Sparky is a hunter!

This is proof! As many of you know, we have a miniature Dachsund. Well, there are times when you come over and he does not even get out from under the covers to greet you. In fact, many times, all you hear is a muffled bark because he is so buried under covers.

Well, who knew? He actually can do what his breed was meant to do. Badger hunt....well, squirrel hunt.

Sparky is vicious with a capital "V"!!!!

Tribute to Bubba

Well, Sunday was a very sad day. As some of you know and have read on previous post, Isaac, had a pet snake named Bubba. Well, Bubba was sick. He had a respiratory infection...who knew? Apparently, it got too cold down in Isaac's room and he got sick. We (by "we" I mean Matt) put a mouse in his cage for him to eat and he didnt even bother with it. We (again Matt) knew then that something was wrong. Then we (again, Matt) noticed that he was mouth breathing and had mucus in his mouth. After a little research and talking to the pet store we bought it at, we decided that we were not going to be able to take care of this ourselves (meaning Matt and Isaac) and that we would take him back to the guys at the pet store to give him some TLC and then find him a home.

Well, all it took was one tear from Isaac and then my flood gates opened. There is nothing like seeing your child hurt. I felt like Bubba was looking at me over Matt's fingers and was begging me to help him. I know he is only a snake, but he looked so helpless....like when you have a cold and your head feels like a bowling ball. Matt just said, "Becca, it is a snake and we are not taking it to a reptile vet and spending money on a snake"

So here is to you Bubba...our long, slimy, 2' long, but stayed curled up in a ball (hence the name ball python) friend. We will miss you and hope that you have a long happy life eating lots of mice that never have to come through my doors again. You sure are a purty snake! We love you! (shhh...don't laugh, I have to say that)

Dang I stink at this!

I am trying! I am trying! I am trying! Did I say I am trying? I dont even have any pictures to post. We went to Spartenburg and the Smokey Mountains for Thanksgiving and I totally forgot my camara. Carrie Stroud is probably gasping! I always look at her blog and think "man, if only I remembered my camara". Matt was gonna suprise me with a nice camara for Christmas, but he said maybe not, you'll just forget it.(I said, "lets just get grass for the backyard"...it is pretty bad when the kids ask Santa for grass in the backyard for Christmas) The good news is that Patty was there and she is never without camara!
And the other thing is that everyone is telling me to get on Facebook! Do I really have time for it? I can hardly get my blog updated.
I have started my to do list and I have added that to it. With all the PTA meetings that the kids just happen to all be performing in this month and the appointments that happen to land in the next two weeks...I think I can throw facebook in there. We will see...hmmm...maybe I'll just do it now!

Where does time go? or should i say, "Are Matt and I really this old?" It seems like yesterday that we brought Carson home from the hospital wrapped in his blanket. We were so proud and so scared. I was never afraid of having a baby, just raising one. And even today, as he becomes a "teenager", I am still afraid. Somedays I don't know if I am cut out to do this and just pray for the strength. I am so grateful to have Matt who is such a rock. He is able to look at things in a logical way and not emotionally. I just automatically freak out!!! Matt is calm, cool and collective. In fact, most days I think he is way better at this parenting thing than I am.

Carson is such an amazing son! He is compassionate, smart, handsome, kind, most of the time considerate and a good brother. He is a good student and a great example to others. He has some dumb decisions under his belt that hopefully he has learned from, although, I am certain that there will be more (he is my son after all and sometimes it takes us a little longer to learn).

He is a great soccer player. He is just found out he made All State Chorus, which is a big deal since they auditoin all the middle school chorus' in the state of Georgia. He was asked to be on a science team. He is a member of Velocity, which is like Teen Advisors for middle school. We are just proud of him! He deserves to be bragged on every now and then. He is my favorite oldest son! And we could not ask for a better first child. He is perfect in our family. He protects his brothers and sisters.

One of my favorite memories is when Matt was in Iraq and Mother's Day rolled around for the second year. I was sleeping and he got Issac and Grace together, fixed breakfast and got Luke out of bed all on their on, put him in his wheelchair and rolled him into my room. I am tearing up just thinking of that moment, knowing that Carson knew how much that would mean to me. That is the best present he could have given me. This year Carson wanted a cookie cake so Isaac made one for him. Isaac likes to cook and it was really good!

