Giddy-up

Yesterday Drew's preschool took a field trip to an amazing horse stable/arena/training center. It's magnificence is hard to describe. There is one HUGE and beautiful arena/stable, and there are three other smaller stables (still pretty huge) on the property. The staff was so good to the kids! They played some games,
did some crafts,

got up close and personal with lots of horses,

fed them carrots,

and of course got to ride them. Drew, my VERY cautious child, told me for days and days before hand that he would not be riding any horses. Even after seeing his friends safely and slowly riding the big horse, he still didn't think he wanted to give it a try....Until they brought out the miniature horse. I talked him in to getting on, and he had a blast.

He was even brave enough to ride the big horse and loved that even more!

Mallory got to ride the miniature pony too, but my blasted camera stopped working. She was so funny up there. She put her helmet on and sat motionless on the pony's back. I was making a big deal about her being such a big girl up there, and she wouldn't even crack a smile. She was VERY SERIOUS about riding that horse. The second she was off she was smiling and talking all about it.

The End of an Era

It is a sad, sad day in the Felker household. Drew's beloved fake blue crocs have broken. He has a black pair and a red pair, but these blue ones are so close to his heart. Edward and I brought them home to him as a souvenir when we took a trip to Montreal, Canada in July 2007. They came from a cheap-o touristy store, and were about $4 American Dollars. I'm not exaggerating when I say I think he's worn them at least once a day every day since then. His first pair of fake crocs never came off his feet. They were his play shoes, church shoes, running shoes, summer shoes, winter shoes, etc., and he was even known to sleep in them and take a bath in them. Because of the bright blue (or at least they were bright at one time) color, we had to show tough love with him and told him he couldn't wear these to church. After many, many showdowns, he now knows he is expected to wear "normal" church shoes.

He came to me yesterday afternoon with the sad news that he accidentally broke them. Considering I felt slobber on the strap, I think he was absent-mindedly biting on it while watching TV when it broke.

About 15 minutes later I heard sobs coming from upstairs. I went in to check on him, and with tears streaming down his cheeks, he said, "Those were my favorite ones!" After much consoling, I told him we could go look on ebay for some new ones. He agreed, only if we could find the exact ones. We searched, and a brand new pair of green crocs caught his eye. We put a bid in, and so far so good. We'll know tomorrow if we get them.

A tribute to Drew's fake blue crocs!
Farewell, treasured shoes!

Pumpkin Picking

Reunions

This week we had the great treat of visiting with several people we haven't seen in years. On Wednesday we went to St. Louis to have dinner at the house of some of our very dear friends, the Davis', from our college days at Mizzou. We were joined by another former Columbia friend, Aaron Flater, who was in town on business. We were bummed the rest of his awesome family couldn't make it, but we were glad to catch up with him. We had a WONDERFUL visit! We picked up right where we left off as if no time has passed since our last meeting. We have such cherished memories of our friendships in our early married life/college days. I often wish we could go back to that time in our lives.

Today we had a fun open house (actually it was outdoors since the weather has been perfect here!) at my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Steve's house. Their son Andrew and his wife Traci and their adorable kids were visiting from Arizona. It was great to see them as well as visit with other extended family.

This week I've thought that this is what heaven is going to be like. We'll reunite with friends and family that we haven't seen in years. We'll get to hug them and catch up with each other and reminisce about great times shared together and pick up right where we left off. We'll get to introduce them to our children and grandchildren and get to meet theirs.

It's going to be great!

Who would have thought?

Gas, or liquid gold as I like to call it, is now below $3.00 a gallon in our area. Yipee!

Chick Magnet

*Sigh*

My baby boy has some lovely little fourth grade admirers. About a week ago he came home from school and very disgustedly told me he thinks the girl that sits next time likes him. I asked him why he thought that, and he said, "Because Legacy asked me if I would be Courtney's boyfriend." I asked, "What did you say?" He replied, "NO!" I had a discussion with him about not hurting any one's feelings, but yes, he's too young for a girlfriend. He said, "I know!"

He came home today and told me all three of the girls that sit around him have a crush on him now. I asked how he knew, and he said, "Because they do all that flirty stuff that girls do!" I asked for an example, and he said he was very embarrassed when someone called his name, he turned around, and saw one of the girls making kissy faces.

