Our little stinker

PLUS

EQUALS...you can only imagine!!

Last night after getting in from eating with the Taylors who are visiting, Josiah went to put Jackson out on the lead and Jackson got away. I figured he'd be gone for a few minutes and come back. After all, it's dark, it's getting late (about 8 o'clock...not late by everyone's standards I realize!), and we've been gone for a few hours...he SHOULD be glad to see us and be ready to get back. Well, we ended up putting everyone to bed with no Jackson. We could hear him barking at things every now and then, but he'd never come back when we called. Finally about 9:15 Michael and I were getting things ready to shut the house down for the evening and we heard the jingle of Jackson's collar. I went to the back door by our bedroom to let him in. I looked out on the porch and saw him kinda slinking to the door. I thought he was remorseful and sorry that he'd run off and not come when he was called. You know, that guilty dog look. I was opening the door and Jackson was just stepping in and Michael called "Is he clean? Make sure he's clean!" and then it hit me. The stinch to end all stinches...skunk stink. He'd been sprayed somewhere out on his escapade. I'm figuring it was right before he came home. His fur was still wet on the top of his back, from what I assume was skunk musk. I asked Michael if I should get tomato juice (like the old wives' tale suggests) to bathe him. Michael had no clue about that one. I went and got the dog soap and checked the pantry. I only had Muir Glen organic tomato sauce. I sincerely did NOT want to use the world's best tasting tomatoes to bathe my crazy dog after a skunk bath. Would Rotel work? I wasn't sure. We bathed him once in dog soap with a little vingear. It made little difference. So, off to Google we went. I found out that tomato juice doesn't work, it just makes you smell the tomatoes more. It's called "olfactory fatigue". Well, at this point, my olfactory sure was fatigued!! I was so sick of skunk smell! And let me tell you, the smell of a dead skunk on the side of the road is perfume compared to a straight shot on a dog!! I also found out the skunk musk is an oil, so I guess when we added the vinegar, we made sort of a skunk vinegrette! Well, we found a recipe using hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. I was so glad we'd stocked up on h.p., but had no idea we had 7 partially opened bottle of it! How does that happen???!! Jackson got another bath of the mixture and then got sprayed with a natural febreeze-type thing, and got to spend the night outside!! This morning, he still smelled skunk-ish so Jeffrey and Josiah and I went to the store and got 5 more bottle of h.p. and bathed Jackson 2 more times with the mixture. I then brushed him with essential oils to try and help combat the stink. I think it's mostly gone, but I think I still smell a faint mixture of hyssop (essential oil) and skunk, so he'll probably get to spend the day outside today. We're breaking out the febreeze and yankee candles in the house as well.

Here's hoping Jackson learned his lesson...stick to the goats and the kittens!

Totally Tejas

Yesterday Michael had to help serve samples for HEB at a festival called Totally Tejas. The boys and I got to tag along and what fun it was! The afternoon included (in addition to lots of yummy foods) feeding longhorn cattle and American bison, grape stomping, roping "cows" , which were bales of hay with plastic cattle horns, some dancing, lots of football and I even won a free hour of Pilates training at home, and a basket full of Panera bread and coupons for four free lunches at Panera. We also came home with 6 reusable shopping bags, 13 bottles of Pelligrino sprakling water, 10 bottles of spring water and 13 pork tenderloins that were being given away at the end of the day. The weather was wonderful and the whole afternoon was great...Totally Tejas!


Jeffrey's "grape"y feet. They got to step on a t-shirt after they stomped grapes so their footprints are in purple on a commerative t-shirt.

Jonathan's feet in the grapes.

Josiah in the grape bin. He was so cute. He went running up to Michael and said "Daddy, we got to walk on grapes..and we got a t-shirt for it!"

Jeremy in the grapes. He has fresh mozzerella in his other hand that he didn't want to have to throw away!

Jonathan in the grapes.

Jeffrey doing the twist in the grapes.

Jonathan feeding the Bison and the "Beefalo", which is a cross between a bison and longhorn bull.

Jeffrey feeding the bison

Jeremy getting "slimed" by the longhorn.

