Templeton #2

The crime scene: North side of the compost pile. Luke and Kim's house. At around 1700 hours.

The victim: Templeton #2

I did it again and it was glorious! I was eyeing the compost pile all day long hoping that I would see one of the Templeton's out. It was a nice warm[er] day, so I thought for sure I'd see them running around all day long. Finally when we were eating dinner tonight, I saw one...a smaller one. Once again, I ran out the front door with gun in hand. The kids were watching through the back door [this time they weren't covering their ears]. Of course the dang rodent scurried away as soon as I was positioned, but once again, I didn't want to give up so easily, so I waited. He came back and started munching away at the trap of a watermelon that we had left out as bait. I took my time getting my aim on the target just right. At first all I had a good shot of was its rear end and from killing the last rat I knew that the bebes wouldn't penetrate there. I made a little bit of noise with my shoe so that he would pop it's head up and when it did, BAM! Once again, I nailed it! This time it was more along the back of the head in the neck. It squirmed around flopping its body all over the place like a fish out of water. It flopped around on the concrete, onto the grass and took its final breaths on the mud. When I looked back, all the boys were patiently waiting for me to signal that it was okay to come out. I had to shoot it a couple more times to put the filthy thing out of its misery. Most of the boys watched. I told Ethan that it was okay to cover his eyes, which he did. Again, they thought it was the coolest thing ever. I had to clean up the mess I made all by myself since Luke wasn't around and wasn't going to be home for some hours, but it really wasn't that bad. Now, I just have the alpha male to kill and hopefully we'll be done with this...until the spring I'm sure.

Meet the Templetons...

WARNING:

That images below are somewhat graphic and not very pretty [especially if you're a rodent lover]. What you are about to see may not be suitable for [your] children. Consider yourself warned...
[as preiviously seen on An Apple A Day]

The crime scene: East side of the compost troff. Luke and Kim's house. At around 1200 hours.

The victim: Templeton #1

That's right. I did that! Luke and I have been dealing with these rats for months and months. It all started in the spring when we first discovered that they had moved into the neighborhood. We tried and tried for weeks to get them, but never succeeded. It is known throughout our friends and family that we have this small problem and it doesn't help matters that our garden and compost pile keeps these rodents fed pretty well. Today while we were getting ready for lunch, one of the boys looked out the back door and saw a Templeton in the compost. Luke and I quickly grabbed the bebe guns and snuck out the front door ever so quietly. Luke thought that they had scurried away, but I saw three and wasn't about to give up just yet. I quietly walked over closer to them. The medium sized one was perched near the back of the compost troff. I raised my gun, closed one eye to better focus on my aim, squeezed the trigger, and BAM! I didn't think that I had hit it until I saw it squirming all over the place and trying to recover from it's injury. I called out to Luke telling him that I hit it. I thought I would have heard it scream, but it was silently writhing to its gruesome death. Luke and I shot at it a couple more times without penetrating the skin thinking that any moment it was going to run away, but then it stopped moving and finally died. When we got a closer look we noticed that I had nailed it right in the head. Lucky shot you may ask? Not at all.

Disposing of the nuisance. I was pretty impressed with the size of that thing. If this was hunting worthy, I could have snapped a shot and taken it to Sportsman's Warehouse to have my prized picture displayed on the wall...Okay maybe not, but to have a rat that big in your garden is a big deal to me.

The boys thought this was one of the coolest things ever. Boy are they going to be impressed when they start going deer and elk hunting with their dad and grandpa.

There may be a smorgasbord of food scraps in that compost pile for those Templeton's to choose from, but this is not where any old rat can glut, glut, glut, glut and get away with it...

The shoes that will never be...

About a year ago when I went shopping for my brand new baby boy, I found some very cute clothes that I was so excited for him to grow into. Among the many cute things I found were these shoes:

Cute right?

Well, yesterday when I pulled these out of he closet to test them out on Oliver, I was very saddened. Oliver's feet are too big and fat. Once again, another pair of shoes go back into storage in hopes that maybe my next child will get use out of them.

I like to call his feet hobbit feet...minus the thick toenails and hair.

"I want that..."

I don't quite know what it is, but I love cowboy stuff. From hats, boots, art, music, and movies...I love it all.

This is my recent find. Old Gringo vintage cowboy boots. Retail price: only $499.99...A girl can dream, right???

A much needed cut

Oh Oliver. He has the funniest hair that I like to blame Luke for. It seriously stands straight up making his head look even bigger. We have been testing out the growth of his hair to see if it will get any better, but no, it hasn't gotten better...infact, it looks worse the longer it gets. So, we made the decision to shave it all off...

BEFORE

He's so happy to be in his bumbo, ready for a haircut.

DURING

The happiness has worn off and now he's just sitting still wondering what that buzzing and vibrating is.

AFTER

Olivers happy to be done, Luke's happy that he doesn't have to take any more pictures, and I'm happy that my boy looks so good with his buzzed head.

The past 12 months

On Saturday we celebrated Oliver's first birthday. I kept saying to myself, "I can't believe it has already been a year" or things like "I year ago I was..." and I'd go talking about what life was like a year ago. Oliver has been so much fun to have in our lives. He has taught me more about myself then I think I ever knew. He has strengthened me and mostly, has made me see life in a whole new perspective. I feel so blessed and honored to have him as my boy.

Here is a look back on the past year...


SEPTEMBER

Minutes old. Weighing in at 6 pounds 2 ounces. Can you believe he was once that small???

OCTOBER

First photo shoot

NOVEMBER

Getting chubbier

DECEMBER

Oliver in his blessing outfit.

JANUARY

All bundled up for the cold weather. Gotta love his chubby face!

FEBRUARY

Having fun playing on his own.

MARCH

Loving bath time.

APRIL

Showing off his teeth. Cutest little teeth I've ever seen.

MAY

Eating puff puffs...one of his favorite things.

JUNE

Loving the sun.

JULY

Having fun playing in the grass.

AUGUST

So happy to be camping

SEPTEMBER

Happy Birthday Oliver. We can't express enough how much we love you and all the joy, happiness, love and all good things that you have brought into our lives.

AND THIS IS HOW WE CELEBRATED...

We had a cowboy themed party with about 18 little kids running around. We had some pizza, a horse pinata, Funny hats and sherrif badges, a cowboy boot rainbow chip cake, ugly singing, loads of presents and a great time. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us. Oliver is sure lucky to have all of you in his life.

Well, he didn't like our singing, maybe next year???

Please do not feed me...

Cottage Cheese!

There isn't much that this boy doesn't eat, so when I fed him cottage cheese and he nearly threw up, I was a little surprised.