I can't help but laugh as he tells me these things, because he is utterly repulsed. He reminds me so much of my brother, Joel, at that age. For anyone who remembers Joel, he was such a sweet, gentle, calm, kid who had such a dry sense of humor. My dad tells of a time he accompanied Joel's class on a field trip, and a group of girls really showed an interest in Joel. They were all sitting down to have their sack lunches when a bunch of girls said, "Joel, come sit with us!" followed by a bunch of giggles. Dad said Joel just rolled his eyes, and as Junie B. Jones would say "did a mad breath."

Stay tuned for more on this!

America's Got...Edward?

The winner of last night's finale of America's Got Talent is Neal Boyd, a man Edward knew and graduated high school with. What an exciting thing for him! You can't help but be happy for someone who has worked for years and years at his dream, and it has just turn into a rewarding reality.

Although we never watched the show, we've checked in a couple of times to see if he was still in the competition. Elizabeth, especially, would ask for an update every so often. This morning I told her the big news that he won. She gasped and cheered at his accomplishment. I told her how he has mentioned Sikeston, Edward's hometown, throughout the competition, and he made mention of it again last night for the finale. She then excitedly asked, "Did he say Daddy's name too?!!?!?" No, darling daughter, he forgot to mention Daddy in all his excitement.

Home Improvements

After buying our fixer-upper, Edward and I are becoming quite the DIY-ers. We very much regret not taking before and after pictures. Truth be told, the house was so outdated that I didn't want to take the time to take pictures. I wanted to start the remodeling immediately. I did document one of our latest projects, the kids' bathroom.

Before - dark wood with 80's style hardware

I stripped all the wallpaper and painted before taking a picture of the wallpaper. This is what was under the chair rail. The white floral paper was on the top half of the walls, and the blue was on the bottom. This is just a little glimpse of the type of decor that covered the ENTIRE house. Pretty!

Before and After Lighting

I am usually the "handyman" of the house, but Edward really got down and dirty on the installation of the new faucets.
And Drew was kind enough to let Edward borrow his toy safety goggles. :)

We worked on this project six months ago, and Mallory was very helpful when it came time to install the flooring.

Here is the fresh new vanity, complete with chrome hardware and faucets.

The new flooring that I love! This is the fourth room that we've used the Peel and Stick vinyl flooring. It sounds kind of cheap and cheesy, but it really looks nice! It is so easy to install, inexpensive, and easily removable when we want a change. I highly recommend it!

Here is the view from the shower. I decorated the walls with the kids' framed artwork. The colors work really well. I just recently added the star hooks, and the kids can hang their own towels after they're finished using them. Yipee!

Now on to our latest project. After spending months and months on the cursed leaking upper deck last year, we didn't want to mess with it for a long time. Thanks to gorgeous weather last weekend, we were able to stain the upper and lower decks and paint the faded staircase. I'm very pleased with how the staircase turned out especially.

Before & After

Everything was so faded and weathered looking before.

And here is the finished product!

I feel like the Wizard of Oz when I say, "Pay no attention to" the room to the left. That is the sun porch that is directly under the upper deck. That is where we had a lot of stinky water damage due to the not-very-planned-out engineering of the flat roof. We plan to just turn that into a screened porch.

And there you have it!

Yuck!

This is a yucca plant, and it has become my evil Nemesis. This one is not ours. I found it online. The one we had in our front yard was ugly, overgrown, brownish, ugly, big, uncontrollable, and ugly. Therefore, I decided to tear it out last year. Therein lies the problem. Apparently, you can not get rid of a yucca plant. Ever. After the world is destroyed, the only things that will survive will be cockroaches and yucca plants. It's true. Take my word for it.

This is the pretty dirt patch in our front yard that once housed our yucca. The area is about six feet by four feet, with the plant taking up the entire left side. After it was taken out, I dug, and dug, and dug huge roots out. I even had Edward help me. We thought there wasn't any way it would come back with the amount of roots we removed. They filled two wheel-barrow's full. Pretty much the second we turned our backs, the rotten little sprigs began popping up.
Here is a closer view. Apparently, the offshoots just start growing up where ever you cut the roots off. All of these offshoots have come up from a root we've cut. Nice.

I've gotten online to figure out what other people have done to get rid of theirs. Pretty much I haven't read of one success story. Nothing has worked for anyone. I thought of covering the area with a big tarp or something, but someone said they tried that and the offshoots just meander around to the edges of the tarp or plastic. Some one else said they laid their new, small yucca plant in a wheelbarrow and left it there untouched for two months. When they went back to check on it, it was still thriving. Impossible!

