So that I don't leave you with the impression that I look ridiculous ALL of the time...

Here's a picture from the night Chris took me to Molly's Landing to celebrate my birthday. Ok, it does happen that in this picture, I am hugging the little wire guy who was hanging onto our wine for us while we weren't using it. But in the other picture Chris took of me, I have a terribly silly look on my face. So it had to be the one of me hugging the wine guy. Alright, you win, I do look ridiculous all of the time.

Don't blame me, it's his fault. He told me to do it!

Lots of pictures of Scout Camp

Scout camp began on a wet, unseasonably cool morning. It was the morning of my birthday, in fact. The opening ceremonies were a little damp. Chris had taken Monday and Tuesday off work to be with Gabe, and my scheduled unexpectedly cleared for Monday, so I went along.

Forgive me for posting this terrible picture of myself. It was cold. Gabe wasn't using his poncho, and since I don't own one, I thought I might as well put his to good use. I now know that a grown woman in a Spiderman poncho draws a lot of strange looks.

Here is our pack's flag, as drawn by the boys.

Despite the wet weather, activities continued as normal. Here are Gabe and Chris at the bb gun range. Have I mentioned that my son is quite the sharp shooter? So if you ever get pinged in the bum with a bb and he tries to convince you that it was an accident, do NOT believe him. He has a marksmanship patch that states otherwise.

Toward afternoon on the first day, the sun came out. Here are the boys, practicing for the flag ceremony. Our pack was in charge of closing ceremonies on Thursday, and the boys worked hard to get it just right.

Here's Gabe, receiving a bullseye bead at the bb range.

Here, he's learning to make ice cream!

On Thursday, I went with Gabe while Timothy was at preschool. This is the woodworking station, where Gabe built a bug catcher.

I love the look of intense concentration: "Do NOT hit thumb with hammer. Do NOT hit thumb with hammer. Do NOT..."

Here are Logan and Gabe, carrying the pack flag.

Closing ceremony on Thursday. Gabe is toward the back of the line.

Tying off the flag lowering ropes.

Gabe's job in the ceremony was to lower the Oklahoma flag. He did a fantastic job. These pictures are all out of order, but I can't be bothered to fix it. You'll just have to scroll through backward or something.

Archery, another type of marksmanship at which Gabe excels. We think it's interesting that he is left handed, but can shoot equally well with both hands.

A game of human checkers.

Everyone had a lovely time, and two days of rain did very little to dampen the boys' spirits. It did create an astounding amount of filthy laundry. But that's to be expected, I suppose!

100th Post Quandry...

I haven't posted anything these last few days because this is my 100th post, and I wanted it to be special. I've thought long and hard about my options. I've seen lots of people do 100 facts about themselves to celebrate their 100th blog. That was my original plan...but then I realized that I have children who tend to run amok when I'm distracted, and that it would take me far too long to think up 100 interesting things about me. No telling what could happen in that amount of time! Next, I thought I might go back through my pictures and pull some of my favorites. It turns out that I have a LOT of favorite pictures. I just couldn't narrow it down. Then I thought I'd do something sweet and sentimental. Hahahahahahaha, I'm just kidding. Finally, I overheard a conversation taking place in my back yard yesterday, and I just knew it was the perfect post for this momentous occasion. It was between my eldest son and his buddy from next door. It perfectly represents life as I know it. Here it is:

Gabe's friend: "I have to pee. Are we allowed to pee out here?"
Gabe: "Yeah, sure."
Gabe's friend: "Where should I do it?"
Gabe: "Anywhere you want."
Gabe's friend: "Are you sure your mom won't care?"
Gabe: "Nah, she lets the dog pee out here all the time!"

I didn't intervene, in case you were wondering. I probably should have, but there are some things best left alone. Some points best left unpondered. Like why I found a single, cooked black bean in the shower this morning. I've just resigned myself to not having all the answers all the time.

More summer pictures

A few weekends ago, we went to a fly fishing seminar at the park. Chris and I learned to fly fish in Montana two summers back, and we have our own rod, but we don't get to do it much, because, you know, we have children. Since the park thing was A) Free B) On a Saturday and C) Free, we decided we had nothing to lose and took the kids along. First, we learned to tie our own flies. It was really pretty fun, and not as hard as I thought it would be. I guess all the knitting and crocheting has made my fingers nimble. Then, we went down to the pond to try out our new flies. Hey, look, I'm on my blog! I am not actually a hunchback. Apparently, I just impersonate one when I cast a fly rod.

