Sunday's Snakey Adventure

The snake...minus a head.
The snake, Reed's hands and feet and Cassidy's leg.
An impromptu science lesson including an in depth look at the contents of the intestines to see what Mr. Rattler had been eating before dining on squirrel.
Reed holding the skin and Cass the snake (aka dinner, but not hers or she wouldn't be smiling).
My manly, snake cooking husband!
The happy rattlesnake eating males!

The Blankinship family had a very interesting adventure/encounter yesterday! Our neighbor across the street stopped me while I was mowing the front yard (yes, I do this a few times a year...mostly for bragging rights) and asked if Randy was available. He actually said, "Is Randy inside? I know he is a "nature guy" and I have something really cool to show him." I sent Reed to get his Dad and asked if we could all come take a look. He said yes, but asked if the kids were okay with death.

So we all trekked across the street to Jim's driveway. And right there beside the concrete of his driveway was a 3-foot eastern diamondback rattlesnake with a squirrel about 1/3 of the way swallowed! The snake was perfectly still and had apparently been in that same spot and position for hours, leading Jim to believe it was dead from the dreaded, "Your eyes are too big for your stomach syndrome!" We were all admiring it and pointing out the rattle when I saw the body of the snake undulate a little. Just as I was pointing out that the snake was alive, up went the rattle and the sound effects began. That was pretty cool until the snake spit out the squirrel and coiled up in a defensive posture. (Not that I blame him, 5 humans standing around me and commenting while I eat a meal that is entirely too large makes me very defensive too!) Needless to say, I immediately ushered my protesting children back across the street and had to stand guard to keep Reed from rushing back over.

The snake slithered under Jim's truck, coiled up and was rattling away. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be a very effective way to trap the snake and let it go somewhere else. And we couldn't leave it alone as our street has many people and dogs that come and go...not to mention 2 cutie kids that I'm especially fond of! Suffice it to say, the snake did not survive its encounter with Jim's shovel. After the head had been removed, we went back across the street. Randy carefully showed the kids the fangs and explained again about what to do if they encountered a rattler and so on.

Of course, Reed had to carry the snake body around. And, of course, I had to take pictures. Randy decided to skin the snake and cure the skin. He also, this should come as NO surprise, decided to cook up the meat. And yes, I tried it. Cassidy would not even allow Randy to put it on her plate. Reed and Randy ate it up completely. I probably would not order it in a restaurant, but it was not bad. I ascribe to the motto: I can eat anything if you fry it in cornmeal and give me enough ketchup!

Ahhh...another exciting day at our house. Randy suggested taking some of the cooked meat over to our neighbor, but I didn't let him. They all already think we are hillbillies...no need to confirm anything. Not to mention, I didn't think Jim's wife would be very appreciative! When I called Lori (a good friend from church)later that evening and told her about it she said, "Only you guys." But that isn't true, is it...Aaron, Mark, Roger, Andy?!?

P.S. Thanks to David and Mark for identifying our pretty bug...a scarlet bodied wasp moth! Thanks, David for the correction.

The Past Few Days

Here is Cassidy in Daddy's boots, Reed's Power Ranger PJ shorts and her own shirt. My little cutie!
Seining up mosquito fish in the pond behind the house. This is definitely one of Reed's favorite activities!
My blessings.
Check out my avocado tree that I'm growing from a seed I saved and rooted in water!
Here is the cool bug Reed found sipping nectar from the lantana in the front garden.

Ahhh...life during summer vacation. The kids and I don't really have much of a schedule during the summer. I love just being at home...most of the time. The kids tend to go a little stir crazy and that translates into Reed pestering his sister, Cassidy screaming and Mommy "laying down the law." Repeat that process about 15 times and you can guess how glad I am when Randy gets home from work! But I still crave being at home and I really want my kids to have the opportunity to just be kids without any schedule dictating our activities.

This week, Reed has been attending VBS at a friend's church. He has enjoyed the socialization and Cassidy and I are enjoying a little quiet time. I am posting a some random pictures from the past few days. No, Mom, we don't have an alligator in the pond! And isn't our bug really cool...not quite as striking as a painted bunting, but we'll take what we can get!

A true SPLASH party!

Our friends let us borrow their water slide which was big fun while it lasted. They let us keep it for a few more days, so I'm going to give it a whirl tomorrow...sorry, no pictures!
I moved our pool and slide outside as well. I am so thankful for this 1 hour of sunshine...the only sunshine the whole day!
The slip-n-slide is always a hit!
The rain
More rain
Story on the porch
Reed's treasure chest of cupcakes...quite cute for homemade cupcakes and a treasure box from the Dollar Tree.
Eating cake and ice cream

Opening gifts
Reed was so happy that a friend, Jett, he had made last year in preschool could come today.
One of the gifts from Pa Gary and Gram Ava...I had to convince him to let me hold it so he could take a turn hitting the pinata!
Speed Racer sheets and cars from Pa David and Gran Debbie. They are going into the wash now, so he can sleep on them tonight!
The Pinata Adventure!

