close call

You've probably read about some of our other past encounters with wildlife, including pigs, goats and, recently, rock chucks. But none of these visits has filled me with fear like the experience I had last night.

Andrea was asleep, as I was up late irrigating the lawn and field. I finished up about midnight. As I walked along the ditch bank back towards the house, I was startled to see two glowing eyes reflecting light from my head lamp. "Oh," I thought, it's just a cat. But I soon realized it was not just a cat. This is what I saw:


That's right. Standing about 5 feet away on the grass below the ditch bank where I stood was a skunk, a polecat, a Mephitis mephitis. And he was mad. His tail was up in the air and he hissed angrily, ready to dispense his unique brand of stinky vengeance.

I froze. "What do I do?" I thought. As my life flashed before my eyes, I contemplated turning and running, or jumping in the ditch, or yelling at it to scare it off, but in my mind each alternative seemed equally likely to end up in me sleeping outside for the next month. So I just froze, eyes locked on the business end of this hissing nightmare.

Miraculously, a few seconds later the skunk lowered his guard and hightailed it across the yard into the darkness. My heart still pounded as I finished closing the head gates and went in to go to bed.

I'm grateful we live where we do, away from the city (really away from what most people would actually consider any sort of a real city) and a stone's throw from nature. But I'm also very grateful to have dodged nature's bullet last night.

A word about volleyball

Okay ... I lied. It's not gonna be a word; it's gonna be a whole heck of a lot of words.

Back in the day when I was a wee lass, my dad asked if I wanted to attend a volleyball camp. It was the summer before fifth grade. My dad was (and is and always will be, I think) a volleyball coach. I didn't know a soul younger than 40 who would be there. But I told him that I'd go.

Thus started my love for the sport. I've had the pleasure of playing at summer camps, on school teams, on club teams and on college intramural teams throughout the years.

Then I got married. And got a "real" job. And quit my "real" job to be a mom. And had more babies.

Don't get me wrong--I don't regret any of those decisions. But as those infinitely more important things moved to the forefront of my life, volleyball sat on the backburner until it was cold.

Enter Brooke. Or, re-enter Brooke, as she is an old friend. Brooke asked if I wanted to join their stake in their open gym volleyball nights. So I started attending every once in a while. Once the agonizing pain of not having played in a decade had faded, I realized that the love I once had for volleyball is alive and well.

When Brooke extended an offer for me to play on a team for Apple Athletic Club's volleyball league, I decided to give it a go.

Although our team didn't have the most stellar win/loss record (4/9), designated positions (we just rotated around and played wherever we stood) or scholarship-level talent (I'm just speaking for me ... I honestly have no idea about the other girls on our team), we did have some awesome team shirts, support from our fans (friends, husbands, fathers, children) and a lot of good times.

Our team, "Serves You Right," during a time-out. It's hard to see everyone, but I promise we're all there (starting with me and going clockwise around the circle): Andrea, Brooke, Kim, Kylee, Melissa, Jessica, Heidi.

Andrea hitting the ball. And now you know why I chose a muffin to go on the front of my shirt.

Andrea and Seth at the game. Seth is a good water boy, photographer and joke teller (although I honestly can't remember what we were talking about).

Thank you, Brooke, for organizing the team, allowing me to play and acting as our captain. Thank you, Kylee, Heidi, Jessica, Melissa and Kim, for letting me play with you and putting up with my playing errors. Thank you, Seth, for encouraging me to play even though it meant that you had to put the girls to bed by yourself at least once a week. Thank you, Mom, for watching the girls for us a few times so Seth could attend a game or two and watch me play. Thank you, Dad, for taking pictures, giving me pointers on my passing and introducing me to the game.

To see more pictures of our last games, click here. (Although, be warned ... most are of me rather than the other players. That's what happens when your dad is a photojournalist extraordinaire.)

Bekah is 6

Bekah feels that her birthday date is unfair. How can Miriam, Analee and Seth all celebrate their birthdays before her?! You'll notice that list doesn't include me. Yes, I magnanimously have THE last birthday of the year in our family. That's what you get for being born in the fall.

Despite the long wait, Bekah had a splendiferous birthday.