The hardest part was not hooking errant kids on the back cast. Since Chris and I only have one rod and reel, we took turns keeping the kids out of harm's way.

It was also challenging to keep the ducks and geese out of harm's way, harm's way being Timothy. He really wanted to pet them. Oddly enough, they really didn't want to be petted.

I call this one "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn". I have not the mad photography and editing skills that some of you have, so I apologize for the quality.

Gabe is becoming quite the fisherman. His Pawpaw will be proud!

Not a keeper, but quite a cute little bluegill. He posed for one quick picture, then we quickly sent him back into the pond to tell his fellow fish about his adventures. He must've done a good job of it, because he was the only catch of the day. Unless you count that one slow duck that Timothy caught. He didn't need those tail feathers anyway.

Bank of America Night at Driller Stadium

What is summer without baseball? We attended Bank of America night at Driller Stadium again this year, although this year it didn't coincide with Scout Night. The kids were really only interested in the food and the fireworks. Unfortunately for those of us who had to keep the kids entertained, between the food and the fireworks lie nine looooooong innings!

Timothy is a big fan of the two-fisted hot dog eating method.

Gabe is more a burger kind of guy.

Chris will eat anything, provided it is unfortunate enough to linger on his plate long enough. Between this and the video of him on the slip 'n slide, I maybe needing a place to sleep tonight.

'Cause it's ONE, TWO, THREE strikes you're out! Gabe kept heckling the wrong team. We should probably provide some baseball background before we attend any more games!

A rare moment of attentiveness. Either that or he was practicing his gymnastics skills!

Mr. Personality

Let us take a moment to consider my youngest son. He is full of surprises. Some of them are cute and funny surprises. Occasionally, they are NOT. I didn't, for instance, fail to enjoy the shouts from the bathroom recently of, "Oh, no!!! Timofee peed ALL OVER THE PLACE!" Yes, we are still potty training. No, I am not yet winning. At any rate, the surprises are more often funny than not. Here he is, fresh from the shower, and wearing Mr. Potato Head's spectacles.

Here, I believe he was supposed to be cleaning up his toys. For the record, I told him to put his toys in the bin, not his tush.

I'm fairly certain that there's a pull-up somewhere on his person. I'm not making any promises, though.

Finally, even though Timothy is not in this picture, he was the cause of it. Moses was sitting innocently on the table (alright, to be perfectly honest, Moses is rarely ever innocent) when Timothy decided he needed to be encompassed in videos. Look, Ma, a fortified kitty!

If any of you are feeling down, I'd like to offer you the use of Timothy for a day. My hourly rates are very reasonable, and I guarantee results. If you are not fully happy to see me arrive to pick him up at the end of the day, I will happily refund your money!

My cats are strange

The following pictures are NOT an example of excellent photography. They ARE, however, an example of trying to catch something on film without startling the subject of the picture into...dropping his ear of corn. It was Father's Day. We had played on the slip 'n slide (and by "we", I mean NOT me), we had cooked on the grill. We were sitting in the living room relaxing. Then we noticed that Moses was behaving in a peculiar manner. He was slinking around the coffee table, looking suspiciously like a cat about to steal someone's dinner. Since dinner was over and done, we waited to see what would happen. He circled the coffee table for several minutes. Then, when he was fairly sure no one was paying any attention to him, he stood up on his hind feet and began gnawing on the corn cob on my plate. There was no corn left, mind you, but he didn't let a little thing like that stop him.

Eventually, he decided it would be best to pull the whole thing off the table, so as to get a better grip on the cob.

Meanie was feeling left out, so he decided to try some corn, too. If he had started the whole thing, it would've been less surprising, since Meanie appears to think he is a cow. Every time the front door opens, he darts out and sits on the front steps to eat some grass. He won't go any further than the steps, but he doesn't feel his day is complete unless he's grazed.

It's rather irritating if you happen to be in a hurry, because you have to stop and retrieve a cat every single time the front door opens. But let's get back to the question at hand: Why are my cats eating corn on the cob???

Here's some video of it. Because I finally figured out how to put video on a blog!