Howdy, Y'all!

OgleDog Picnic (if you have never had one, these are the best corn dogs in the free world)

Cole racing Go-Karts
holding horseshoe crabs at Ripley's Aquarium
Picnic with Grandma Pam's ham biscuits and Momommy's chicken salad...yummy!!
Monster truck ride- awesome!!!!!

Howdy, Y'all!!!

Sorry, I just got back from Tennessee. I meant, "Hey, Y'all!". Not much different, I know. Anyway, we had a blast on vacation. I have some pictures here to share with you, and I will try to post some every day so that I don't have to sit for a monstrously long upload!

Now, here comes a story that will sound like it came from Mary's blog, but it's all mine, I promise. What can I say, North Carolina's wilderness is just a dangerous, untamed place...

When we got back from vacation, we had a horrible garden situation! Weeds had taken over, and we all trekked down to the backyard last night to take care of it.

Well, first of all, we couldn't tell the weeds from the watermelon plants, or clearly identify the baby pepper plants due to the out of control atmosphere. Then, remember the baby frogs I told you about? Apparently, they like the garden more than the ivy because guess where they now live? So, we tried to weed without pulling up actual plants or stepping on one-centimeter long frogs, when I pulled up a root and saw, there in my hand, a black widow on the dirt clump. I have never seen a black widow outside of a wood pile or a garage, and was very surprised to have found it underground! I showed it to Barry (calm down, I had dropped it by this point!) and he confirmed it was, indeed, a black widow. So, he scooped it up with a garden tool to carry 10 feet to the creek behind us. Meanwhile, Cole reminded me that spiders aren't usually found alone, and that it was probably underground to make a nest for her babies (children should be seen and not heard). I continued to pull weeds, telling myself that I would surely see another spider if it appears before it is too late, when suddenly there was a sharp pain in my right hand. I screamed as my life flashed before me. Why hadn't I worn gardening gloves like other people do? Why hadn't I stopped digging after the ominous first spider was apprehended?! Why had I, a newly minted City Girl, wanted this stupid, 5x5 foot garden in the first place?!?! I was snapped out of it by a yellow jacket buzzing in my face, the culprit for the pain in my hand.

Meanwhile, back at the creek, Barry heard me scream and feared the worst. Before he could react, he felt a sharp pain in his left leg, and immediately assumed it was the black widow he was still carrying to the creek. Then he looked down, saw the spider had fallen as he jerked, and didn't know where it was. He then saw the yellow jacket crawling on his leg that had just attacked him. That's right, a yellow jacket nest was in the garden, too! We all ran screaming from the scene (OK, Barry didn't scream...), but not before Cole and Reese got stung, also. 20 minutes later, as I was passing out ice, we saw that one yellow jacket had followed Barry into the house and was perched on his shirt. We rolled it up and over his head and threw it outside on the deck.

Final count: Barry- 3 stings, April-2 stings, Cole & Reese- 1 each

Needless to say, we still have a very weedy garden. But hey, I did see two cucumbers down there!!

Wanna go get them for me ...?!