OH THE HORRORS!

While I don't understand how there could possibly be no comments on my earlier blog about our bat infestation (and my tribulations regarding that infestation) I will continue on with the tale. I do eventually expect some kind of sympathy or at least horrified comments...

Tonight I needed to change over laundry and thought I would do it quickly before going to bed. I was casually minding my own business while walking down the basement stairs. Suddenly out of NOWHERE a HUGE, hairy, fluttering black bat went whizzing past my head. THE BAT CAME BACK! I slammed down on the stairs (I was second from bottom), hurting my sun-burnt shins and shimmied down to the floor. As many of you might be wondering....yes, I am pretty sure I screamed slightly and may have swore like a sailor. I'm okay with it.

Now the basement ceilings are LOW and this horrendously large bat was flying at light speed around the basement and swooping almost to the floor. (This was all noticed within about a 5 second interval). I half-stood and ran up the stairs (still swearing I am sure although it is a little fuzzy). I slammed the door to the basement(good thinking on my part), ran through the kitchen, through the office, up the two sets of stairs to the second level, burst into our room and woke Eric up from a dead sleep (Snoring) shouting quietly lest we wake Quinn up, "THE BAT IS BACK." God bless him. For someone who has issues waking up, this whole bat ordeal really gets him moving quickly!

Eric, Isaiah and myself traipsed back downstairs while figuring out how to arm ourselves. Eric decided on a pillow and Isaiah's tennis racket (gross), I again weilded the trash can lid. Isaiah was very offended that he didn't have a "weapon" so he got out the yard stick (that would have to be some good aim...). Suddenly Eric shushed us. He could hear the bat on the other side of the door to the basement...beating his nasty, huge, hairy wings. So Eric went out through the front door, walked around the house and opened the back doors. According to him, the bat just flew out. PRAISE GOD!

In my defense, Eric affirmed it was a BIG bat. Ickkkk. I still shudder at the thought.

I Take It All Back...

Last night at 4:30 in the morning, I was in the kitchen getting ready to feed Quinn. He was laying happily in his bouncy seat on the counter and I was at the sink talking to him when I suddenly saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned around and in that split second I realized the black shadow I saw swooping was a bat. A bat the size of a crow!

As I gasped, I dropped to the floor (in a crouch) and realized I was shaking pretty uncontrollably. It was in this instant that I also realized that my baby, my poor, poor baby was sitting in his bouncy seat ON TOP of the counter right inthe center of the kitchen where this crow-sized bat was swooping. Due to the kitchen being the ONLY room in our house with lower ceilings, this bat was circling right above my head and horrifyingly around my child. This said, apparently Quinn didn't mind as the entire time I was freaking out he was handling his business accomanied with grunts and groans and then began talking and cooing. He was quite happy to say the least. Maybe this bat was providing amusement?!?!?!

Meanwhile, I continued to crouch because the bat never stopped flying long enough for me to stand up and save my baby. At some point I grabbed the trash can lid and waited for the bat to fly towards me again. Thought was to slam it with the lid, thus stunning it, covering it with the lid and running upstairs to wake up a sleeping and blissfully ignorant Eric.

Suddenly everything went quiet and when I waddled out farther to see if it had stopped to hang on the ceiling again, it was GONE. With trash can lid in tow, I stood up, grabbed Quinn and ran through the dining room, up the stairs, through our bedroom door and breathlessly (and quite loudly) yelled "Eric, there's a bat!" (Quinn was still quite content considering he had yet to eat). He sat straight up and I am sure wondered what in the world the mother of his child was doing. I was shaking more that I would ever like to admit.

Eric, being quite the man of the house (and deathly afraid of bats) armed himself with the trashcan lid and a sheet and went down to rid us of this intruder. Meanwhile, all the lights were turned on and doors shut. A million minutes passed before Eric informed me there was no bat to be found so I went down to help look. God bless him, he also stayed up for a million more minutes to wait and see if it would come out.

We have decided that there is a little carck in the wall by our cupboards that this huge bat must have squeezed through. Still have seen no sign of him. This story complete...

ERIC, I TAKE IT ALL BACK! I take back every story I have told of your bat battles (we have had two previous to this one in the last 8 years we have lived here), all the laughs I have had in recounting them (although they are really funny), and any thoughts I may have had on the simpleness of catching one myself. I am absolutely horrified and obscenely disgusted by the huge bat that ruined my middle of the night feeding (Quinn's that is). Thank you for rushing to save us!

The Scene of the crime (and the crouch)...

Happy Quinn

No reason. I just LOVE his smiles! (and you're reading my blog so you have to look at them! :) )

Happy Father's Day

To Eric: For being a wonderful husband and terrific dad...we LOVE you!

