Our boys are lucky.

Really lucky.

They have Grandparents spanning from one side of the country to the other, and a few in between. I recently asked them about all of their Grandparents (with includes their Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, and “adopted” Grandparents) and this is what they had to say:

Mom: “What is your favorite thing about ______? What makes them so special?”

(In geographical order, from farthest away to closest)…

Grandma Teetsie (Terri)

Jack: “She talks to us on the phone.”

Michael: “She writes to me on facebook and e-mails me.”

Papa (Grandpa Al)

Jack: “We can go fishing with him.”

Michael: “He takes us fishing.”

Grandma Dawn

Jack: “She makes us orange juice… the fresh kind”

Michael: “She makes us root beer floats.”

Grandpa Mike

Jack: “He can do magic!”

Michael: “He takes us in the pool.”

Great-Grandma L.

Jack: “I like to play pool at her house.”

Michael: “I love to play with all the legos at her house!”

Grandma Sharon

Jack: “We pet her doggie (Watson).”

Michael: “She writes XOXOXO on all of our cards.”

Grandpa Ralph

Jack: “He has a ponytail.”

Michael: “He goes swimming with us.”

Pauline

Jack: “She lets me have candy when she babysits.”

Michael: “She tells me that I have to go to school to get smarter than the teacher.”

Rick

Jack: “He plays Wii with us”

Michael: “He chases me with his motorcycle.”

So, Grandparents… Thank you for giving our boys so much love and making them feel like they’re the only 5 and 9 year-olds in the world. We love you.

Guess what we found tonight?

No guesses? Come on. I’ll give you a hint…  let’s take a stroll down memory lane:

Remember this guy? A baby rattlesnake. Right on our back patio.

What about this nasty little thing? Eeww.

Michael’s friend spotted this at the bottom of our pool a couple of weeks ago.

Can you imagine opening your eyes underwater and seeing this?

Oh yeah – in case you didn’t know – it’s a bark scorpion.

One of the most poisonous kinds.

And one of the most popular out here in the desert southwest.

This baby rattlesnake? Totally different than the earlier baby rattlesnake.

Same bucket, though…  Slim pickins on the rattlesnake buckets out here.

Steve and Jack caught this cute little lizard on the back wall.

I can handle lizards. Snakes and spiders? Not so much.

Is this a millipede? Centipede? Does it matter to me? Nope. Yuck.

Get it away from my house.

This? It’s a wolf spider. How do I know that?

I found it in my pool and had to e-mail multiple pictures of it to the “spider lady” at the Desert Museum for identification (because I am kind of a geek like that. I like to know what’s in my yard).

Then she checked with several colleagues and got back to me about it.  Double yuck.

This thing? HUGE. With big, fat rattlers on it.

My neighbor almost stepped on it last week.

The fire department actually came out with their bigger, fancier rattlesnake bucket

and took it back to its happy place.

So, any guesses yet?

A coyote?

A gila monster?

Nope.

Just a king snake.  A little baby king snake.

The kids were so excited to see it and pet it.

After a few minutes of oogling, you know what they asked, right?

“Can we keep it?”

And after thinking about all the gross stuff we could have found,

Dad and I said “yes… just for one night.”

Then Jack asked, “Can we go get him some chicken to eat?”

It happened.

We have been walking around knocking on wood for the past 9 years every time we hear about a friend taking their child to the ER for stitches, or a cast, or some other childhood rite of passage.

We are the parents of two boys. Two boys who have never had stitches or casts. Two crazy boys who wrestle and climb on things and build bicycle ramps in the backyard.

Jack has fallen onto a tractor blade (little bump).

Michael flew over the handlebars of his BMX bike at the track (couple scrapes).

They play “body bowling” with their dad. For those of you who have not yet played, that’s when they hold onto Dad’s ankles and he “kicks” them across the tile like bowling balls rolling down the lane. The slipperier the pajamas, the better.

You get the picture – This should have happened a long time ago.

But it didn’t. It happened last night while they were swimming. It’s hard to explain, but Jack was “monkey walking” around the pool deck with his arms locked at the elbows. His head was about 2 feet above the water. They had been swimming for a while so the deck was wet and his hands slipped. He wacked his chin against the deck and fell into the water. I think I saw just two drops of blood. Tough kid, that Jack.

He is now the proud owner of three shiny black stitches. He’s been proudly telling the story all day to everyone who asks what happened.

I hope this buys us another 9 years.

1. Do you know a child who likes to play in the water?

2. Do you have a pool?

3. Do you have a neighbor or friend that has a pool?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, please click on the blue box to the right.

Then forward it.

A recent event has caused me to rethink what is important in my life.

Steve is coming home today! Normally it’s not this big of an occasion, but I think summer vacation has put a new spin on things. I am excited about having another adult around the house, and the kids are excited about playing with someone other than me :-)  While I have been cleaning, Jack has been hard at work making signs to hang on the doors:

He told me that this one has X’s and O’s

because “Grandma Sharon always puts X’s and O’s on  her

cards, and that means kisses and hugs”.

This one started out with big letters but Jack had a lot to say, so I ran out of room.

He’s getting to be quite the tracer, though!