We went to Sushiko (Carson's choice). I was willing to cook, but I think Carson jumped on going to eat somewhere nice since we rarely do. He had his friends, John and Will spend the night and go with us. They are twins and the same age. We like to pick on Carson and ask if he needs a booster seat to sit next to them. They have played soccer for several years together.

Carson is a special kid and a really cool kid. We are really proud of him!

An Isaacism

Okay, I had to share this with everyone. I was reminded about it the other night by Leanna and thought ya'll would get a kick out of it. If any of you know Isaac very well, you know that he has the ability to really make you laugh with his comebacks. So let me set the scene for you..... Isaac was sitting at the kitchen table. We were trying to get out of the door for school and his mouth was hurting from getting his braces. (The kind of hurt where you can't touch your teeth or they might fall out..at least that is how it feels.) I did not have any more "children's" motrin so I was trying to get him to take a pill. The conversation goes like this....

Matt: Isaac, why don't you just swallow a pill?
Becca: I have been trying to get him to swallow pills for years and he gags on them.
Isaac: (whiney) It is too hard to swallow.
Matt: How is that, it is a tiny little pill, throw it in your mouth swallow some liquid.
Isaac: Dad, it is not that easy.

So Isaac proceeds to show Matt just how hard it is to do...after the pill has faded to white from the liquid in his mouth.....

Becca: Isaac, good grief, what in the world is the problem! It is JUST NOT that hard. Just throw the pill in there and swallow some water...you wont even feel it in your mouth. I mean really.....Even, Wyatt Bridges, who is in kindergarten can swallows pills!

and Isaac says: Well, tell him congratulations!

And off he went to school with no Motrin and a hurting mouth!

THE END!

AAAARGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Okay don't pass out that I am actually posting sooo soon after my last, but I could not pass this up. Grace went to the fair with Mimi, Ben, Sam, Noreen Marvets and Tanner Marvets last night. She got home and a bug had gotten in her eye. Well, as some of you know, she does not take to ANY injury very well. She has not figured out how to "shake it off" or well, keep her misery to herself. Is that really bad of me? Hmmmmm. I'll do some soul searching later.

Anyways, girls are soooo much more sensitive than boys. We ended up going to see our favorite doctor in the world (besides Dr. Dryden), Dr. Yeiser. Well, she has two fairly large abrasions on her eyeball. I felt bad. FOR A SECOND! until I had to put the ointment and eye patch on her eye!!! Leanna can relate...it was like getting a splinter out of Sam's foot. TOTAL HYSTERIA!

We made it through, meaning the rest of us. And Grace is fine also. She made it and as you can see, Is not very happy but is still living. Shewwwww! All is well in the Snider household...at least until tomorrow when we have to do it again. Say a prayer for me!

Where does time go?

So I dont have any excuse for not posting. But if I may brag on myself, I only waited two months to post this time. Life has been crazy busy as usual. School is in full swing and we are in the sixth week. This is the first day of school this year. I had to be reminded by Isaac to take the picture and after a lot of complaints, I got this shot. I bet you can't figure out who was doing the complaining! Yep, you guessed....I am sure of it. Carson is in the 7th grade now, Luke 5th, Isaac 5th and Grace 2nd. Where does the time go?

It is hard to believe Matt has been home for ten months now. He is still playing poker for a living, which is a lot of fun for him...when he is winning. As of now, we will continue to do that. You know us, up for any kind of adventure and if there was every a time he could give this a go..that would be now.

Luke got a new wheelchair at the beginning of this school year... Raul, our equipment guy said it weighed the same. HE LIED!!!! His old chair weighed 48 pounds approximately. His new one weighs 86 pounds and we know this because Matt got on the scale with it. And yes, we do have to lift it into the back of the van. This leads me to my next new bit of info....

I went to the doctor yesterday. The very first thing that he said to me when he walked in the door is "you have gained 22 pounds in the last year"....I say.." Hmm. I had no idea". Total bogus answer!!!!! I have eaten way awful this summer with the kids home. but we are back in full swing activity now....So the pounds should be coming off. Will I ever just not care about what my weight is? I doubt it, I figure I have a lifetime of lifting Lukers and wheelchairs, I better get it together!

