Here are some photos from the second half of May.
Miss Bailey (Favorite)
My old swim suit :)
This is really hard to see, but this is Andrew's first attempts at writing. I will dedicate a whole post to his "learning time". He wrote "CAT'' in blue and "FAN'' in orange on the left side. His letter A looks like an H in these photos (he as since corrected it and looks like a real A now)
Ok, here's the fun story of the month. (It's a long one, get ready). We usually have tons of rain, but this summer it has been unusually dry. We are in a drought and are on water restrictions for watering our yard etc. We don't have any neighbors on one side or behind our house. It's open land for a little bit, then hits some good thick growth of trees. There is also a little dip behind our house to allow for the extra water so our houses don't flood. We have known that there are coyotes and wild boar and other fun creatures living out in our "backyard", but we've never had any real problems with them. Since it's so dry, it seems like they are out looking for water. And where do they find water? In our yards where we water them. We've noticed a TON of frogs because they need the water. But frogs are cute. I let Andrew try to touch them. (he never does)I was out at a friend's house (watching the frogs) and I came home pretty late. Our garage has two single doors with a brick pillar in the middle. I drove our car in the garage, but needed to get something out of the van that was parked outside in the driveway. I walk in between the car and the brick pillar towards the van and out of the corner of my eye I see something on the ground a few inches away from my foot.
Backup. A few days earlier, I'm in the shower with Andrew and Ryan is outside doing yard work in the front yard. We only have a gate on one of our side yards, so that's the only way to go from front yard to back yard. It is about 4 feet wide.
I'm in the shower and I hear Ryan calling me. He knows I'm in the shower so I figure it's not important. Then I hear a banging on the wall. The master bathroom shares a wall with the other side of our yard (the side with out the gate). I thought, "that's weird". I hear Ryan call again and turn off the water to try to figure out what he's saying. His voice isn't his usual voice so I know something is wrong. I get out (shampoo in my hair still) and go to find him. He's in the backyard and the back door is locked and he's trying to get in. He's yelling, "big snake". There was a big snake in our side yard and Ryan couldn't get in the locked house, or walk past it, so he was stuck in the backyard.
Ryan seemed a little shaken up, but I thought. Snake? Big deal. Probably just a little guy that scared Ryan or something. I am more cautious when I go out, but not that worried.
Back to my story. So I walk out of the garage past the "Big Snake". He wasn't joking. It was a big fella. I jumped, screamed and ran all the way to the middle of the court, where it was lit by a street light, and I could see a good 6 feet around me in all directions. I am frantically screaming "Big snake! Big Big snake!" I'm so freaked out, I momentarily forget I'm holding my cell phone in my hand (thank goodness!) I call Ryan, who is inside and tell him about the snake. I tell him to close the garage door so it doesn't get in. He does. Great. But now I have to walk past it to get to the house. Crap. It's dark and the only reason I saw the snake was because of the light that was coming from the garage. With the door closed now, I can't tell where it is. It's not in front of the brick pillar, but could easily have slipped to the side of it in the shadows. Oh man. I am freaking out. Adrenaline kicks in, I'm shaking, trying to think about what to do. I can't see it so I'm afraid it slipped into the garage before the door closed. I yell to Ryan (because I'm still in the street and he's on our porch) to open the garage door to see if he sees the snake in the garage. I meant for him to just look inside the door to the house, but he opened the big garage door. We can't see the snake anywhere. Ryan thinks it's in the grass on the other side of our house. I'm not convinced. I'm sure it's in our garage because it would be too easy for the snake to go to the grass and be free. So, I'm holding the car keys still, so I hop in the van and turn on the headlights so we can see around better. Nothing. Ryan (bless his heart) get two big plastic storage tubs and puts his feet in them and walks to the car in the garage so he can move it out. (that at least made me laugh). So we're both in our cars, shining the lights into the garage and yard area looking for this stupid snake. We can't find it. It's really late now and we are leaving early in the morning to drive down to a friend's house for the day. We call it a night and go inside.
(By the way, I'm so shaken up, it takes me 4 hours for me to calm down enough to get to sleep. I had to go virtual shoe shopping to calm down. - And I found some super cute shoes that made me happy, and I wish I would have bookmarked it because now I can't find them again. I've spent a lot of time looking too. Those were really cute shoes! Drat.)
The next morning is Saturday and Ryan usually mows the yard on Saturdays and I sleep in. (Let's be honest, I sleep in every day). Anyway, I hear the garage door slamming and front door slamming. I know something is going on because Ryan is usually very considerate when I'm asleep and tries to be quiet. I start to panic again and rush out to see what's going on.
Ryan had opened the garage door do get the lawn mower. Mr. Big Snake was up against the side of the garage where we usually have the car. (And, I'd like to mention that this was a huge blessing. The other half of our garage is full of boxes, crates, vacuums, shelves, workbench, lawnmower, etc. Mr. Snake could have hit forever in there and we would have never found it.) Ryan noticed our next door neighbor was outside (he always is) and asked him to give him a hand getting the snake. (Two people is better than one and there was NO WAY that I was going to be useful in this situation). Our neighbor came over with a putter (golf club). The snake had slithered under one of our shelves (again, the easiest one to access - thank you snake) and our neighbor was able to use the putter under the shelf to get it to come out. And then...well, let's just say he used the putter in a more destructive way. Then he disposed of him. Thank you neighbor. I will no longer complain when your dog poops in our yard. I would rather clean up dog poop than kill a snake. (perspective is everything right?)
Here's Mr. Big Big Snake (photoshoped to keep it kid friendly) There was about another foot of the snake that I cut out of the photo. He was maybe 4 feet long, and not a skinny guy. He was green/gray. (photo doesn't show that too well)
(here is a photo off the internet that shows what his head looked like. )
The best we can tell is that it was a water moccasin looking for water. (or frogs). Ugch. Gross.
Now I won't go out in our yard without wearing my rain boots. Pink and black rubber boots that are too big so my feet slide around it them. My neighbors all know of the snake story and make fun of my boots. I tell them I don't leave home without them. They laugh, but I don't care. I look cute. (out of order of our post, but we found another snake last week in our backyard.)
Now that you're totally disgusted with that story, and tired of reading because it was so long, let me end with a photo of Bailey. (yes, same as above - but now you appreciate it more after my snake story)
Miss Bailey.
