Asher and I are so excited about cleaning out our garage. We did this for the Bible study because we needed more room for the kids to play since it is getting too cold outside. But now Asher and I have been shaking our heads and asking ourselves why we did not do this sooner. We had talked about it a long time ago, but we were still burnt out from the bathroom and did not want to take on anymore projects. But, man, if only we knew how easy it would be compared to the benefits of having more living space. This is great. I now have my laundry organized so even if it is not folded it is out of the way and does not look so horribly messy. And now we actually have room for the kid's toys. Before they were put away in not easily accessible places for the kids to get them out very often. It is sad, but it was kind of a treat for them to actually be able to play with their toys.

 

Sunday some of the ladies in the bible study had a cooking class/luncheon. Tegan, the girl on the phone, showed us how to make her famous enchiladas. Then we got to eat them with some sides and desert. Caylee tagged along for some Mommy/daughter time. I think it is fun for her to come and relate to ladies with no other children around. Personally, I think it is important for a child's development to be able to do that every once in a while.

We all had a great time. After we ate, we played a board game then we met up with more girls and guys and all went to the Audio A and Mercy Me concert together. We were actually all able to fit in our van. Asher drove and that was not boring. I likened it to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a ride at Disneyland. He is not a bad driver, it is just a big adjustment to have a few hundred more pounds added.


 

Here are some more pictures of Polly a couple of days after we got her. By the way, we looked up how to to tell the sex of a leopard gecko and after using the information we decided that we should probably go with Polly rather than Hannibal (my choice). Actually the information we found said that most leopard geckos sold in pet stores are female for some reason.

On this particular the weather was a bit chilly and I noticed that Polly seemed a bit pale and was not moving very much. I mentioned to Asher that she might be cold, so he went and got her and tried to snuggle with her for awhile to help her get warm. He is so sweet. My plan was to just turn up the thermostat, but he wanted Polly to feel better right away. Well, lizards don't snuggle too well, so Polly ended up on his head. But I thought is was a endearing moment and I took some pictures.

In this picture you can really see just how pale she was. She is normally a bright orange and black, not ashy looking at all.
 

We finally got a pet! I have been wanting one for years now. Actually since Caylee was a baby. We tried it once before with a cat, but unfortunately got the cat from hell. That little guy was very pretty, but man, he was spoiled! He would not leave us alone. He was constantly on my lap, when I laid down he would jump on my face, if we closed our bedroom he would throw himself against the door in a fit of rage. I could really go on and on about that cat. The worst thing though was him pooping diarhea behind the furniture. After that Asher did not want to deal with another animal. Fortunately, Star, the neighbor cat has adopted our family and has chosen our porch as her home. That has worked out well. We get to pet her and they get to feed her.

But now we have our own pet. I have to admit that I am pretty excited. I think this little fellow will be a good thing. We started out possibly wanting a frog because Chrysinda said they make a good pet. We definitely had an open mind though, not being too familiar with reptiles. The guy at the pet store pointed out that a lizard might be a better pet because they get to where they actually enjoy being handled, whereas frogs generally sit nicely but if you jostle them too much they will jump off and you have to fight to get them back on and sit still. So we ended up getting a lepeord gecko. The guy said that they are very hardy and docile. They make excellent pets.

Now we just need to work on a name. Asher wants to name him Oober and Caylee wants to name him Polly, like Pollyana. We realized that we forgot to ask if it was a girl or boy, so I guess either name would work. Does anyone know how to tell on a reptile?


 

Yesterday I took the girls to Martin Nature Park because Cindy and I are looking for pretty looking places to shoot professional looking pictures. We were asked by the homeschool group awhile ago and we decided that fall would be such a pretty time to do it. So now we are on the hunt for good backgrounds. We have decided to do it free of charge because neither feel it would be right to charge a fee since we are only amateurs.

I didn't prep at all for this shoot because it was only for practice, to get an idea of what the backgrounds would look like. The girls were uncooperative for the most part in posing, but I didn't mind because it was only a practice. That stuff is boring to them and they would rather go explore when we are at a park like this. But I think that a couple of the shots came out alright. I like the picture of Natalie and the one of both girls sitting on the steps.

Cindy and I are going to another park later this week, so I am sure I will be posting more of these soon.


 

This one is a huge trantula. I saw one of those in CA also while camping. It made the mistake of walking into our campsite one day. It probably was not going to hurt anyone, but the adults wanted be sure of it.

 

Here is another cheese face.


Asher is helping Natalie look at the black widow. She was a little disappointed because she could not see the red hourglass shape on its back.

 

Next, we went to the Agtropolis building. This is our favorite place to go at the fair. At the chicky incubators they had a 4H girl that was holding a chicky for the children. She said they didn't mind because they were used to it, but I felt sorry for it when Macy got there. She tries to be gentle.

This was at the Farmer's Market. The girls went through a series of steps where they helped the farmer plant a seed and water it, then they picked apples, gathered eggs, dug for potatoes and pumpkins. Then they took it to the market and sold it for fake money.

After we did that we walked towards the back of the building to see the cows and bugs. The insects are Asher's favorite part of the Agtropolis building. I was interested to see the fiddleback spider. Last year the specimens they had were very tiny and I had expected them to be bigger. But when I looked this year, they had increased in size. I guess the ones they had last year were babies. Natalie has been asking me about spiders lately, especially the black widow. She was excited to see an actual spider. In California those things were all over the place, but I haven't seen any while here in Oklahoma. The picture that is hard to see is the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Asher loves to tease me every year whith those because he know how much I despise roaches. Yuck, just imagine those crawling on your bed at night.
 

Saturday we went to the fair. Our favorite things to do at the fair is all the free stuff. You know, that is the stuff that seems to be more fun anyway. This is the Bank of Omaha Wildlife Adventure. It was way cool. There was all sorts of robotic wild animals. Macy was a little wary at first because she is too young to truly tell the difference between real and pretend. She was okay after she realized that all the animals were behaving themselves and they were not going to jump out and get her.



This is Macy's "Cheeeese" face. I laugh every time she says it because it is so automatic and that was actually one of her first words.
The girls were intoduced to a fair classic. I wish I had gotten a picture of the girls eyes when they first saw how big the corn dogs were. I didn't think they would be able to eat the whole thing, but that did not prove to be any sort of problem. I had an indian taco, because I have been wanting to try one for a while, and Asher had a colossal garlic chicken burrito. The food was all very delicious and I can see why people talk about fair food like they do. 

Here is a bigger picture of our group. I was hoping that you could see the people in the picture better.

This is Nils Gransburg's group in Norman. He is the one in the white shirt. I don't know him very well, but he seems really nice. He has a deep voice, so I just like to listen to him talk.


This is our group. Can you see me? Can you imagine all these people in our house every Friday, plus the kids? At first it seemed akward because it felt like we were sitting on top of each other. But now I guess everyone is just used to it. I love this group of people. Everyone is so nice and so committed to doing what God wants in their lives. Have you ever been part of a group of people that are just excited about growing in Christ and that makes you excited to be with them. We really do have sweet Christian fellowship when we get together.