We had Reed's 6th birthday party today. Speaking as an adult and the one who planned it (hence, I had some expectations), it was rather awful. But I am confident that Reed enjoyed himself thoroughly and will remember it fondly...which is the point.

The #1 contributing factor to the demise of my party planning career was the weather(and not my lack of planning a Plan B). Thunderstorms and rain do not help Plan A: All kids play, eat and remain outside the entire party unless nature calls and then they are allowed inside for a few minutes and only in restricted areas. Nope, the thunderstorms called for Plan B which was not really well planned as I had been resisting the idea that it would actually rain on MY PARTY! Oh, but rain it did!

The kids had about an hour of playing on the water slides before the thunder and visible lightening began. At that point, we brought them all in to the porch and I read one of our pirate story books. Randy arrived with the pizza as I finished the story. The eating of pizza, cake and ice cream ensued. They were really quite crowded on the porch and some wanted to go play in the kids rooms, etc... and that wasn't going to happen! Then, Reed opened presents. That was fun for the kids, but it was SO loud in our house with all of the tile. We had planned and hidden clues for a scavenger hunt to find the pinata all around our yard, but it was raining and still thundering outside, so that was scrapped. Randy decided to hang the pinata from a stick, line the kids up and let them each take turns whacking it as he held it out IN OUR LIVING ROOM! It was HILARIOUS to me (and the other parents as well)! Here is a direct quote from Randy that he used frequently as he got each child ready for their turn, "DON'T SWING YET...NO! DON'T SWING YET!" And I am not even exaggerating...I've got it on video! They must not make pinatas here like they do in el Valle because this sucker only lasted about 5 kids...there were 13. But the candy highs smoothed over the sadness! After the pinata, about 45 minutes before the party was scheduled to end, people were leaving...in the pouring rain. Boy, they were glad and so were we. It has continued to rain all afternoon. The parents who came were all wonderful, understanding and helpful...it was just a difficult situation with so many people in the house. I'm glad I've got a few months before Cassidy's party!

Cassidy's Unscheduled Haircut

Can you see the trouble area?
I found the hair on the floor and the scissors on Reed's table. I'm embarrassed to say, it took me a few minutes to realize what I was seeing on the floor. The piece stuck to Cassidy's back is what finally clued me in...then the scissors on the table confirmed my fear!
The fix.
He doesn't look very concerned, does he?
A look at the back of Cass's hair with the new layers. If you think her hair looks a bit thin, you're right. It looks a little more full when it has dried.
The front view...I needed to work on the part a little more, but you can get the idea of the length.
I was trying to get a picture of the front of Cassidy's hair after I put it in the usual style this morning. This is the best one I got...does that tell you anything about our morning?!?

I have to keep this short...the kids are a wee bit unruly. But, truthfully, I don't need to explain much. Here is the short of it. Reed cut a chunk of Cassidy's hair off in the back yesterday. I had to take her to get it "fixed." She now has many layers and they are quite short. Her hair is definitely bouncier and we like it just fine...she is always cute to us. So, there you have it. I think I impressed upon both children the dire consequences that await them if this stunt, in any form, is repeated. The hairdresser promised Reed a pink reverse mohawk if he cut his sister's pretty hair again...I had just promised a completely shaved head. Of course, they surprise me often with their lack of fear of consequences.

Happy Birthday, Reed!

Today Reed turns 6 years old. He woke me up this morning by launching himself into the bed and repeating, "I'm six, I'm six, I'm six!" The only thing that could make his day any better is if he actually had a loose tooth! He can't wait to lose a tooth.

Randy and I are so blessed to be Reed's Mom and Dad. He is such an energetic(maybe I should capitalize and bold that word), happy and intelligent(yes, I am his mother and completely biased) boy. He has quite a zest for life and exploring the world around him(can you say Blankinship male?) and his imagination has no bounds (both a blessing and a curse). We are thankful daily that God blessed us with Reed and that he is healthy and strong. Our prayer is that Reed grow up to, first and foremost, be a follower of Christ. We pray that God will bless him with a long, healthy life full of good friends and good jobs, but all of that is meaningless without knowing Christ. We are already so proud of his heart for God. Reed loves the Bible, our church family, the assembly and Bible class.