So far, here's what we've found out DOES NOT work: destroying the root system with a shovel and axe, root killer, straight bleach, lighter fluid and fire, and finally willing it's painful and immediate death.

Yucca plant, I hate your stupid guts.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Paci-B-Gone!

I think I can now say, knock on wood, that we are paci-free! I took a gradual approach this time, as opposed to going cold turkey with the others, and spread out the process over about three weeks. With Mallory being our last {planned at least} child, she's getting to do things a lot longer than the others because she's the baby or because I know she's the last one. That may not be fair, but it's true. With poor baby Ross, I pulled the plug at 12 months, and he was pretty scarred. It took him a good two weeks to return to his normal, non-sad self. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't be such a drill sergeant about it. He was just a little guy. It bugs me to see three year olds with pacifiers, so I didn't want to be that parent.

With the other two, I just layed them down for a nap without it when they were both 15 months, and neither one fussed or cried. They simply went to sleep. It was very easy!

I knew it would be a bit tougher for Mal because she has three older siblings willing to aid and abed her. At 16 months, she can pretty much say anything (and she has A LOT to say!) so she would always ask for her "papi" whenever she saw it, was sad, or sleepy. Last week, she fussed a bit and asked for it when I laid her down for a nap without it. When I went in to get her after nap time, she was gleefully sucking one as she looked up at me with smiling eyes. Apparently she had some contraband hidden behind the stuffed monkey in her bed. Later that night, as Edward laid her in her crib at bed time, he said she didn't even fuss at all. She just laid very still, and then slowly slid her hand under the monkey, looking for her "papi." He said her shocked look upon not finding it was hilarious! Anyway, she as gone all week without asking for it, so I think we're in the clear. I'd be lying, though, if I said I wasn't tempted to go looking for one during some of our fussy times. A paci is just as much for me as it is for my babies!

This is a picture on about day two of the hijacking. She was willing to settle for a fuzzy Build-A-Bear pacifier that I'm sure one of the big kids offered her!

As the great Kermit the Frog says, it's not easy being green.

Because the kids have no school today due to teachers' meetings, the boys invited their cousins Grant and Harrison over to spend the night. We traded Elizabeth for them, as she went to spend the night at their house with Emmaline. The boys asked to sleep on on the air mattress. Edward and I figured the best place to put it would be between Elizabeth twin beds (Ssshhhh. Don't tell Elizabeth that *gasp* boys slept in her room. She would be LIVID!), giving the four boys room to spread out. Because the air mattress has a leak somewhere (can't find it), it deflates during a peaceful night's slumber, resulting in its' inhabitants getting extremely cozy with each other. Ross is the only one that had any sense to move to his own comfortable and stable bed, as this is how three of the boys looked during their sleep-over, or should I say sleep-on-top-of:
This morning, I found out what Harrison was up to last night when he didn't have a good explanation for what he was doing in the bathroom. After PJs were on and teeth were brushed, he went into the bathroom for a long time and then came out. I asked him to please go back and flush, and he told me he didn't go to the bathroom. I then asked, "Well what were you doing in there then?" to which he replied, "I don't know." I just laughed because he is so silly, but Edward went in to investigate. He came back out after finding everything in its proper place. We just shook it off to Harrison being his crazy self.

Fast forward to this morning after everyone was up and going. Drew whispered in my ear (snitched) that Harrison brought his frog over last night. What!?! He smuggled a frog he found yesterday into Chez Felker. We were all at an uncle's birthday party last night when the boys found a frog outside while playing. I guess he didn't feel like turning it loose like his mom asked, and instead thought it a better idea to keep it for a pet. So I said, "Harrison, do you have a frog in my house?!" He just had a look on his face that he knew he was busted! When I started laughing, that busted face changed to a look of relief. He finally answered, "Yes, but it died in the middle of the night." I asked, "Did you carry it home in your pocket?" He slowly shook his head yes, with a serious look on his face. I think he was still trying to determine if I was mad or not. I asked, "Weren't you afraid it would get smashed in there?" He shook his head no. I asked, "You took it to your house when you went to pack your bag, and then you brought it over here?" He shook his head yes again. I asked, "How did you get it over here?" He said, "I put it in this" (showing me this plastic egg) -

The egg was filled with water, hence the sneaky behavior in the bathroom last night. I said, "You filled it with water??!!" He answered, "Yes, but it's head was sticking out." Hmmm. Imagine that. The little critter died in a three inch plastic egg with no air-flow, filled with water. He then told me, "Last night I would pick it up by the leg, and it would kick, but when I picked it up by the leg one time, it didn't kick so I knew it was dead." I just said, "Oh, Harrison. Go throw it under the bushes in the backyard."

