You Should ALWAYS Have Your Camera

Guess what?  I did not have my camera today!  Guess what??  I needed to have my camera today!   I know, Steve, you told me so, but you know... I never listen to reason, right?

We went on a ride today.  Punkin and I were looking for live, breathing critters; birds, dogs, cats, bears, and such.  We found all but the bear.  As we were heading back from our drive, punkin screams, "I SAW A RACCOON IN  A TREE!"  

yuh huh, sure punkin.

"I DID!  I REALLY DID!"

Papa backed up and what did we see??

A raccoon in a tree!!  Do you see him in the crook of the tree?  He was adorable sitting there looking at me!  And all I had was my iPhone for a camera.  Aaaargh!

He didn't think *I* was that cool though - he hauled last outta there!

While we were out, Steph told us about a hiking trail, so off we went.  We found it - right in the middle of the swamp!

 We were thankful for the boardwalk.

It was still pretty darned cool.  If it had been a tad warmer, we would have seen gators, snakes, critters and maybe even that bear we were looking for.  He was hibernating today - in fact, everything must have been!

When we finished, we came home and played our new favorite game Apples to Apples.  It is a ton of fun!  The green card is the card you try to match.  We have 5 cards in our hand, and we have to choose one closest to the green card.  I picked bookworm (trust me, I had nothing close!) for tiny.  When punkin' looked at them, I had to explain to her that a bookworm is a teeny, tiny worm that lives in books.  They are so tiny you cannot even see them...

Yeah, she didn't buy it either...

Sooooo... I spent 5 minutes trying to convince her and then she spent the next 10 minutes laughing so hard she couldn't play... lol...

Then she went to papa's side of the bed (she insists on sleeping on his side, even though he beats her... lol....) and cuddled right in:

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Now go back up and look at that picture.  There are two owls, a cat and a rabbit.  See the rabbit?  There is a story there... Christy?  I hope you see this... do you remember our rabbits?  Years ago, in the mid 1980's, Sara and I made these rabbits for our girls Christy and Stephenie.  Steph played with hers a bit, but was disinterested for the most part with it.  Oh, she played with it occasionally, but not like she absolutely cherished it.  I kept tossing it in her room hoping she would fall in love with it, but it was not meant to be.  I had put my heart and soul into making it and loved the dress I made for her too much to give away.  Soooo many times I nearly tossed her out, but couldn't bring myself to do so.

Fast forward 25 years... two days ago I walked into Steph's house, and my heart froze.  There was my punkin' with the rabbit snuggled under her chin toting her around like she was her best friend.  Steph had told me she loved her and played with her all the time, but I saw the love in that child's eyes in that moment.  My heart melted.  It was worth waiting 25 years to see that face... She loves that darned rabbit and if she only loves her one week, it was worth all the time and effort I put in to her.  Christy?  Do you still have yours??  Did you love her?  I always cherished your mom for nudging me through that project - we learned so much together and to this day I miss her so much... 

Anyway, while we were snuggled into bed, we read.  We came across this article in a Highlights:

And we jumped up and ran to get some beans soaking... 

Grandma Ruth?  Do you recognize those beans?  I had made a soup and added a couple of handfuls of them to the soup - talk about a great soup!  I love different types of beans and gave that a shot - I wasn't disappointed!  And punkin' wasn't disappointed because I used them all - she had a big choice of beans to soak!

So that was our Saturday - I love it when we are actually doing something!  I have something to blog about... tomorrow we are going to see BUGS in a science center.  Punkin' will be in heaven.  She just asked that I didn't make her eat a worm like her mom did - and she assured me, she had to eat that worm and her mom didn't even eat one...

Oh the things kids tell you... roflmao...

And maybe, just maybe I will take my camera.