Josiah feeding a longhorn.

Jeremy roping the "cattle".

Josiah roping. He gave up before actually doing it.

Jonathan roping.

Jeffrey roping. He actually got it a couple of times.

This was a grill at the entrance of the festival.

There was this gorgeous arrangement at the entrance of the festival. Notice the tin armadillos. Where else but TX?!

Jeffrey and Josiah with HEB Buddy. He's the kid mascot for HEB. Josiah was thrilled to get to see him in person!!

Here's my handsome boys!

They came from afar

We are so thrilled this week to play host and tour guide to one of our favorite families from TN! The Taylors have been on a fantastic RV tour of the US since March. We've been looking forward to their tour of TX since we left TN, and they're finally here!!! Griffin is Josiah's age and Mason is a year younger than Jeffrey. To say they've had a great time playing together is the understatement of the year. In fact in the nearly eight hours we saw them yesterday, I think we saw the four of them (Jeffrey, Josiah, Mason and Griffin) for about 30 minutes total, during meal times. Needless to say, Jeffrey and Josiah slept VERY well last night!! And today was another great day of fun. We went to the RV park where the Taylor's are staying and grilled out burgers and went swimming (a heated pool!). The upcoming week promises more fun...the Alamo, Hemisfair park, Incredible Pizza, a movie, Mason's birthday party, and lots of exploring, legos, nerf gun wars, and on and on!! It's been so nice for everyone! We're in the process of talking the Taylors into moving here!

Dan cooking burgers on his great little grill.

The grill masters!

The boys (minus Jeffrey) watching TV on the little screen while waiting on lunch.

Josiah, Mason, Griffin, Jonathan, Jeremy and Jeffrey

Josiah, Mason, Griffin and Jonathan having fun at the RV

The season finale

Jeremy running off the field after his touchdown.

Jeremy ready to block a MF player. The defense held them in this series. They didn't score.

Jonathan just coming off the field after making a great tackle.

Jeremy (nearest) and other patriots get ready to line it up for a play.

Jeremy running in for his touchdown.

Saturday afternoon Jonathan and Jeremy and the FEAST patriots Middle School team played against Marble Falls in a championship game to determine second place in the league. Marble Falls was 2nd in the North division of our league and FEAST was 2nd in the south, having lost only one game all season. The Patriots came out ready to play and stomped MF 42-8. Jonathan and Jeremy were put on first team offense (Jo) and first team defense (Je). We are so proud of them for working their way up to a starting position. They also played when the second team was put in, so they got more playing time than in any other game in the season (except the game that was B team only, you can read about that game here). Jeremy was rewarded with another touchdown, bringing his season total to four, as well as some great tackles/blocks. Jonathan made some amazing tackles and great blocks for other team members. My mom and dad drove in to watch the game. Thanks for coming Pop and Granna!

They have improved so much since May. It's been an amazing season. We've been so impressed with the coaches and the whole FEAST program. Jeremy's already said that the next 10 months can't go fast enough. Next year Jeffrey will be old enough to play and he's already chomping at the bit! It was a great season!

Basketball's already started and the first game is next week. So stay tuned for Bball pics coming soon!

Goodies from California

Michael's aunt and uncle in California sent the boys these totally awesome cookies. Don't you just love America? Where else in the world do people print pictures of the presidential candidates on cookies??!! When the boys opened the box from Tony and Gin-Gin, they found 4 foil wrapped goodies, thinking maybe they were Christmas ornaments. Jonathan opened his first and staring up at him was not a pretty little ornament, but Joe Biden! Whoa, what a shock! It took about 2 seconds for everyone to figure out what the other cookies might contain. It was so cute, they all took turns unwrapping their package. Each one calling out "I hope I get Palin, I hope I get Palin!" Jeremy was the lucky-duck. Jeffrey groaned as he unwrapped Obama (have we brainwashed-oops I mean educated-him or what!) but quickly got over and just started eating the cookie. But first I had to take some pictures.

Aren't those great! Thanks Tony and Gin for the fun treat! I hope the outcome of the election is as sweet as those cookies!

Who are you...and what have you done with my husband?

