Ranch life

The other night Shawn, Jaxson, and I went down to the dock after Rachel went to bed. Don't worry, we have a good monitor that reaches that far. Jaxson wanted to wear his "muddy boots" down there so he went to the back porch, grabbed them, and ran back through the house leaving the back door open but the screen door shut. The weather has been so nice lately that we've left the screens open on both the front and back screen doors.
When we returned Jaxson and I walked through the living room into the kitchen and the smell about knocked me over. Skunk! It was so strong I thought the creature had gotten in the house, but thankfully, it hadn't. I flipped on the back porch light and saw BoBo frantically rolling around in the grass trying the get the smell off. For those of you who have never experienced the smell of a skunk up close there comes a point when it ceases to smell like what you experience in the car after passing one and morphs into a distinct burning garlic aroma. It was unbelievable. Fortunately we were able to clear the smell out of the house pretty quickly, but BoBo remains in the kennels guests use to keep their dogs in out by the workshop.

New Friends

A few weeks ago the Houston Grand Opera came for a visit to the ranch, and this young lady accompanied her parents. Her name is Varvara (similar to Barbara but the emphasis is on the second syllable), and she is Russian. She and Jaxson had a marvelous time together given the fact that he is 1.) quite the social creature and 2.) rather friend deprived at the moment. If y'all could pray that he meet some friends that would be greatly appreciated.

She happened to be on the playground when Jaxson saw her and yelled, "A friend!" He ran over to her, they chased each other briefly and she left saying, "I be back." Imagine a Russian accent. When she came back she had something in her hand and went up to Jaxson asking, "You vant a cookist?" She had cookies in her hand, and was offering one to Jaxson. Of course Jaxson never turns down cookies. The really funny thing is that for several days after she left Jaxson continued to refer to them as "cookists" in his best Russian accent. I'm not sure if he was just being funny or if he really thought they were called cookists, but it was hilarious.

Cute Kids

Peek-a-Boo

Home Sweet Home

This is a picture of our humble abode on moving day. Of course the boxes are off of the front porch and the moving truck is gone. The smaller section on the right side is the kids' room.
Sorry to rub it in, especially for those of you down in Alvin, but today's high was 82 and the low for tonight is forecasted at 62. Talk about nice! It made the playground much more pleasant today.
Miss Rachel took a few steps today. It was only with a lot of encouragement from Daddy, but she really enjoyed herself. She crinkled her nose, flashed a big two-tooth grin, and cackled. She was quite proud.