5,704th trip to the zoo

As you can tell, Brendon was more than excited

When I planned our trip to the zoo I figured we would only be there a short time considering Timothys age and that the older kids would be walking the whole time. Imagine my surprise when we stayed nearly six hours. You are probably thinking I have lost my mind but I have actually come to a realization....at the zoo I am the mom I want to be. When at home I have "things to do". I am continuously saying "in a minute", if I do it at all. At the zoo there are no dishes to be washed, laundry to fold, shelves to dust, or floors to vacuum. At the zoo there is only free time to feed as many fish as we want and stare as long as we want at the monkeys.

I am considering moving in

I didn't really think Timothy would enjoy himself because of his age but boy was I wrong. This was our first stop. The chimps were wild, swinging from the lights, jumping from here to there and clapping like crazy.

Here are our fish
On the way home Kati said we forgot to see the ostrich. She was so busy with her fish that she didn't notice the birds right across the water even though we were probably there for twenty minutes.

Brendon really wanted to feed the birds so I let him be a big boy and buy his own bird food. He threw the dollar at the guy and walked away without any food, I had to send him back. He did a great job, I was very proud.

Timothy loved the bird house. He really wanted to touch one

so close, so close

man, I just missed him

got him

He was so happy in there

What a cutie

Even more cuties

We went back to visit the chimps again and found this family with a new baby in the outside exhibit. Brendon and I stood right next to the glass admiring the new baby. I got really excited because the dad started walking toward us and I was thinking how nice it was going to be for Brendon to see him close up. So there we are admiring with Bear just inches away from the glass and with the dad chimp just a few feet away when all of the sudden the chimp runs straight for the glass and throws himself right into it. Poor Bear starts hollerin' "That monkey hurt me!"

We stopped to see the gorillas again too and where lucky enough to have one sitting right by the window

As you can tell Timbo likes her but if you look closely to this picture and the one before it the gorilla is not looking back at him but somewhere else

She only had eyes for Kati

We went to another window and again, look closely, the gorilla is still staring at Kati

Kati got up and moved to the other side of the glass and guess who moved too
(still staring)

The kids were ignoring her while I was taking pictures but she wasn't going to have any of that, she knocked on the glass to get their attention! (She did this three different times)
(still staring)

At one point another little girl came up to the window and I asked my children to step back since we had been there so long. I kid you not when I say that the gorilla was craning her neck all around to find Kati.

Kati loved the gorilla some much too and wanted to know things about her. Kati cared so much that I stepped completely out of my comfort zone and went to find a zookeeper. I waved to her through the glass and she was nice enough to come see what the crazy lady wanted.

We found out the gorillas name is Fred (yes it is a girl), she is 17 and has never had any babies (Kati wanted to know). She also has a half sister (she was in the background of one of the pictures)

I just had to add this picture. He was having so much fun playing in this crack.

I should brag on my big kids here and tell you that they walked the whole time and didn't complain once!

A trip to visit Santa

We went with Brandy and Lan to visit Santa. I guess Santa overslept because he showed up to work in his p.j.'s. Not exactly what I wanted for my picture but oh well. I told Santa Brendon wouldn't be coming to sit with him so Santa went to talk to Brendon himself
(thanks for taking the pic Brandy)

The kids checking out the tree later.

Mom

..........I can't get the peanut butter and jelly sandwhich off my nose

Decorating here there and everywhere

We started all the decorating at Grandma and Grandpa's house.Check out Kati's hair, she is jumping with joy.

This poor little guy had to rest on the floor

Hanging the star together
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The next place to decorate was our house but we needed a tree first

Is it this one?

...or this one? Nope

We have a winner!

If I'm taking pictures of Timbo Bear wants to too

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Next the kids helped the youth decorate the tree at church while we watched Charlie Brown A Christmas Story
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Our last place to decorate was at Grandma E's house.
just a little bit closer, "here kitty kitty"

My funny kids

Jeff: Dumb driver

Kati: Mommy says they're stupid drivers
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While in a dressing room....
Brendon: Mommy, I don't never kick dogs

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Kati: Mommy what kind of food do chimp-panties eat?

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Mommy: Guys, look back there. Can you see the groundhogs?

Brendon: I have a grandpa!

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Brendon: God did make me to grow a baby!

Flashback Friday

Kati planted this lovely plant in cubbies when they were talking about creation. Actually she planted two seeds to grow this plant which is a lot more than I can say for my own growing abilities.As I walked by Kati's plant the other day I thought about my grandma and what a "green thumb" she had and hoped Kati would be as well.

My grandma would pick up broken off pieces of plant she would find on the Wal-mart floor and be able to get it to grow later. Her yard was full of all kinds of plants and I believe I am correct in say she won an award for her yard, maybe even twice.
This is me and my Grandma, probably pretty close to the time she was gathered up to be with our Lord.
This is a picture taken from my Grandma's back gate. It may not look like much for this picture but I can promise you it was lovely. Just the sight of this picture brings back warm fuzzes for me.

Can you see the white lattice in the back of the picture on the right? That was my Grandma's bird room. When I say bird room I don't mean she had a bird or two, she had many. Probably my favorite was her African Gray, his name escapes me now but he was a great bird. I can remember being a small child and Grandma taking me to look at all the birds. She would let me hold some of the eggs the birds had laid even after I had already broken some.

She not only had a love for birds, she had one for fish as well. She had more than one aquarium but what I remember the most was the aquarium she had exclusively for pregnant fish. If you have ever had guppies then you know someone is always pregnant, she must have been fishin' em out constantly.

Grandma's house was full of things. She use to go to the goodwill store and buy broken toys to fix and return.

She use to say "Dontcha see?" when she was teaching me about something.

After Grandma was gathered up you wouldn't believe all the things we found. It was the first time I saw different colored knee high pantie hose, orange y'all. There were over a hundred rolls of toilet paper. I can still remember hearing some yell "Oh, no" when they lifted up a dust ruffle only to find more unpainted ceramics. And my favorite find, there was a drawer full of broken crayons but inside of it all was a broken ring and I fell in love with it right then and there. My momma took that ring, had it fixed and gave it to me for Christmas. Thanks Mom.

I would like to think she is looking down on me from heaven but I just don't know. I wish she could have met my kids, I know she would have loved them. I can see her being patient with Brendon's energy, sharing her love of living things with Kati, and snuggling Timothy until he smelt just like the Channel lotion she had on. Most of all I wish Jeff could have met her.

I miss you Grandma