It started with a T-ball game in the morning. (Actually, it started the evening before when Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis took the big girls to the dollar store and out to eat for dinner since they knew they'd miss the festivities the next night. But I don't have pictures of that. So we'll start with T-ball.)

Bekah playing first base during her T-ball game.

And ended with a family picnic/party in the yard that included guests (Grandma and Grandpa Scott, Aunt Jessica, cousins Mack and Tav). Dinner ("pineapple pizza," just what Bekah requested) was followed by presents:

A box of Trios from Mack and Tav.

A personalized towel from Grandma Scott.

A fluffy tutu from Aunt Jessica.

Which was followed by a piñata. (You'll notice that this is a store-bought piñata, which is unusual for us. But when Wal-mart is clearing out old Hannah Montana piñatas for $2, I can splurge.)

Ana supervising while Bekah tries to whack the piñata.

Which was followed by birthday singing and cake (which, if you can tell from the picture, looks a lot like a previous birthday cake).

Bekah finally getting to blow out her candles. By the time we had sung "Happy Birthday," the wind had blown out all her candles. We had to re-light them and have Grandma Scott hold up paper plates to block the breeze so she could have the honor of extinguishing them.

To see more pictures, click here.

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks

It's round two of Ucon T-ball for Rebekah. And it's apparent that she remembers a lot from last year. She can still:

... hit the ball,

... hustle around the bases,

... hang onto that helmet,

... beat her teammates to the ball,

... exhibit ninja-like skills in returning the ball to the tee and checking on the runner to make sure he's out,

... have a little fun,

... enjoy the familial support,

... and cheer for the other team when all is said and done.

(All pictures taken by my ever-faithful father. I was too busy keeping an eye on one kid on the field and two kids off the field and huddling under a blanket. Dang Idaho June weather.)

Near miss

Today I was mowing our back field. It has grown to unruly heights, and since we don't yet have a beast to keep it under control (or a fence to keep the beast under control), I took it upon myself to take care of the mess of clover, dandelions, alfalfa and grass.

So there I was, rocking the sunglasses and Seth's hat (Sh! He doesn't know I borrowed it.), singing along with my iPod, driving the mower and enjoying the rare sunshine. I was just finishing the little strip of grass in the middle when something caught my attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement on the ground. I steered sharply to the right to avoid decimating one of these:


Seriously. I wasn't sure if I should cry or laugh as I saw it bolt away. Who would imagine that a yellow-bellied marmot would take up residence in our back yard? (Looks like I need to add it to the list of animal visitors to our property.)

in the evening

My wife

All the kids are in bed
And the lights are turned down low;
In the twilight of the evening,
This is how we roll.

Fishing

Just like in years past, we drove north to go fishing at Henry's Lake during Memorial Day Weekend. This time, we stayed longer than the typical 1- or 2-night trip. That's right, folks. We stayed a whopping three nights at Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin. That means we got to fit in two fishing outings for the girls, a trip to Mesa Falls, a jaunt to Big Springs, three nights of cabin sleeping and attendance at the Island Park ward. Good times.

Highlights:

• Bekah catching two fish on Saturday; Analee also catching two fish on Saturday. Yes, sometimes "catching" a fish meant reeling in a fish that had gotten hooked on somebody else's line, but it's all good.

Analee with one of her fish on Saturday. Yes, that is my finger over the cell phone camera lens.

Real men wear camo. And fish with a minuscule Disney princess pole.

The scene from the dock at Frome Park. The surroundings in Island Park are always gorgeous.

• The girls' interest in gutting fish. These kids are learning the facts of life at an early age. I still don't like to stand too close to (let alone participate in) such things, but they don't even bat an eye as the entrails come flying out.

Uncle Doug talking on his phone while Grandpa Dennis and Seth gut fish and Rebekah and Analee watch.

Seth ripping guts out while Bekah watches. Go ahead and click on that picture to see it bigger. You know you want to.

• Spending time with Seth's family. Aunt Rachel, Uncle Justin, Cousin Cooper, Aunt Melissa, Uncle Kent, Grandma Susan, Grandpa Dennis, Uncle Doug and Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks were all there at various times. Aunt Melissa got a healthy dose of lovin' (read: maulin') from the girls. Cooper and Miriam tried to show each other who was boss--Cooper through physical actions and Miri through verbal screeching. I got schooled by Kent, Rachel and Seth while playing Settlers of Catan.
  