Carson has braces now and Isaac gets them on Monday. Wow, where is that money tree in the back yard. I am still waiting for it to bloom!

Grace is one of the most persistent children I have ever met. I mean, I know you have to be tough when you are the youngest and the only girl, but DAWG....she can drive a car right into a tree with the persistent questions she ask. If you do not anwer her, she only ask more and louder until she gets and answer. That does not mix well with my maternal ability to shut off all sounds that children make. I guess I should work on that.

Overall, we are doing well. I will try to post sooner next time!

Last bit of camping

So I am not sure if I mentioned how bad it stormed while we were camping. PopPop and Patty had a storm the night before we got there so we thought we were safe but that was not so. On the second day we were there about 4pm it started to pour. We shoved everyone into tents except for dad, patrice and matt. Luke and I sat inside our tent safely trying to stay dry. Our tent was closest to the water and all of a sudden it sounded like a waterfall and then came the hail! YES HAIL!!!! that is not snow, but HAIL! A couple of them pelted Patty on the had through the shelter over the food area! What a mess!

Thsi is everything piled up in the middle of the tent. It is really hard to pile up a king size air mattress and a twin....Luke was laying on the other twin air mattress. We eventually started to pile it on top of Luke, which he loved because of the heavy sensory input! What a goof! How was I supposed to know that if something was touching the walls that water would come in! I got in big trouble for that. HEHE~

A little tired! I think this was after dinner at Cowboy's, which is a restaurant on the water, after the hail storm.

Yeah, we forgot hats. Matt got realy fried on his head. What is that saying... proper planning prevents ____ poor performance. What can I say, I tried, but we had hot Krystals!

Look Sadie Kaye! It is barky! I just love this picture of Sparky. Some of you will notice the arctic blonde on his mouth area. He has a stressful life protecting the household. YEAH RIGHT!

And more camping!

Matt and Sparky on the water for a big time! that did not last long because Sparky was worried about the kids on the tube!

Anna and Patty getting the jet ski fired up with the tube. I am driving the boat - yahoo !!

Emma and Grace posing for a picture....

A little more tubing....I got suckered into getting onto this thing this year. I am too tender for this thing.

Let me just put this disclaimer in here. Matt has had neck pain since he was in Baghdad about a 1 1/2 years ago. I told him that he was gonna kill his neck on this thing, but what do I know. Let me just say, he has had three successful visits with the chiropractor since then. He was not right after this...or maybe that was sleeping in the army hammock! hmm....

More Camping

OK, so I am so backwards on this posting stuff. But anyways, here is more camping pictures!

Luke and I on a late night boat ride!

There is nothing like the sunsets on the lake. There is beautiful reflection of the sun on the water with the mountains in the background. And two Sea doos with Matt and Anna on them!

Come on Pop Pop, get the fire started!

Grace and Pop Pop getting the fire going!

I just love this picture of Matt and Lukers! What an awesome father and son moment!

Camping Trip

Well, we were able to go to Pop Pop and Patty's to camp. We did not think that we were going to be able to go, but were able to get up there. Matt has never been out on the lake there so camping was a real blast for him. It was really adventurous and gave us a real opportunity to look on the bright side!

Well, this is us running out of gas just north of Atlanta. But before you say, "how can two smart, reasonable adults run out of gas?" Let me tell you. We saw the light come on in the van, but it was about 10:30 and everyone was hungry. So.....we thought you cant have a road trip without a bag of Krystals! Well, we get to Krystal and we were the first to order gut busters so we had to wait for them to finish cooking.....25 minutes! While waiting, we ran out of gas, but if you notice the van is on a slight hill so we probably would have made it otherwise. Who really cares though, we had HOT Krystal burgers!!!!!! Nothing like a Krystal box graveyard on the dash! Those poor burgers didnt have a prayer!

It didnt take Matt long to hop onto the Sea Do. He really had a blast on it! In fact wants to get one!
Grace and Pop Pop driving the boat! Grace likes letting the wind blow in her hair.

Well, this is not where we roped off the bathroom section. This is actually army hammocks where Matt, Carson and Isaac slept. Well..... Carson and Isaac slept there until 4AM the first night. Matt made it the whole time, except the very last night when it started to rain! He likes to sleep under the stars apparently. I think he was pulling lookout duty or something. But we had Sparky there so he didnt need to...HA!