So, with hearts full of love and pride, we wish Reed a very happy 6th birthday! We love you and relish being your Mom and Dad!

It's a bird...it's a plane...no! It's Bionic Becky!

Okay, my mom took all these pictures, so I'm assuming Becky is in this crowd of swimmers...and NOT one of the ones using a POOL NOODLE in a triathlon!
Riding her bike...Julie P. is on the bike right behind her
Becky and Julie running...and Becky is smiling and waving at the camera...show off :)!
Becky and Julie at the finish line! Whoo-hoo!
In the finisher's circle!
Becky and Mom
Becky and Dad

My sister, Becky, completed the Danskin Triathlon Sprint one week ago today! She and a good friend, Julie P. (as I call her and not to be confused with Julie C.) swam 1/2 a mile, biked 13 miles and ran 3 miles with 3,100 other women on a very warm June day in Austin, TX. Becky and Julie finished in 2 hours and 27 minutes. And I am VERY proud of her! Way to go, Sister! I am impressed on number of levels: 1. That she even agreed to attempt this thing in JUNE in Texas; 2. She not only agreed to do it, but completed it with a great time and 3. Already has plans to do it again next year and try to improve her time to under 2 hours! But, Becky is definitely a trail blazer in our family...Africa, Machu Pichu, 1/2 marathon in Alaska, and now a triathlon. I'm thinking I'd better get on the stick or I'm going to win the title of most boring sister...but I did finish the floors yesterday! Great job, Becky! We are very impressed and very proud of our own Aunt Bionic Becky!

Teeming with "Sea Life"

Dolphin after a fish
Kids watching the dolphin cruise around.
Reed with his net.

The banded tulip snail wrapping around his shell to flip over so he can motor back out to the safety of the turtle grass. Notice how the snail itself is black with tiny white dots...really pretty.
The juvenile file fish...so tiny!

Sea horse
Tiny baby spider crab

The kids and I had a very exciting trip to Emerson Point on Wednesday. I packed lunch and we headed down there about 11AM and left at 3 PM. As we were locating a spot to set up, some ladies who were there with their little kids informed me there was a shark cruising around right off the shore. They said they had been watching it for about 1/2 an hour and were sure it was a shark. They pointed out the dorsal fin to me and I thanked them for the heads up. I also noted an abundance of people fishing the area and quite a lot of fish activity going on in the water. So, as we headed down a little ways, we were watching the water. Before we had even set our things down, the "shark" took off, parallel to the shore, after a fish. He was swimming so fast, he had wake behind him. Let me just say, this was so cool and we were fascinated! We saw a big fish jumping out of the water in front of the "shark" trying to escape. Then the "shark" slammed the fish up out of the water, caught it and ate it (evidenced by some thrashing in the water). That was about the time I saw and heard the "shark" breathe through its blow hole. Not a shark at all, but a dolphin! I have never seen a dolphin in its attack mode and can I say, "How cool!" The dolphin hung around for another hour or so just cruising around fishing. He did try to catch one other fish and that was when I was able to snap a few pictures. I don't think he was successful the second time though.

Reed took his dip net with him down there. My rule is that you have to carry whatever you want to take, as my hands are full with the bag of necessities, the lunch cooler and my chair. He spent hours dragging his net along the bottom through the turtle grass. He would drag it, pull it up and then examine all of the things he caught. And he kept yelling, "Mom, this place is so full of sea life. Man, look at all this sea life! This is the best place for sea life!, etc...sea life...etc..." He was really cute. And boy, did he catch some really awesome things - as you can see from the pictures. He netted tons of juvenile shrimp, a juvenile spider crab, a toad fish (my picture is too blurry to post), 2 sea horses, a sea scallop, 3 pipe fish (related to sea horses...they look just like a piece of turtle grass and so, consequently, we never managed to get a picture where they were discernible), a juvenile file fish, some other type of crab whose name I've forgotten, a big banded tulip snail, piggy perch and probably some other things I'm forgetting. The biggest problem with all these critters is that I don't know what all of them are. I am learning, but when Reed asks what something is and I have to remind him he is talking to the wrong parent. So, we take a picture, toss the critter back and Daddy identifies everything we can't once we get home. But, to our credit, Reed and I are getting better and better at identifying stuff. We are amazed at what an AWESOME God we serve who created such an abundance of life and equipped them each so exactly to survive!

Well, now that you all are bored to tears and wondering why I thought I needed to write a novel about the "sea life" we caught...I'm done. I've got some posts in the works about recent happenings, but the tile floor is beginning to resemble a "dog-hair rug." And that is just gross...so I've got to go vacuum and mop.