That one makes me laugh!

I {Heart} Peeping Toms

A while back I added a Traffic Feed to the bottom of my blog because I was curious as to who (other than a few loyal friends/family that leave comments - thanks guys!) was reading it. While I don't know exactly who everyone is just by reading their locations I usually have a guess as to who some long lost acquaintances might be. I can also figure out who some might be because the Live Traffic Feed tells me how someone got to my blog.

It's funny because the first time I came across a Traffic Feed on some stranger's blog, I felt like I was caught doing something I shouldn't. I thought, "Oh no! These people know a lurker is reading this!" It was weird! But in thinking about it further, I am perfectly happy when someone I don't know comes upon my blog. I feel pretty safe with what I put on it. I try not to put anything on it that makes my family's exact location known. The whole reason I started this blog was to share pictures and stories about what is going on in our family's lives with our far-away family and friends. If some stranger is interested enough to read about our crazy happenings, great!

Tonight, as I looked through the Live Feed, I made two observations:
1. I don't know world geography so well! Sure, I know where most countries are of the people that read this, but I've never heard of some of their towns/cities.
2. If I want more people to come to the blog, I need to include a famous person's name in a post. I've had quite a few people google the name "Maura Tierney" (I made mention of her name in the previous Monkey post), and they've come to my blog. I found it interesting that people came to my blog by googling her name rather than two more well-known actors I mentioned, Denzel & Jim Carrey.

On perhaps my favorite stranger blog that I visit daily, Dawn often posts about strange and sometimes weird things people google that get them to her blog. That's one of my next things to figure out how to do because I'm just nosy. :)

P.S. How do you end a senctence when you want to put one of these----> :) little guys in? Do you end it with punctuation, or is that your punctuation? What exactly is :) etiquette? :{o

5 Little Monkeys

Friday night our local Parents As Teachers organization hosted a Diego party. They had different stations set up, all related to a Diego theme (vest decorating, painting a clubhouse, animal games, live kittens and puppies, and someone dressed as Diego). But the most popular attraction by far was the 3 month-old chimpanzee. You can't even imagine how cute she was!!!!

She was so tiny and adorable!!! I'm guessing she was about 8 pounds. The woman who brought her to the party owns about 8 chimps (and other anminals) and has had many others over the years. She and her husband operate a rescue. Many of the chimps they have had over the years are ex-animal actors. She had a photo album of some of the actors her animals have worked with over the years. She had pictures of Denzel Washington (I don't know what movie he was in with a chimp), Jim Carey dressed in full Ace Ventura costume, John Leguazamo and Maura Tierney from an ER episode, and there were a few others.

These people travel to people's houses for "Chimparties." For a mere $150, they will bring a chimp to your party for 30 minutes for up to 10 people. For $200, up to 8 people can go to their ranch for an hour. It sounds like an astronomical amount, but if you think about it, the money they charge goes toward the care and upkeep for their animals and ranch.

This baby chimp (Makayla) clung on to her human Momma, kissed her on the lips, and snuggled with her just as a human baby would. You could tell she was a bit timid of all the strangers, just as a human baby would be. She had her own security blankie, and travelled around in her own car seat.

Mallory was so funny with her! After waiting in the HUGE line, Edward set her down on the table right next to the chimp. The chimp was sitting very still, and Mallory put her arm around her, I guess thinking it was a stuffed animal. When she moved to look up at Mallory, she just just about soiled herself. It was too funny!

Lucky #20

We just got a call this evening that we have a new nephew! Andrew McKay Sanders was born to Jan, John, Caroline, Julia, Sterling, & Angel Baby Kathryn. He was 9 lbs. 1 oz. and 22 inches long(How do my skinny sisters-in-law grow such big babies, while I have six pounders?!?!) We're grateful for this new blessing that Jan, John and kids (and the rest of us) have been given.

And, he makes grandchild #20 on Edward's side. The oldest grandchild is 11! Welcome baby Andrew!