Mon., Sep. 17

Jeremy's VA check for September is STILL NOT HERE. He took the day off and we had a lovely day; we giggled a lot about how much time we spent going back to the pantry trying to get creative ideas of what to feed our family. lol It's getting pretty funny. Surely it'll arrive tomorrow??? (sigh) A week ago today they said 5-10 days, so it could be as late as Thursday. Uggh.

Jeremy and Justus Lego'd today for HOURS; they are mostly through some big project of putting together all the Bionicle guys to make sure we still have all the parts. "That's nice."

Because of the gallons of rain we received yesterday I was HIGHLY thrilled to be able to spend some time in the back yard today, in FFFFFAR more pleasant temperatures than we've had until now, easily pulling up weeds from the soft dirt!! YAY! Now my big project is to figure out the best way to evict a tarantula whose two 'entrance-and-exit' holes in the dirt are now 2' in diameter. This is not okay with me because during the hot months tarantulas are nocturnal, and although they are not aggressive, my fear is that without even seeing it, either the dog or I, in our nighttime potty trips to that corner of the yard, will upset the tarantula. I don't want to even SEE it. I don't 'work and play well' with spiders. My heart stops. And I've never even seen a tarantula in the wild. The other part of the problem is that his/her burrow is under one of the mesquite trees, where there are about 30 weeds that need to be pulled!! So, how shall I go about that, pray tell?????!!??

I know, I know, "Ever heard of Round-Up?" All Round-Up does is kill the plant; someone still has to dig the dead weeds out of the ground; I'm not interested in that job, thank you.

N & I made peanut butter cookies today. "What's the cookie fettish lately," you ask? Umm, short version is that the stuff to make cookies is stuff we keep on-hand, and ... the cupboards are currently really bare!

We drove to Gail's to drop of the freezer meal I put together for her and Jewel for when they return from Phoenix after Jewel's 'cyber-knife' procedures Tue.-Fri. Elaine had returned from her trip to Mexico today with Shirley and Deb, so she stayed with the napping boy. N, Jeremy, and I ended up staying about an hour (long story I won't detail), and during a walk through Gail's great yard (She has some GRASS!), I noticed a hummingbird moth flying around a bush of hers that has small purple flowers. I'd recently learned about hummingbird moths in Birds & Blooms, and since they're so humongous Jeremy is interested in them as well. So I mentioned the moth to Gail, and we watched it for a minute, but soon Gail realized something was 'off', and after taking an even closer look she realized the moth had been caught by a PRAYING MANTIS!!!!! Right there in her bush, at chest level (eye level for Natasha) we watched the praying mantis eat the brain out of the moth! It was ssssssso disgusting and yet strangely fascinating. Ick; makes me nauseous thinking about it. Gail took some pictures she's promised to share, so I'll probably post those later. And then we jarred up both bugs to take home for Justus to see.

I have a new homeschooling friend, from Billings! LOL How funny is that? All those months in MT, and it's a year AFTER we move to AZ that I learn that Art & Dana Booth are homeschoolers! She joined the COCHSers group today and we shared a couple fun e-mails back-and-forth. Nice! Dana said there are three homeschooling families in the Billings church. Hm! Annnnnnnd, all these years she has been anxious to meet and benefit from relationships with other "Church of Christ Homeschoolers", and didn't know that FCIII is almost completely homeschooling families! So she was THRILLED to hear that!

Jeremy tried to teach me how to copy a CD using my computer. Turns out it doesn't have the correct software. Irritating. I have reason to need three copies of the audio/resources disk that comes with my Bible class material. Thankfully he brought his computer home (He did a l-i-t-t-l-e work, for the seminar, today, on his first Monday off since we got back from vacation!), so the disks were made ... just not on my computer. BUT, I think I could do it myself now! I did succeed, actually, just ... the program herein doesn't do both 'regular' files and audio files. gr

Natasha and Justus are playing outside for noticeably longer periods of time, thanks to the decreasing outdoor temp. All this week I think the high isn't supposed to go over 95. Some RELIEF. During their inside time today they rearranged Justus's room! They've decided to try out moving their beds up against the wall, to make more playing/working room in their bedrooms. I see their point, but ... their rooms are plenty big as it is! To me it just looks like more space to mess up and have to clean up! ha! So anyway, this involves moving the beds, lamps, fans, etc., and they aren't even asking for help! When did these children get so big?? Look at this precious picture I accidentally found today. It was only three years ago, and already he's moving furniture! WHERE DOES THE TIME GO? :*(