THREE YEAR OLD WITH CAMERA

I just found these pictures and it cracked me up. I miss you Luke!! This is what happens when you have to wait for Linds to get her Starbucks fix, you give your grandson your camera.

Crap! We're Up to 35!!!

So the population of the 'Brass Ark Farm' has gone from 20 something to a whopping 35 (including the farmer & his wife). It went up by four chickens (that will lay blue eggs), down by 1 old girl literally tipping over (hope I go that way. Well not with my poor old feet wrapped around a perch and falling into chicken sh-- but you know what I mean). Then there was the one that Casey killed (the other one survived just didn't lay an egg for a week or so). Then we got four more Rhode Island Reds and now we have a kitten that someone dropped off. Darce & Chris were kind enough to keep her until all our company left but now we have the little demon. She is not a cat I would ever have picked out but Jim loves her and she is pretty cute with the sharpest freakin' claws I have ever seen. I bought a beautiful soft pink button down shirt 2 days ago, wore it yesterday and everbody kept saying how nice it looked and then I came home and picked up the kitten... Everything was fine and then for no apparent reason she decided she needed to leave. I didn't want her to fall but she was having none of that. So she ripped my shirt in four places and me about the same. Now this wasn't a flimsy shirt but a no-iron heavy cotton shirt! Then I looked at the scratching posts! Shredded! I figure she will probably kill us in our sleep...

So, now I would like to introduce you to 'GRACIE'
Not named after me but because the 'neighbours' (love you guys by the way) pointed out that now we have, Will, Jack & Grace...Oz is really pissed off that we now call him Karen...Oh, I forgot to mention that I love the little critter but I'm scared to get attached in case Brenna does her in...it'sso relaxing around here watching the 80 lb dog stalk the 1 lb kitten...getting better though, I think

OFF TO CHINA

So here is my new post and I have to begin it with, "JAMIE, JOHNNY, SULLIVAN & HEATHER!!! IF YOU DARE THINK YOU ARE MOVING TO ANOTHER COUNTRY THEN THINK AGAIN!!! I HATE IT!!! Well, I guess if you move to Hawaii that would be okay but that's about it!"
We said goodbye, see you in a few months... to Lindsay, Kyle, Luke and Evelyn today. They are on their way to their new posting in China. Wow! Now we have grandbabies in China and Taiwan, so far away.It was such a good visit other than a few of the gang having the 24 hour stomach bug. Evelyn is amazing for all her 10 months. Walking well, saying quite a few words and generally being tough as nails. And I guess she has to be living with her big brother.I had so much fun with Luke this time. The last time I saw him was Christmas and now he is out of diapers and he speaks so well. He just cracks me up. We collected shells, rocks, sticks and eggs and despite what his father says we built fences not a cemetery. Both the kids loved the girls, those would be all the chickens. At first Luke was a little unsure but pretty quickly he was right in there feeding and checking for eggs. I have to say more than anything else though with Luke I was most impressed when he said, "Please may I leave the table?" I love good manners, well done Linds and Kyle. The other thing that really impressed me is how strong he is, especially when you don't get a warning of the upcoming pillow fight and he darn near knocks your head off your shoulders. The good thing is my chiropractor put my neck back in line today. Loves this little tractor Aunty Heather bought him.

Both kids were a lot overwelmed by the dogs, especially Brenna who runs around the yard at about 80 mph and flattens anything she hits. Brenna had learned from Graham that little hands come out and feed you anything they happen to be eating at the time and she drove poor little Evelyn crazy. Luke caught on pretty quickly and learned to head to higher ground if he was eating something really good.
Looking for bugs for the girls with Mom

Aunty Heather was also here for a few days. It was great fun having Luke wake her up every morning. It was a wonderful visit and I hope the kids, even the big kids, enjoyed it too.
I miss them all so much already and can't wait to go to see them in their new home plus then I get to see Dann, Jenn & Drai!!!World's Best chocolate truck, he was so worried his dad was going to want a bite.

I love this. This is Luke listening to his Grandma & Grandpa singing the Margenau happy birthday song all the way from Hawaii. And it certainly must have been better than the Comox version because he hid his head for that one. Too funny!