mohawks and spikes...

And so... I caved. Well, I didn't really cave, I had them ask their dad. Noah called daddy at work and asked for his special haircut. He said that Noah's much longed for mohawk would be fine with him (and to send him some pictures when we finished).

I made sure to cut it so that it was completely repairable in case he wisely decided it wasn't his style. I even told him that if he wanted a mohawk, he MUST gel it up EVERY day. I was sure after a day or so of gelling it, he'd get bored and ask me to chop it off. I did get my hopes up when he asked if he HAD to spike it for church. I could tell he was nervous about what everyone would say. I replied with a resounding "YES!". Of course, I was half thinking he'd chicken out, and the other half of me didn't want him to be a "closet mohawker". You know... look neat and tidy for church and live wild and crazy at home. Well, it's been almost a week. We've been seen by both the grandma's and have been to church... He's still spiking it.

Today, I've upped the ante. Being that he has to goop his hair with gel to get it to stand upright, I believe that he should wash it out before bed so he doesn't get those nasty white flakes from the dried gel on his pillow every night. Being that he hardly takes two showers a week, that's a real test. Hmmm, will he pass??? Well, he just jumped in the shower, no questions asked tonight. So, we shall see...

Seth wanted a mohawk after seeing Noah's, but I insisted he not look like a copy cat. He chose a front spike instead. I think he's trying to look tough here. Either that or he has to sneeze...

Noah and his new 'do.

Redecorating the Living Room... finally!

I finally did it! It's been 5 1/2 years since we moved in and almost every room in the house has been re-done, except for the living room. It had small diamond patterned wall paper on the top half and dark burgundy paint on the bottem with wood trim separating the two. It was one of the last rooms on my list for a couple reasons... I HATE stripping wall paper, and we LIVE in that room (thus the name "living" room, I guess).

The room was one huge massive upheaval for about a week, but we got it done!! I had a few kids that really wanted to help me and though the little ones still need some supervision when wielding a paintbrush (OK, alot of supervision), the older boys are actually a huge help. They got the majority of the wall paper off and did much of the roller painting while I painted around the trim.

We still have to get the trim around the windows back up, but I love the color! Sort of chocolate milk... (or coffee with cream). Yum.

Target Practice!

Caleb, Seth and their friend Elijah were target practicing with their bb guns last Sunday. A friend of mine, Elijah's mom, asked Paul to give Elijah instructions on gun safety. She gave the instruction day as a "gift certificate" for Christmas. He's spent the last month looking forward being able to do it, and finally, the weather warmed up enough to plan it. All of the boys took the lesson, but about an hour later my boys came in complaining that it was too wet and cold out. Elijah made the most of his lesson and stuck it out for at least another hour!

They did it!

Seth and daddy skinned the possum! It only sat in the cage, dead, waiting to be skinned by Seth (and also waiting for Paul to work up the nerve to help him) for about 4 days. Good thing it was cold out! But, they did it! I'm proud of my guys! Now they're talking about collecting skins...

Good Doggy

If I've ever said anything bag about my dog (and I know I have), I take it back! Lady caught us a possum!!

Now here's the whole story...

It all started when Noah, my six year old was sliding across our wooden floor like it was an ice skating rink. Not all of our floor is varnished so well and he caught a piece of it and jammed it in his heel. He managed to get a good size sliver. Now, normally I enjoy digging slivers out of my family's body parts (yes, I know it wierd), but this one was too deep and too big to torture him anymore than I already had. So, instead, we doctored it with potato pulp, honey, some black drawing salve and stuck a bandaid on it.

Well, on day number 2 of the sliver saga, Noah insisted that he couldn't walk out to do his daily chore of collecting the eggs. Seems to me, if we were going to walk to get ice cream, he'd find a way to make it work... Anyhow, his sweet little sisters volunteered to do the egg collecting for him. Here's how it went when they came back in...

Ellie: "Mom, there were 5 eggs, and I think there's something in the chicken pen"

Mom: (distracted while checking my email) "Oh, yeah? What?"

Ellie: "It looks like a racoon with a long, pointy tail and I think it eats chickens"

Mom: BOYS!! GRAB YOUR COATS! WE GOT US A POSSUM IN THE CHICKEN COOP! YEE-HAW! (I didn't really 'yee-haw', but it fits in with the hill-billy scene)

On the way out (after grabbing a baseball bat, of course), I saw our cat come out of the chicken coop with a menacing grin and for a moment I wondered if that was the "racoon" that Ellie had seen. It was kinda dark in there after all. But, just a few steps into the chicken coop confirmed her report. There was a possum sitting on top of the nesting boxes facing the wall with the tip of it's tail chewed off (thus, the smirk from the cat). We dodged back out to get anything we could find to catch or kill the thing. We came back armed with a live animal trap, a bucket, a rope, a baseball bat and a pipe. I didn't know how or what we were going to do it, but we were going to do something.

As it sat there, I contemplated whacking it with the baseball bat... but I'm just not that cruel. As I was trying to think of something else, it crawled down the back of the nesting boxes (that used to be an old bookshelf) and wedged itself between the wall and the back of the box. I tried pushing it with a shovel, but it's kind of a gross, creepy feeling when you can't see what it's doing, and the thought of it climbing up the shovel handle kept popping into my mind. We tried to make a lasso type thing with the rope and pipe, but that only made the egg-eater slide further down the wall. At the bottom of the wall was an escape route to freedom, so I had the boys standing guard on the outside of the coop while I tried in vain to get it to climb into a cage on the inside. All this time, our dog was going nuts outside the fence, and finally, one of the boys got the brilliant idea of letting her in to do the dirty work...

And work she did! She dug a tunnel right under those nesting boxes and pulled that nasty farm menace right out. She carried it around by the nape of the neck like a little pup. That is, until it gave up the fight. Then she played with it like some sort of chew toy. The boys and I were grossed out by the crunching sounds, but Lady did what dogs instinctively do and made sure it wasn't going to go anywhere. Go Lady!!

Now, that's not the end of the story... the infamous dead possum is sitting on our porch in a cage. Seth begged to be able to skin it. Guess we'll have to do some homeschooling research on that one...