Cotton candy, Elementary Match Day and a Star Wars store

This morning I went to school to do a final update on the 100 Book Challenge board, do the final book pass of the year and scoodle on out.
So was not in the cards for me.
Patty greeted me in the hallway with a big smile. Drat. I forgot that it was cotton candy day for Field Day tomorrow.
Double drat.
I hadn't eaten breakfast before I left since I thought that it was going to be a quick run. I did bring a Diet Coke with me. Hallelujah.
I thought that cotton candy would be a lickety-split thing.
It wasn't.
Y'all, I had cotton candy in my hair. I walked down the hall with the sticky feet sound. A big hunk of pink was stuck to the bottom of my pant leg and Mr. B was laughing at the hunk stuck to my shoulder. My clothing is now in the laundry. My shoes will hit the laundry tomorrow.
It was Match Day and K got into the class that we wanted. The teacher is lovely, thorough and firm, but loving. Hooray!
I was talking to K's substitute about when the next math test is and turns out that it is going to be tomorrow! The test is on counting money and while she knows denominations, she hasn't been the greatest with counting out on a long run. (Different combinations to make the same amount.) Hubs decided to prep her by having a Star Wars Store. He tagged figures with prices, had K pull out her pig to count money and make change from. They did that for nearly an hour. What a nice dad!
Hubs has been battling a major sinus infection that has also scored him lovely antibiotics that has a horrible headache as a side effect. I feel bad as I know that he has felt kind of like a steaming pile. He even missed K's soccer on Sunday and he knew that he would miss her last game this week. That alone said that he was feeling rotten.
Because I know that she has been generally MIA this week blogwise, I wanted to let you know that Rachael is holding together okay and just needed to take a bit of a bloggy break this week. I assure you that I have e-mailed and texted her multiple times daily. She has truly loved all of the bloggy love that I've been able to pass on to her from all of you during this past week. It was the love lift that she needed from her friends. Thank you all for being so kind!
Okay, so this isn't completely monumental or anything, but I did at least figure out coding to at least try to give paragraph separation. It isn't perfect, but it is better!
ETA: Rachael is updating! My sidebar didn't update because the private status must disable that feature! Hooray for Rachael's updates!

Rational discussions with a rabbit.

Peter, he is the cottontail that takes refuge in our backyard, and I had a discussion the other day.

Mind you, he's not much of a talker. Buddy boy is a good listener, though.

I went to hang some laundry on the line, went toodling around the corner and found that I scared Peter nearly to his bunny death. He jumped about 3 feet away from me, sat there and looked. He didn't move. Cottontail was not up. I bent down and said, "Now Peter, I need to hang laundry. You are where I need to be. I'm not going to hurt you. You know me and it's all good. If you could just move over there :gesturing where to go: that would be great."

All be darned if the rabbit didn't listen. He hopped over, as any bunny rabbit gentleman minus the red, white and blue striped rheumatism crutch would, and hung out there to watch. He moved on a handful of feet more to hang out under the swings. Then, he decided that his appetite got the better of him and he decided to graze on the clover in the middle of the yard. I would move, but he wouldn't stir. He knew I meant him no harm.

When I was done, I went into the house, peeked out the back window to see if Peter was still up to his nose in clover buffet when he looked up, saw that I was in the house and promptly hopped back to the original spot that I scared him out of. What was the funniest thing was that not only did he go back to his original spot, but he decided to sack out and just hang out there for a while. His leggins were all at rest as he lounged in the shade of the swingset tower. He was camped out there for a while until the evil black and white cat from next door tried to make him a kitty vittle. Peter ran for his life, seeking shelter in the thick lilies. I opened the windows, clapped my hands and yelled for the cat to go home. Then, I texted Hubs that Peter was almost lunch and QUICK! we need hardware cloth to cover the neighbor's fence holes. (The new fence goes up a hill and the neighbor kept the sections whole, so there are triangular open sections under each fence panel where critters can get in.)

We were talking about Peter last night. Hubs has seen him. He seems to have temporarily moved operations to the front yard. He had lived there once before. Perhaps, in time, our cottontail will feel safe enough to lounge in the backyard once again. Until then, I'll keep my eyes out, I'll crouch down and continue to talk to him gently. I'd like to think that he misses our discussions.

Comments, need for moderation and assumptions.

Rach,

It is my love for you that I ask you to stop reading here.

