School Pictures

Well, here they are. The 2009-2010 school pictures. They are growing up very fast!Parker - 7th grade
Conner - 4th grade

Calissa - 2nd grade

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Today was just a normal kind of day. Went to pick the kids up from school. Sent Calissa back to return a shell that she shouldn't have taken out of a planter box. By now, most of the traffic is gone from the neighborhood. We walk to our car parked down the street. Then, we head for home. I ask the kids how their day was and we are chatting as we turn left onto Farm Bureau Rd. All of a sudden Calissa starts screaming about a bug on Conner's neck. "It's moving, it's moving!" she screams. Conner then starts swiping all over his neck. I'm trying to drive and look back over my shoulder and see a GIANT caterpillar on his shoulder. We're talking 3-4 inches long and bigger around than any of my fingers! Calissa is still screaming and saying "don't look at it, don't look at it." Conner is trying to grab whatever it is that she's screaming about and I'm trying not to freak him out while I pull off to the side of the road. I knew that if I panicked, it would be all over for him and I didn't want him freaking out any more than he already was. He kept saying, "where is it, where is it?" while I told him to hold on and I'd get it off. I bravely opened my door, had him get out, grabbed a Kleenex (see Travis it's good we have Kleenex in the car - even if the box slides around while you're driving) and took that sucker off his shoulder. It was sticking on his shirt. I then dropped it on the ground and Conner freaked out a little. I would have freaked out a lot! As it was my stomach hurt the whole way home and Calissa kept saying in a shaky voice - that was so gross! Conner wanted us to get home as fast as we could so he could get out of the car and believe me he kept his eyes peeled for other ones. The question is ... WHERE DID IT COME FROM??? That was one huge caterpillar!!!

(This is not a picture of our caterpillar, but it will have to do ... didn't have my camera with me although I wished I did!)

PS - No more raccoons, but we have had two lizards frequenting the inside of our house. Don't know what it is with us and creeping things, but we must look like an easy sell because they continue to bombard us!