Playing Possum?

Our dog Teddy totally just made up for any frustration we've had with him. While out for his evening stroll in the backyard I kept hearing him bark. As I got closer to the window, I could hear him growling in-between barking. It had a pattern & was just odd behavior for him to continue barking. Being the scaredy cat I am, I asked Ben to step outside & check it out. When Ben called me out, it was to show me the possum Teddy was guarding, lying dead in one of his dirt holes. I dreaded the children messing with it tomorrow, so I put on some shoes & grabbed a shovel to throw it over the fence into a wooded section.


Ben: are you sure it's dead?
Me: Yeah, we've been standing here awhile and it hasn't moved at all.
Ben: ever heard of playing possum?

At that moment a lightbulb went off & I realized the wisdom of my husband using that phrase. I probably wouldn't have listened to him otherwise. It was indeed alive & started moving when I tried to get the shovel underneath it. Since it was snarling & probably already panicky, I quickly decreed we all go in the house & give it time to depart. I waited 10 minutes before taking Teddy back out with me. He tracked it's path all over the yard to the fence where it left.

Mother's Day 2012

Today has been a very lovely day. The children brought me breakfast in bed: pancakes, bacon, strawberries & orange juice. Wesley picked out a dozen red roses for me. Ben told me that the boy insisted they be red. Josie picked out Ghiradelli Dark & Sea Salt Caramel chocolate squares- she knows me so well. And Carlise having noticed my frequent use of my kindle, picked out a clip-on light for it.

After our leisure morning, we did some prep and hurried up to Enterprise to spend lunch with my Mom &  sister, JaNae. We had a lunch of chuck eye steaks, artichokes, pasta salad,  & a chilled salad w/ avocado. It was fulfilling being able to serve my mother a meal I prepared. A very tiny bit of payback for all the many she has given me.

Before returning home for dinner, we stopped in to see Ben's mom. Ben picked out some lovely tulips for her (the ones we gave her for Easter were already dead). We enjoyed our visit with her before the children started becoming cranky due to the lateness of dinner.

Ben did a fantastic job of making this day so lovely for our mothers and myself. Love that man!

Book Quotes

I love when books use older quotes at the beginning of a chapter. These are a few I've come across and enjoyed. The first being my favorite.

Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.
-George Bernard Shaw

I can resist everything except temptation.
-Oscar Wilde

No man is rich enough to buy back his own past.
-Oscar Wilde

The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket.
-Charles Macklin

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
-George Bernard Shaw

Never take a wife who has no faults.
-Old Irish proverb

A lifetime of happiness: No man alive could bear it: It would be hell on earth.
-George Bernard Shaw

Dinner Dilemma

Thinking up dinners that are varied & healthy is so frustrating for me. I've tried emeals in the past and it just had so much filler food that we didn't want to use, it was a waste of time & money.  However, they just introduced a new eating plan that doesn't include processed foods! Rumor has it they are working on one for Paleo as well for those that don't eat any grains or legumes. But I'm happy with cutting out the processed foods. Moderation is my happy middle ground. =]

Phrases heard around our home this week

"Carlise, get off the pole!"   {oh my}

during bathtime "You are such a dirty girl!"  {cringe}

"Can I get a what what!" {where in the world?}

"but I NEED to watch <insert Marvel super hero>!" {need??}

"I HATE YOU!! I NEVER EVER LIKED YOU!"  {tantrum}

"Today is the BESTEST day ever!"  {triumph}

"I'm having the worstest day ever!"  {tantrum}