Love,

Amy

I got a text message from my friend Rachael last evening. She said that an 18 year old had gone missing in the exact place where her daughter did on July 19, 2007. I pulled up the news feed and knew things weren't good. Thankfully, Rachael's neighbor gave her a heads up before she turned on the evening news. While I'm familiar with Hannah's death, I pulled up the news bits on her. I noticed that there were several pages of comments.

There were 127 comments.

I have to tell you, in light of someone having lost their child, you would have thought that the community would have lifted the family in prayer. Sadly, most comments were horrible, judgmental and dreadful. There were people talking God, but last I checked, they aren't Him. There were people saying that Rach should be charged with neglect, yet they weren't there or they would have known that she was right there and didn't just farm her out on her own. There were a lot of statements said about my friend and her family- by people who had never even met them. Why would people feel the need to be so judgmental and debating? I texted Rachael and asked her to turn comment moderation on, as in attempt to show the people who were being so judgmental about Hannah's tragic drowning, someone who knew her actually published the name of her blog in the comments. I know that there was at least one person who came directly to her blog to flog her about Hannah's death. I just don't want that to happen.

For those searching for information regarding the drowning death of Hannah Davis at College Creek, please know that it was an accident. My friend was right there with her and her other daughter. This was an area that they had frequented over the years. Sadly, there is an 18 year old young man who is missing right now. Instead of being judgmental of the families about accidental drownings, why don't we wrap them in our loving arms, as God would have wanted us to? Our prayers go out to the family of Hannah Davis and Trevor Times. Please be gentle with these families. They need your support, not your judgment.

ETA:  Sadly, Trevor's body was recovered yesterday morning.

End of the year madness!

Every parent with a child in school right now knows what I'm talking about. We've had field trips weekly, an influx of tests, a retiring teacher, end of the year picnic, field day and all sorts of lovelies including 95 degree heat forecast for Sunday, right when my child will be running around the soccer field. Don't think that I've forgotten about the blog. I'm just up to my eyeballs. Have a great weekend!

Don't deny the power of a spray bottle.

K- had a very busy weekend.  That very busy weekend involved my nephew coming on Friday to play for a few hours, getting her Bat project complete for Wednesday (so that she can present it a few times to us before the actual due date), an all day pool party at my sister's house on Saturday, a slumber party, a Sunday swimming AM- noon, my pick-up, my mandated nap for her, soccer in 90 degree heat, a birthday party for Grandma, over-indulgence resulting in a stomach ache, the whining, the crying, the total helplessness because of having turned into a heap, the Bat project presentation (Hubs and I acted like incorrigible children), a night of slumber then the wrestling her out of bed this morning.

"I don't feel good."

"I don't want to go to school today."

"Well, I'll get up, but if I have trouble walking, I just can't go."

"Sometimes my legs are wobbly."

"My belly hurts."

[and on and on]

Finally, having snuggled, rubbed, kidded, tickled and playfully pinched, I pulled out the big gun-- the spray bottle. 

It worked.

13 days left.  Wow.

Uncle John: Cleveland Police Department

My husband had an Uncle John. Uncle John was a Cleveland Police officer who was shot by a suspect who was trying to kill himself. If my understanding is correct, the father was trying to intervene with the suspect, the man in question somehow got knocked off the porch and started shooting at the officers. He had shot himself in the stomach before falling off the porch, shot Uncle John who then proceeded to strike him with a bullet all the while having been injured. K and I talked about Uncle John this morning. I couldn't tell her a whole lot since I never had the pleasure of meeting him. However, I could tell her that he was Grandma's brother and that he held on for nearly three weeks before he died. It is Policeman's Week. I thought that it might be a good thing to fill K in a bit about her family. It is good for her to know about how Daddy's uncle went out and protected people and died doing what was right. We thank Uncle John for his service. We're so glad that Hubs had him in his life, even though Hubs was just 4 at the time. An unusual thing I noticed in researching information about Uncle John was that many years later on the exact month and day he was injured, his great niece was born.

:cough, sneeze:

We've all been suffering with this late spring virus. K had the headache, Hubs has had the sore throat and I've had the instantly runny nose. A bonus today is that I seemed to have sprung a blemish on my nostril interior that makes the wiping oh so much fun. Oh, and it's darned attractive, too. We've all been sacking out early so that explains my blog absence. Have a great and healthy weekend!