A, Ant Hunter Extraordinaire

We have been having the huge black ants that are seeking new colonies in our bathroom lately. Why our bathroom we aren't sure, but that's where they are coming from. They love our tub and the walls of the house. Anytime we put A on the toilet (since she is at about 80% proficient at saying she has to go before she wets her diaper/training pants) she seems to find a handful. We will see none, but she pops up with, "Uh-Oh" which means she spots one moving somewhere. She will also find them and squash them, take them to Chris, and hand them to him so that he can throw them down the toilet or in the trash. She will tell him which one it needs to be. We've discovered that caffeine and ants don't mix well. We also know that squashing them is supposed to leave a pheromone that indicates "don't come this way" to following ants. However, the best way is to vacuum the ants up, as apparently the whole "missing pheromone" indicates more trouble than a dead ant.

This past week was pretty good. Chris got back into the swing of school. His labs went well and he managed to get some stuff done on the equipment at church. I got a lot of stuff done, moved offices (if you can call my new place an office, let's suffice it to say it feels enough like a demotion that I should be looking for a different job), reviewed a few dozen documents for chemistry, had a few meetings, so a basic week.

A had a very exciting week at daycare. She managed to only wet her diaper once, that is including naps and playing outside. Since the weather the beginning of last week was gorgeous they played outside a lot. She apparently likes to climb and will occasionally get "stuck" about a foot off of the ground. She climbs much higher than that here at home and can get down with no problems, so I think she is playing the teacher.

March Madness has brought a lot of excitement here. Both Chris and I are in work brackets, so we'll see who wins. I wasn't doing so badly as of Friday, but that was before Georgetown and Gonzaga lost. I was seriously thinking about going upset crazy, but thought better of it. Who knew that it would be the order of the dance this year? I think both Chris and I are good Big 12 fans and have KU winning it all. A isn't sure what's going on since we are watching basketball over letting her watch Veggietales. She falls asleep to the basketball, but not really to the VeggieTales. She really really likes VeggieTales, so she will sit and hum the theme song for us as we watch our basketball. Since we really only turn the TV on for sports or weather updates I suppose she'll just have to learn. :) I hope your brackets are going well.

St. Pat's Day

Well, we had a fairly boring week. My really good friend from high school, Mel, came and visited us Friday evening to Saturday morning. We cooked, did a bit of exploring at grandfather mountain and went to breakfast before she had to go. She is now in Raleigh on an accreditation board for a small christian school in the Raleigh area. It was fun and very windy up on the mountain! The bridge was definitely "singing" and it was windy enough that it made me a little sick to walk across it from the constant small motion.

Today though has been very low key. Chris had some technical difficulties at church he had to figure out so we were super late getting back this afternoon. Then A and I took a much needed nap. We also went to Lowes to look for green things to plant -- we are going to attempt a garden this summer and are trying to get an idea of how to get it all started. We will apparently have to start with seeds for the vegetables we are wanting, so hopefully they will germinate well. We also have minimal space that is full sun, so we're trying to figure out that conundrum.

Now we are supposedly ready for a new week. With Chris taking the past Thursday/Friday off (since it was Spring Break) it will be a "back in the swing of things" week or two before the Easter break and then the semester ends.

One of the many things we are getting help with these days is dishes. A loves to play in the bubbles and will even rinse a few dishes if she's being attentive. Here is a fun picture of the two of them working to get the dishes done. :)

NC Zoo

Sunday we went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. It was a bit of a trek for us, but we got to see Chris's brother there. He had flown to visit a friend in Greenville, NC and that was about as in the middle as we would be able to get. We decided driving to see him at the zoo would be better than driving to see him in OK. We had a nice day and overall the zoo was nice. It was just a bit difficult to not compare it to Brookfield. Not that Brookfield was perfect, but over the years it became familiar. The one thing about the NC Zoo is it is VAST. It is in the middle of nowhere in the middle of what was once a tobacco plantation I imagine. They have acres upon acres for enclosures. They also intermingle animals that would co-exist in the wild, for example, rhinos and impala or giraffes, zebras and ostriches. Often the enclosures were so large you could come fairly close to the animals at about a dozen different spots along the rails.

Here are a few pictures of A with her uncle and us around the zoo.

Biltmore in March

Since we weren't super busy last weekend we went to Asheville to see the Biltmore. There weren't a lot of people there so it was nice. We got to take a winery tour and see the 1913 touring car for the Vanderbilt family. It was pretty cool. We also went to the farm and A got to see chickens, horses and goats. As always she wanted to watch a bit before diving off and petting the animals, and eventually she tried to chase the chickens a little. The animals are used to being caught and petted, so it wasn't that big of a deal. It snowed most of the weekend, though none of it really stuck. This weekend looks like it will be a good one and we are planning a zoo visit. Chris's brother is coming to visit someone in NC and we are meeting them at the NC Zoo. It looks like a cool place, but we'll see if it compares with Brookfield.

Veggietales

For a long time veggietales has been a favorite of A's. She claims the theme song is her favorite song and will at least bounce along to it. Tonight the local Chic-fil-a hosted a preview of the new movie, so of course we all treked down to see it and for the door prizes. A got a front row seat with her friend from church. Her friend shared her popcorn. A kept fairly good attention on the movie, but was quite unsure of the cow walking around the room. This veggietales has a great variety of fairy tale parodies and hopefully it will replace the Saint Nicholas one from Christmas (which she will watch ad nauseum).

This week at work was crazy for both Chris and me. The weather has been wild and most days this week we have had interesting weather. A and I have made it up and down the mountain without problems.

Ice

We woke up this morning to the tell tale sounds of freezing rain/sleet hitting the roof. You know the one that is definitely denser than rain but can't be snow because it is too loud? I didn't want to get up, but I did and dutifully checked all the websites for possible closings. Everything was open, so off we went. I didn't realize I was going to need ice skates for the Mazda to get to work, but apparently that's my next invention -- ice skates for cars. By the time I got to A's daycare, classes for the school district had been put on a 3 hour delay! I also got a text message saying work was on a two hour delay as well. C'est la vie.

Anyway, driving home was really cool with all the ice bending the trees over and such. There are some trees in our powerlines down the road, so hopefully we will have power all night. Some pictures though: 

can you find the powerlines?

Sliding Together

A has been a bit clumsy the past few days. She has several new bruises and a busted lip to show for it. We got to go to the park today as it was sunny. It was rather wet, but it was good to get out of the house. A wanted to swing for a while, then we played on the slides. We completed our excursion with a trip to Sweet Frog for froyo.