The Goodrums

Speaking of kiddo music memories, here's another great one:

Bullfrogs and Butterflies
Bullfrogs and butterflies
They've both been born again
Bullfrogs and butterflies
They've both been born again
(repeat)

Old tadpole in a fishing hole
He couldn't croak or jump to save his soul
But then one day - the funniest thing
He started growing, turning green
...

If you have some time on your hands and you're a member of the Brashares family, you can take a major trip down memory lane by listening to clips from the whole album. Michael was rolling his eyes the whole time I was playing the clips.

Monday afternoon, a giant bullfrog paid me a visit on my daily trip to the mailbox. Dude was probably 4 inches wide and 5 to 6 inches long. I have no idea what he was doing in the middle of the neighborhood. There aren't exactly a lot of wetlands around here. Here's a couple pictures for fun.















Next to the fencepost for perspective
He's more than a fencepost long.














Hop hop











Hiding in the rocks




















Cool photoshopped version

I had an exciting visitor over lunch today. This guy was in the street at the end of our driveway and hanging out in the neighbor's yard.















Domo arigato, Mr. Coyoto















The Call of the Wild
Coyote at the end of the driveway

The garage was actually wide open during this entire incident. I was worried that the coyote was going to take up residence in there. The trash can was blocking the garage door - so it wouldn't close (without me going out and moving the trash can). As soon as the coyote left, I definitely shut the garage door.

And yes, these pictures were taken on my camera - not downloaded from the internet. :)

Update: To help allay my concerns following this incident, Michael sent me this link. Thanks, honey! ;)

I guess I really shouldn't complain, though. It could be worse. I could be dealing with Kelly's new pet.

After a very, very busy start to this week, Michael left Jackson this morning to head to Boston. He is driving the Jeep to Oklahoma City (where it will camp out for the next few months in my parents' garage). He gets to spend part of the weekend with my family - my little sisters and crew will be in town. On Saturday, he will fly from Oklahoma City to Boston. I am staying in Jackson through closing and then driving to Boston to meet him.

The friendly deer that frequent our backyard must have known that I might need a little company today - because they paid me a visit over lunch. There are a mom and two babies. The little ones are much braver now. One came up within two feet of our back door. I'm going to miss our little friends. Here are a few pictures.




















Brave little one















Grass after rain - so appetizing















The two little guys
They were having so much fun playing with each other.















Mama grazing in the woods behind our house
















The whole family
It's almost another where's Waldo (there really are three of them hidden away in the picture).

I hate these things!

Call them what you will - Mosquito Hawks, Crane Flies, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck.

While harmless, they are so darn annoying - sometimes I think they are more annoying than their biting, obnoxious cousins the real mosquito. And they have to be the dumbest creatures on earth. The fly around aimlessly and keep running into things.

These little creatures have become my most current pet peeve (quickly becoming the bane of my existence!). They congregate outside our front door - and anytime you open it (or any other door to our house for that matter) they all come swarming in - bumping against any light they can find. Unfortunately that is usually the light over the kitchen table - so they always end up in your food. We have hundreds of them dead on our garage floor. Stupid things - just stay outside!

Michael - being the nature-kind person that he is - like to save bugs. If he finds a spider or cricket or mosquito hawk in the house, he likes to catch it and put it back outside. I tried to warn him but he insisted on trying that with a mosquito hawk when we first moved in. He saved one and then we had to kill the eight more that came in when he opened the door to let the first guy out. My theory is that if there is a bug in my house... IT DIES. If it's outside, I will generally leave it alone. Bugs outside. People inside.

Last night I had the most horrible experience. Michael and I had finished dinner and were sitting at the table talking. I had been sipping my water, not really paying attention. All of the sudden I looked down as I was about to take a sip of water and there was this HUGE mosquito hawk that filled up the entire top half of my glass (floating upside down in my water nonetheless). I almost lost my dinner. ... and so began my vendetta against Mosquito Hawks. Michael is at Lowe's right now - and I added Mosquito Hawk killer to his shopping list.

If anyone has any good tips on how to keep these guys outside - via widespread genocide (aka bug spray) or any other ingenious strategies, let us know. I don't mind them in the yard - but I don't want them coming inside everytime I open the door. Pesticides it will be unless I find a better solution - and SOON.