One day last week, Michael and the boys came home from football and all the boys came rushing in and said "Mom, come see dad's car!!!" I had NO idea what to expect from this comment. So, I went outside expecting to see a dent or a car covered in mud or dirt, but not THIS....

And what's more, the boys came in with the white shoe polish in hand with elated expressions declaring "Dad said we can do the windows on the too!! (Now in a hushed kind of tone) You just have to say it's ok". I'm not sure if they were thinking that I might really say ok. But I shut down that idea very quickly. I think my exact words were "No way!" Now maybe this just stirred up something in me that doesn't like to be embarrassed or have people think I'm wierd just as they drive by my car. If people think I'm wierd after they know me, that's their problem, but I don't want them making judgements about me just because of what's painted on my car windows. Ok, my issue, I realize that!

I asked Michael later what persuaded him to do something so out of character for him. He said that it was two things: First, he wanted to communicate to the boys the importance of this election. He said that this election is so important that we must be willing to step outside of our comfort zone and do something radical to stand up for what we believe in. The other reason was just to exercise his first amendment right to free speech. He's concerned that it seems to be going down the tubes. If a person (like "Joe the plumber") says something that's against the mainstream, all of a sudden all the "powers that be" pull all their resources together to discredit the person saying it. That's just not right. So, he wanted to paint his windows, just because he can. Ok, good reasons, I admit. If HE wants to do that to HIS car, more power to him.

But then on Friday he informed me that he was going to paint the windows on the van for our trip up to Austin for J&J's championship football game. What!!! I was now going to have to ride in a painted van...AND through Austin, certainly not a bastion for conservatism. There are even bumperstickers that people have in Austin that say "Keep Austin wierd". I'm sure anywhere in Austin you can throw a stick and hit a democrat. I opened my big mouth with a smart-alec suggestion to write "Democrats for McCain" on one window so maybe there would be democrats in Austin who would think "Oh, it must be ok to vote for McCain, there's someone else who's doing it". Note to self...keep your big mouth closed! The side window on the van said "TX Dems for McCain" alongside "TX Socialists for Obama" The back window had the "Barack in '08 Broke in '09" and the other said had the "Palin Power" "McCain Rocks" on it. I asked Michael if he minded if I wore my jacket over my head the whole way! And truth be told, at one point after the football game I was walking out to the car to get something for the boys out of the back of the car. There was a family reading all the signs and laughing at it. I saw them and (I'm ashamed to say it!) I walked right by the car. I waited until they were moving on to head back to the car and get my stuff out. Even then, though, someone else stopped and commented to me about the windows (a supportive comment of course, it's a homeschool/Christian school game). I wanted to blurt out "I didn't want to do it! It's my husband's idea! Can I ride home with you?!", but I didn't. I just smiled.

Really, most people gave us thumbs up as they were driving past or laughed and had supportive comments to make. (And a comment about Barack being misspelled). Know what? Maybe it's not the big deal that I made it out to be. But, thankfully, Michael cleaned off the van windows before church yesterday! :-)

I love my husband for standing up for what he belives in....even in white shoe polish!

A treat that's sticky-not tricky

In general ,over the lives of our boys trick-or-treating-really, the whole Halloween holiday-has not been "on the radar screen" of our family. We always try and find something else fun to do that evening. Last night was no exception. After the boys' last (sigh) football practice yesterday afternoon, our family headed to IHOP for all you can eat pancakes. And boy did they eat some pancakes. 24 in total I think. Along with 6 eggs, three hasbrowns, and 10 pieces of bacon. There were a few pancakes left for breakfast this morning, which is nice because we're quickly headed up to Austin for the championship games for football. More on that later.

We had lots of fun and laughs. Jeffrey tried the strawberry syrup for the first time. It was love at first taste! He was thrilled when I told him we could make it at home (with a lot less sugar...didn't tell him that part!)

Our waiter took this one. He thought we were on vacation because I was taking pictures. When I said "No, we're just out to dinner", he just kinda looked at us curiously. I'm sure he was thinking"Ok, that's strange!" He must not know any bloggers! :-)