To all the other fathers we know and love...Congratulations on your special day!

Our Family

I've heard from numerous people that there aren't enough pics of "us" and many have commented they wanted to see E with Quinn since one is "so big" and the other is "so small."

Taking a Hit

Isaiah finished basketball camp this week. It was a simple camp for one hour a day for 4 days. The kids worked on basic bball skills and drills. On the second to last day the teams were running dribble relays when another boy crossed over out of his "lane" and slammed into Isaiah (really they slammed into each other). Isaiah took the hit like a pro, went airborn and slammed into the ground. While winded and unable to get up right away...after awhile he got up to clapping and had a pretty good bruised pec. I, being the perfect mother for an independent 7 year old, remained sitting calmly on the bleachers watching the coaches baby my baby. :( Yes, my instinct was to get up and run to him and make sure he was okay but I knew he would only tell me it was "embarrassing" and I figured I could baby him later (which I did). As soon as we were in the van it was imperative that I immediately "call my dad" so taht I could tell him about the "hit" he had taken.

Isaiah did learn a very important lesson out of all of this: you better keep your head up when dribbling.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

...you've been here enough.

It has rained for the past week off and on, has been chilly and today it has poured non-stop. Our gutters are full, the yard is full and there is nowhere left for the water to go (except probably eventually in our basement). Sigh. It was really warm today so now the humidity is ridiculous and it is one of those nights where the windows can't be opened very far because rain will come in. Sigh again.

I will blog more later...if we don't float away.

Tennis Pro

When discussing sports that he wanted to play this year, Isaiah informed me he wanted to play tennis. When I seemed surprised, he stated he "was awesome" when he played on the Wii so he thought he should play since he was so good. :) I did try to tell him it wasn't quite as easy as when playing the Wii since there was an "error factor" built in (but of course, what does mom know?!?!?).

Anyway...I looked around, having NO idea where to start and not wanting to pay mucho bucks for private lessons. We found a week-long tennis camp at a local high school so he went every day last week for 1 1/2 hours. Luckily, he is naturally athletic and he did well for never having picked up a real raquet. After all is said and done, I'm not sure he wants to keep learning because it was "sooo hard (don't forget the whine)." How do you convince this age that they have to learn the basic skills before they are "pros"? Oh well...made for some good pics and maybe he will want to continue it!

My Little Swimmers

Swimming season is upon us and Isaiah is taking lessons for the third summer. Quinn is also taking lessons and I am SO excited! We started this past Monday and will go three days a week for two weeks. It's been a crazy week so far since (without realizing it) I also signed Isaiah up for tennis camp which is also this week every day for 1 1/2 hours (Blog on tennis will come later...). Anyway, besides all the chaos my overscheduling has caused they are both doing well so far.
Its crazy...I take Quinn under water (dunking) and he actually swims from the instructor to me. They say its the best time for kids to learn and other than the occasional swallowing too much water, Quinn is awesome and LOVES it. It was a little scary for me at first since it seems a little crazy to be dunking your baby. The weirdest thing is he naturally kicks and moves his arms along with holding his breath and closing his eyes to come to the surface. So much fun!!!!!

Blooms!

After two years of nothing...and I mean NOTHING...my roses bloomed! Aren't they fun?! You can see the bright red blooms as you walk to our back door and they make me smile. They make me feel as though I may have a green thumb after all...unfortunately as far as I know I have done nothing to make them bloom so maybe it's just the wishing...although I did cut them back last year (thinking that it made me "feel" greenthumb-ish)...hmmm....

One of My Favorite Things...

is watching my (oldest) son and husband play basketball. What great bonding time.

guarding...

and he shoots...

and dad makes a come-back!

Blogging...oh the love

I have decided tonight while sitting alone in my quiet kitchen at 11:30p (praying Quinn doesn't wake up until at least 4:00a) that I truly enjoy blogs.

I don't have very many people on my blog list (are there any out there I don't know about?) but I LOVE reading their thoughts, family updates and fun stuff about their much more active social lives. Just tonight I saw a very pregnant Jen, a very thoguhtful young boy (Colin), parents leaving their child overnight for the first time, a disturbing break-down of Young Adult Literature (thanks Erin, I am now scarred), summer lovin', Kevin's love and obsession with grilling and all things "Dave," and pics of a brand new babe.

I also love to look at mine (is that weird?). I love pictures anyway and this just gives me an avenue to look at some of my favorites over and over. I love the comments and I love that I am somehow staying a little in touch with friends and family that are far away.

It is fun to stay connected in this weird technological sort of way. To see pics and wish I was closer to many of them.

All this said, I wish I could convince more of my friends to start one...I absolutely love them. Anyone ready?