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's Dumbo...No just Sparky who was a nervous wreck the entire trip....He spent most of his time looking over the edge of the boat making sure that no one fell in the water. NOT that he would go in to save you because he is scared of the water.... We had to throw him in to cool him off.

Presenting Dr. Seuss

Isaac's class had to do a wax museum for the entire school and parents. He was chosen to be Dr. Seuss. Each time someone hit the button, he had to recite his report to tell about Dr. Seuss' life. He did great, but when I decided to record him, he lost his train of thought.

Getting ready to head outside for the wax museum.

TAKE ONE! Turn to the side again! I cant rotate my videos....duh!

TAKE TWO!

TAKE THREE!

FINALLY, TAKE FOUR!

Meet Bubba and Godzilla

So what do you do when your kids all want their own pet? I mean, I would love another dog or cat, but then that leaves me to take care of them. So, for years I have been saying if you want another pet, then save your money and buy one, but it cannot be a dog or cat. Well, Carson and Isaac finally did. Isaac now has a ball phython named "Bubba". When I asked him why he was naming him Bubba, he said, "Mom, I can't call a snake that is five feet long Mr. Twinkies". And there you have it. So now we get to go get a mouse every two weeks and feed it to Bubba (this is one of Matt's many jobs. I draw the line there). Grace almost cried the first time she watched him eat the mouse because it was "cute". YUCK!!!! Matt had to explain to her about the food chain, how we eat chicken and this is the same for the snake.

And then there is Godzilla. Carson was the first to get a reptile and he wanted a bearded dragon. I must say, it is actually very cute. It likes to curl up in the corner of his aquarium and snuggle like Sparky does. He eats crickets, about ten a day.

It has been really good for Carson and Isaac because they have had to be responsible for feeding, watering and holding them each day. I am not thrilled about them, but it is nice to see them take care of them. We'll see how long it last. I may have a snake and dragon soon.

This is Isaac with Bubba! Don't mind the wife beater, but then again, we are in the South!

Closer look in case you are not afraid. By the way, I have yet to hold him. Don't think that will be happening.

This is Godzilla! He is cute and small. He will stay pretty small too.

Close up!

So, now the question Grace ask, "Can I get a gerbil or hamster?" If any of you know me, I get physically nauseous when I see a rat, mouse, gerbil, hamster or anything in the rodent family. So what do we do? Maybe Papa will let her keep a rabbit at his house....hmmm...that is a good idea!

Luke is a giggle box! This will make you smile!

So if this does not make you smile, then there is something wrong with you.

If you are having a bad day and need to smile, watch this.

If you are tired and need a little pick up, watch this.

If you need to feel grateful, watch this.

If you need to see what persistance is, watch this.

And so on.....

Yes, we are alive!!!!!

Okay, so we are still here...alive....and well. Everyone keeps asking me if I am ever gonna blog again. My sister Erica says, "I have given up on your blog" and my mother says, "Have ya'll seen Erica's blog?" So, I am gonna try and do better. Okay? Okay. Settled!

Just thought I would put a quick blog on here about our spring break. The first part was spent with Carson, Isaac and Grace with Leanna in Virginia (you can catch those pictures on Leanna's blog- hehe), Luke with Libby (the greatest teacher in the world!) and Matt and I in Las Vegas. How did that happen? Anyways...everyone had a great time.

Then we went to Atlanta for a little overnight trip. We visited the Atlanta Zoo, which was a lot of fun. We all liked the gorilla exhibit the best.

Grace was the tour guide! Luke was just trying to hog the camara! He was just rolling out any way we took him!

Okay, now tilt your head to the left...okay, now this is us in line at the naked rat mole exhibit. Mom would have died because they look like mice to me.

Well, besides seeing the panda bear the best part of the trip was Grace getting to go to the American Girl store. What a dream for a little girl!!! It was hard for me to not go crazy, but Grace had her own money that she has been saving and she spent all of it, except for $1.89.

We stayed the night in Atlanta and visited with our friends Ron and Stacy Tuttle. We have not seen them in a year and it was awesome to see them.