Black witch moth

My mom's neighbor (thanks, Phyllis) called us last week and told us she had a huge moth hanging out by her door. We journeyed over there to find this great specimen. We captured him in a 40 oz drink cup but had to transfer him to a square plastic container because he is so big. We promptly froze him and then pinned him. It is a black witch moth--one of the largest moths in Texas. It has a five inch wing span! It is remarkable. For those of you who are bothered by us freezing him (mom); remember, he will either end up in a bird's mouth or on someone's front bumper if we didn't. Now, we have this great guy preserved in our insect display case for people to enjoy for years to come.

Allen takes a scuba class.

Yep. He scuba-dove, scuba-dived, scubaed, learned to scuba dive in a homeschool coop recently at the Texas State Aquarium Sea Lab. That experience has spurred him on to want to get a real scuba license--that would be $165.00. I told him he could have that for Christmas, but he wants an XBox. Bummer. I think the scuba adventure would be more fun in the long run. Besides, who needs another gaming system? We have a Wii, a Playstation II, a PSP, and a Ninentendo DS. Why in the world would we want an XBox? I may have to get him what I want him to have for Christmas--the only problem; Jerry is a big kid also and wants the XBox.

For those of you who are afraid to ask...

Yep. I'm still nursing! Yep. He's two and a half! Yep. He asks to nurse and even tells me when one is empty and he's switching to the other. I think it's hysterical and I never thought I'd ever nurse this long and think it's funny. Also, I have no intention of weening him until after the flu season and even then I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not joking when I say I'll nurse him until he's 10. No, I'm really joking. That is way too old. I think.

Brooms will stand alone during the fall equinox...

My sister called and told me a couple of weeks ago about this broom thing and I didn't really pay much attention to it when she called (no offense, Sheridan, I think I was asleep or something). Anyway, yesterday, I saw on facebook where someone posted a picture of their broom standing alone and I thought we'd try it (the phone call from my sister came back to me). Well, it's true.

During the fall equinox, the sun becomes parallel with the moon or something (you'll have to check that out for yourself because I don't exactly remember). You can stand a broom up and it will not fall. It can only happen during a few weeks in the fall of the year. It is rumored that an egg will also stand on its' end, but Allen and I couldn't get that to happen. But, we did manage the broom. The eggs were quite a mess.

We love the aquarium--that's why we're members

Although this one is not from the Aquarium, I couldn't help but include it. If one Coke is good, surely, two is better, huh?

I'm not sure what he's saying, but it is important!

Oops. You'll have to turn your head. Turtle--from the Aquarium--the kids loved him because he kept walking to them over and over again.

Marymae is all about posing!

Allen got to help train a dolphin in the underwater area. It was very cool. The dolphin could determine shapes--circle, square, triangle, etc. I was impressed.

So I made these pies...

My mom's birthday was last Tuesday and I made two chocolate pies for her from scratch (except for the crust). Anyway, they came out really well despite my oven door breaking in the middle of it--I have two ovens, so everything was fine. When it's time to go, we load the children and the pies and head to Sheridan's house. We set the pies on the floor board under Benjamin so they wouldn't get stepped on and they didn't. He did take off his shoes and throw them on the floor before we got to my mom's house. This shoe obviously landed in this pie and I left it there for everyone to see. It was pretty funny. We ate it anyway. All the meringue stuck to the bottom of that shoe, so when we pulled it off, it left a "clean" area....Hmmmm.

Benjamin goes to the dentist for the 1st time!!

I am very religious about getting my children's teeth cleaned every six months. Benjamin turned two in April and when it was time to get our teeth cleaned yesterday, I had the dentist do his teeth too. He did swimmingly! (Good adjective, huh?) He got up in that chair like a trooper and opened his mouth and sat through the entire thing. He let the hygenist count his teeth, scrape a little, polish his teeth, floss and everything. Then, Dr. Perrin looked at his teeth and he did great and got a clean bill of dental health! (Even though he still nurses all night.):-) The picture below is of him getting his teeth flossed.

He is getting introduced to Mr. Thirsty in this one. He liked the sucker thingy--thought it was funny.

Polishing. He ate the polishing stuff.

Counting/scraping teeth with a pick and a mirror. He did great.

Him with his bib on. These were out of order. They started with the bib and then went up.