• Taking the little kids to Big Springs while the big kids went out to shoot guns.

Miriam at Big Springs. Although the big fish weren't camping out under the bridge, we still enjoyed the scenery.

• Rescuing Ana from gravity. Okay, not really a highlight, but still worth mentioning. Saturday night after we tucked the girls in bed in the loft and were watching a movie downstairs, we all heard a giant crash. Seth and I ran upstairs and found Ana on the ground. Poor little girl had fallen out of the double bed she was sharing with Bekah. After some loves and considerable preventative bed-tucking, all was back to normal. So normal that Ana didn't remember the incident at all the next morning. (Also remarkable: Bekah and Miri slept through the whole thing--crashing, bawling and all.)
• Taking the big girls to Mesa Falls Sunday after church while Miri napped at the cabin. Although it snowed ALL morning Sunday, it stopped long enough for us to enjoy the overlooks at both the Upper and Lower Falls.

Seth let the girls borrow his binoculars to look at the falls. Most of the time, they used them to look at more mundane things.

Rebekah, Andrea and Analee at Upper Mesa Falls.

• Eating the girls' fish (and others' fish) on Sunday night. Grandpa Dennis makes scrumptious fish and potatoes.
• Going back to Frome Park Monday morning to try our luck at fishing again. Everybody got skunked except Bekah who caught two fish completely by herself. As she reeled in the second fish, she even got an ovation from the fishermen on the other pier.

Bekah trying (in vain) to hold up her fish by the line. It was considerably colder Monday, so the girls wore their winter boots, gloves and hats.

To see more photos, click here and scroll down past the dance recital pictures.

Ana turns 4

Yes, it's been over a week since Ana celebrated her birthday, but ... hmmm. I seem to be short on excuses. We were out of town for Memorial Weekend? (Post to come ... sometime.) We were busy with Bekah's final days of kindergarten? Aliens switched the bodies of Seth and me, and I had to flounder through a whole lot of Pascal and Linux at his workplace?

Anyway, here's how we celebrated Analee turning 4:

When Ana discovered that the afternoon kindergarten's end-of-the-year party (of which I was in charge) was the same day as her birthday, she was ecstatic and immediately began planning games (pin the tail on the donkey, a piñata, etc.). I informed her that we would do all sorts of fun things for her birthday as a family, but the games for the kindergarten party would be under my jurisdiction. So she got to rotate with Rebekah and play some Duck, Duck, Goose (due to inclement weather ... my original plan was to have the kids draw on the playground with sidewalk chalk), eat a homemade popcicle with a prize frozen inside, and supervise a craft that the kids made for Mrs. Campbell. (And I have no pictures of any of this. I was busy taking care of 17 kindergartners, after all.)

However, we did do her piñata the day before when the Grover clan had gathered for a family dinner.

Bekah and Ana with our homemade piñata. Ana painted it and colored the castle on it all by herself. I paper mached, duct taped and zip lined it all by myself. (Can you tell that both girls were pretending to be Pinkalicious that day?)

Seth manning the rope while Ana tries to whack the piñata. Cousin Cooper, Analee and Rebekah took turns battering the piñata; Bekah beat a fist-sized hole in it, and we let Ana finish it off so the kids could collect their prizes.

The Grover clan: Aunt Melissa taking a picture of Miriam and Uncle Justin, Analee eating her cotton candy, Grandma Susan and GRandpa Dennis watching Cousin Cooper, Bekah talking to Seth.

Then on the special day (May 24, in case you were wondering), after the class party, Seth's return from work and the arrival of grandparents, Ana got to eat dinner, open presents and eat cake.

Analee modeling the froofy tutu Aunt Jessica gave her while riding the inchworm she received from her parents.

Analee with her birthday cake. She had wanted me to make a recreation of Bekah's fourth birthday cake. But, unlike Ana, I remembered the terror that is fondant. So I looked for ideas on the Intertubes and came up with this happy compromise. I think Ana was happy with the results. In fact, Bekah has made me promise her that we make the same cake for her sixth birthday in less than two weeks.

