on the Internet. Yikes!

That started our first ever relationship with AN EXTERMINATOR. This man is very nice, and we are so thankful that he comes every three months to rid our house of anything that might attract brown recluse spiders. You can't actually kill them very effectively, but the point is to get their prey. We found out that we had a "hatch" of spiders that had been eggs in our basement as our house was being built. The good news is that they were harmless wolf spiders and not brown recluse spiders, but they're still icky.

All that to say, even though our exterminator is a very nice man, I REALLY REALLY don't like it when he comes to our house. Actually, I wouldn't mind a bit, as long as I was NEVER here when he came. As long as this man never ever put my face together with my house, I would be just fine with him coming over every three months. The problem is that he usually calls the day before to make sure someone can let him in, and then he comes in and chats in a very friendly way while he is opening every deep dark secret door of my house.

It is so terribly invasive, I always find myself explaining why certain closets are the way they are and why my STORAGE ROOM is what it is with some lame "in the process of organizing excuse" only to find myself caught off guard with the next visit and everything pretty much the way it was three months before. I then feel like a failure the entire rest of the day. The last couple of times, I have actually tried to make sure Greg would have to be the one to let him in because we're running errands or something, just to preserve my emotional health.

Anyway, he came yesterday. Greg let him in; we were at violin lessons.

High Hopes

Well, I had high hopes of writing a profound blog post this evening... BUT I ended up writing a long email to a friend instead. And you know, that was exactly what I needed to do, so I don't actually feel guilty about it. I will, however, try to share something on the more profound side of things here soon, I hope.

The most pressing thing I need to share at the moment is that my calves are absolutely killing me. In light of my poor husband's recent awful back pain that came upon him for no apparent reason, my terrible calf pain is the direct result of my own stupidity. AND the result of a HORRIBLE MACHINE called the "elliptical".

I'm used to: easy to moderate outdoor jogs of about 2 miles. I paid for this clever "workout while you wait" option while Grace took her very first round of swimming lessons over the past two weeks that was really a very good deal. The idea is to watch them swim through the big window while you're using the exercise equipment, and I am all about killing two or more birds with one time slot (actually I was ALSO learning wonderful decorating techniques while I watched HGTV and Grace, of course).

I thought to myself, "Why don't you change up your routine a little, Kelly? You always get to run outside; you could get a little cross training in, instead of just running on the treadmill." So because I am so brilliant, I acted upon my good idea and used the elliptical machine for about the same amount of time I usually run.

Now, I cannot even shave my legs without wincing. I'm never doing that again.

Long Overdue

Summer has come in with a flurry of FUN, so here is my long overdue Texas vacation recap in pictures:

Feeding the ducks in Boerne

The girls and Grandma and Papa

Mama Ann and Pampa (my mom's parents) the wonderful woman who gave me my red hair!! My color will be joining yours in no time, Mama Ann!

The infamous first BEST TALENTS EVER show including the Clayworths, Holmes, and Stevensons. We have the whole thing on DVD; only VERY close family (the kind who have to love you no matter what) will ever get to see it.

SEA WORLD!!

Paddle-boating on the Guadalupe

and fishing

and catching geckos with cousin Melanie

Not to mention the amazing barbecue and fried catfish we devoured throughout the trip. And our anniversary gift to each other of a one night's stay in Austin (the capitol city of fun and culture and cuisine) was wonderful! We took the girls on their first tour of the U.T. Austin campus and then sent them away with Grandma and Papa. Pretty fun to be on our old stompin' ground, where we met, dated, and spent our first year and a half of marriage.

We don't feel old enough for fifteen years... Maybe we'll still be saying that at 30.

Really There

Somewhere around 3:00 a.m. last night, I heard Grace calling me. I stumbled into her room as I once again heard a panicky "MOMMY!?" She was sitting straight up in bed looking scared. I put my arm around her back and said, "Here I am, Sweetie. What's the matter?"

She looked at me and reached out her hand to touch my arm. She ran her hand down my arm, sleepily smiled, and laid down again, eyes closed, contented expression on her face. She fell right back to sleep.

I went back to bed and laid there for awhile thinking about what a privilege it is to "be there." With all of our wacky vacation sleeping for two weeks, Grace was disoriented and just needed to know I was there. My heart was full as I contemplated how often I long for that exact fulfillment from my Heavenly Father. I have His promises, but sometimes I don't know where I am or where He is, sometimes I'm scared and confused and disoriented, sometimes I just need to reach my hand out and feel His Presence, just know He's REALLY there, that's all.

temporary blog post flunkie

So I've been a temporary blog post flunkie; I've been on vacation. We are home; we had a fabulous time; I'm currently doing laundry and trying to find myself again. More to come...