One of the goals I set for myself this year is to be more fully present in life. To pay more attention to details, listen more when people talk, participate in life more. I am not perfect, and it is a work in progress, especially when I am tired. Every morning in the summer, I have a routine where I go outside, walk and talk on the phone with my friend Grace. After my walk, I usually get the pool up and running for the day, and then I have a few animal chores that I tend to. One thing I have started doing is feeding the birds, and I have found I like putting out bird food on my deck, so I can watch the birds come up for snacks. I stepped out the door yesterday, fed the birds, checked the hummingbird's water, and turned around to go back inside. That is when I realized that I had company! I have warned the kids 5000 times a day for the entire time we have lived here to watch their step, as we have many snakes, some of which are venomous. Clearly, I am not following my own advice! Luckily, this little fellow is a juvenile western rat snake....completely harmless. I was not 100% confident in my identification, and asked Jim to come have a look. As Jim is telling me to take a photo so we can scroll in on the head, he slithered under the door frame and disappeared between the door frame and the siding. I sincerely hope he can get out! I don't want any harm to come to a creature who is non-venomous! Not to mention, I just got rid of the terrible smell in my van, I do not care to have one start up in the house! :)
Might as well tell that story as well. About a month ago, I started smelling a horrible smell in my van. Despite cleaning it out, sprinkling baking soda, looking under the seats, and buying air fresheners, I could not find the source, nor could I get rid of it. Last week was our week to water the flowers at the fairgrounds, so Harper and I went in to take care of it. I forgot a bucket, so we found a couple of water bottles and were trying to make do, filling and carrying a couple back and forth. Harper then tells me that she thinks there is an old pack of water bottles in the trunk. My trunk is broken, and we have not been able to get it open since I came home from Louisiana in February. She climbed over the back seat, grabbed up the water bottle package, and underneath it was.......a box of the sausage links that Jim loves to eat for breakfast! She jumped out of the car, started running around the fairgrounds gagging and spitting and trying to not throw up. I said oh just reach in and grab the box and throw it away in this trash can! She flat refused, and was still gagging. So I climbed back there, with some difficulty, as I am not as small as a child, and got it out. I was also gagging and loudly saying "oh yuck....gross" except maybe in less G rated terms. I threw the box in the trash can that was nearby, and then used one of the bottles to wash my hands and I am trying to not throw up because it was really awful. That is when I look up, and realize there is a couple sitting on their front porch across the street, probably wondering what the actual heck we were doing! At least we got rid of it! :) I think the sausage is from the week we went to T-ball, then took the girls grocery shopping, and got feed for the animals. We had the back seats full, and threw some groceries over into the trunk that doesn't open. I think the water bottle package actually helped keep the smell somewhat contained. I don't know but I am happy to think it is better now! :) So gross. So, so embarrassing! Good thing I don't get down about stupid stuff that happens in our family!
We are getting close to ball season being over. Saige played in her last regular season game on Friday. Evie has one more game this week, and Harper would have played in her last regular season double header on Friday, but a storm blew through, and they had to reschedule the second game. Last night, Evelyn had a game and then Harper had the make-up game at a later time. I dropped off Saige at her practice, ran to watch Evie, and then drove over to Auburn for Harper's last game. Jim got there early, and got to get in a few baby snuggles before hand. (I was jealous). Evelyn has grown up so much in the past few months! She loves t-ball, and I think has learned a few things too! She also knows to hit us up for concessions! :)
Harper's team lost in a hard fought game. It got a little bit insane, as the Auburn coach was pulling every trick in the book. At one point, he was killing time by switching pitchers after every batter (not exaggerating). It was a little ridiculous. Quite a few of our parents were upset, but I was neither upset nor surprised. Jim and I have been raising kids for a very long time. We knew the guy from him coaching previously, and nothing about all the shenanigans was surprising to us. I did get a couple of good laughs in - at one point I literally heard their coach yell out "you guys are using the rules to your advantage!" Uhhhh what now? And we have a guy who comes regularly to watch his granddaughter. He has zero filter. At one point, their coach became frustrated and yelled out an F bomb. The granddad pointed and loudly reprimanded him "as there are children present!" As if he never said anything similar or worse! Truly ironic.
And all I want to do is sneak over to rock and stare at this little beautiful baby girl! I was teasing Madison about maybe moving back into our basement so I had better access to the baby! I don't think she liked the idea, but I am going to talk to Andrew about it! :)
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