In the end, I think her birthday turned out well. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been hopping up and down and saying, "This is the best birthday ever!", right?

To see more such photos, click here.

Busted

The doorbell rang today, just like it does every other weekday at 3 p.m. However, the little girl that met me on the porch after walking home from the bus stop looked decidedly different than usual.



In her own words: "I tried to find the face-painter at field day today, but I couldn't. So on the bus ride home I used a marker and did my own face. I'm sorry, Mama. I'm sorrier than I've ever been."

Ana's spill

Friday afternoon when I found out that Bekah had to be wearing a very specific pair of tights for her dance recital the next day (and the store that sells the tights would close for the weekend in one hour), I carted the girls off to All American Dance to purchase said tights.

Everything was swell and dandy until Ana tripped on the sidewalk. We've gotta work on that kid's reflexes, because her face hit the sidewalk before she could catch herself with her hands.

I could tell that it hurt. But as she started to pull herself up from the sidewalk, we found out that we had a bigger problem on our hands than pain.

Blood poured from her nose and spattered on the sidewalk. I ran to the van, threw Miri in and rushed back to aid Ana.

She was terrified of the blood. I did the best I could with the box of tissues and the case of wipes we had on hand. It only took a couple of minutes to stop the bleed, but it was the longest two minutes of my life because Ana was in hysterics the entire time. I don't even want to guess what the lady sitting on the nearby bus bench was thinking.

When all was said and done, we had six blood-soaked tissues, three blood-soaked wipes, two blood-spattered shoes, and a pair of blood-spattered khakis. Oh, and a swollen lip and series of facial wounds.

Analee the day after her trip on the sidewalk. When Bekah told Ana she had "smoochy lips," it made the situation a whole lot happier.

Tiny dancer

Bekah has toiled long and hard this year at the dance studio. This is her first year taking lessons, and although she wasn't sure how much she'd enjoy it at first, she's definitely grown to love it. (Disclaimer: She was DYING to take classes; I didn't push her into it. She was hesitant only after I had signed her up and she realized that she didn't know anyone in her class. She's a very social creature. But after making some friends, she decided it was worth it.)

This last Saturday, we got to experience our first rehearsal/recital. Exciting times.

(Ironically, I got better pictures at the rehearsal than at the recital. So enjoy the little girls in their curlers.)

Bekah sitting with her class waiting for their turn on the stage at the dress rehearsal. I told her we'd do her hair all fancy later that day, but she insisted on at least wearing makeup for the rehearsal.

Being a scary tiger.

Skipping to her place.

Supposedly doing a toe-touch.

Skipping with her partner.

Her final pose with a couple of the other girls.

All ready for the recital. She had to show off her tail.

This is what happened when I asked her to show me how excited she was.

After the two-flippin'-hour-long recital, Bekah was rewarded with a bouquet of flowers from her daddy (who had sat in the Civic for six hours to save our seats). Seth was rewarded with a tired backside. I was rewarded with two extremely tired little girls, one of which had to be removed from the auditorium to carry out the rest of her tizzy fit. Despite the hardships, we were very proud of our tiny dancer.

Zoo

After we finished all the housework and yard work Saturday, we figured we deserved a little break, so we packed up the wee ones and went to the zoo.

This trip's highlights:

• Miriam is old enough to really enjoy the animals now. However, the zoo is either infested with snakes or Miriam doesn't understand that only snakes hiss. She pointed at nearly every moving thing and enthusiastically said, "Sssssss!"
• Although several of the animals weren't on display yet because of the cooler weather, the number of baby animals on display almost made up for it. We got to see a baby ring-tailed lemur, a baby camel, two baby servals and a baby snow leopard.
• Bekah wants to enter the zoo's annual photo contest, so she brought her camera and snapped photos all along the way.

Bekah taking Ana's picture on the lion statue while Seth watches.

Bekah's picture of Ana.

All right, all right. Miri DID hiss at most of the animals, but when Seth told her this was a monkey (which is hard to see because of Miri's reflection), she actually made the appropriate sound.

The serval kittens.

Bekah's picture of the zookeeper bottle-feeding the baby camel.

Bekah, Ana, Miri and Andrea atop the tiger statue. We were roaring like a tiger. Ana must have missed the memo.

To see more pictures, click here.