Kissin' Cousins

Amelia met one her cousins yesterday. Baby Sara lives in Texas. She was adopted domestically by her parents, David and Pamela.

As you can see, Amelia and Sara look a bit alike! I don't think the girls noticed, however. They were more interested in making sure neither of them got ahold of any toys that the other wanted!

Sara is a month younger than Amelia, but she weighs in around ten pounds heavier. Isn't she pretty? Aren't they both beautiful?






Meelsie will have the opportunity to see some more cousins later this week...the Lady Howletts are packing up and heading to KC and other parts of Missouri. More to come!

Ethiopia is now on Google Maps!

Check it out! Google just added Ethiopia to Google Maps.

Here is Ethiopia from space! You can see that it's so-near-and-yet-so-far-from-the-ocean. Even though it is close to the Indian Ocean, the country is still land-locked. This is one of the reasons commerce is so difficult for Ethiopia.

This is the capitol city, Addis Ababa, from space! We spent all of our time in Addis Ababa.

Finally, this is our hotel, The Ghion, FROM SPACE! You can even see the bungalow where we stayed: it's the little row of ten squares just south and west of the big swimming pool (Ethiopia's only Olympic-size pool, I think. Of course, the fact that the pool is filled with "warm water from the bowels of the earth" gives one pause...)

Seeing these up-close pictures makes it hard to believe Ethiopia is a world away. It looks so close, and we long to be there again.

Is there anyone else out there who wants to go, too?

SNAKE!!!!

Being the Bible follower that I am (see Genesis 3:14-16), I HATE SNAKES!

With the weather getting warmer here in Colorado, I have begun my many-times-a-day surveying of the flower beds, yard-around-the-deck and the garden. I am ever-so-vigilant in my searches for snakes. Which doesn't actually make much sense, because when I see one, I am filled with misery and heeby-jeebies, I can hardly stand it. But I don't like to be surprised by a snake, so I always strive to find them first. The good news is, there haven't been any snakes in our yard yet this spring.

(Side story: I had Dave build me a really cool "water feature" near the back door a few years ago. It involved digging and shoveling and leveling and watering and all kinds of effort and carrying on. It was a big job! Unfortunately, given that Boulder County is considered high desert, snakes from near and far flocked to our darn water feature. I couldn't go outside without seeing a snake. Suffice it to say that the water feature was GONE before the last frost the following spring. It's like it was never even there!)

OK, back to today's drama:

As I was driving home this afternoon, Allison called to tell me that Tillie our Wonder Schnauzer had been barking and growling in the back yard. Allison went outside to check the situation, and a BIG goldenish SNAKE that was coiled up in the yard near Tillie our Wonder Schnauzer LUNGED out and BIT TILLIE OUR WONDER SCHNAUZER on the nose!!!!!!


Allison (who has always been a fan of people like Jeff Corwin and other reptile-loving types) calmly took Tillie in the house, then got a bucket and covered the snake with it.

Ryan, who is a neighborhood charmer, I mean a neighborhood snake charmer, came over, and they put the snake into the bucket and called me.

So as I drove home, my mind slithered everywhere: Is Tillie the Wonder Schnauzer breathing? Is she even alive? Is it a golden rattler? (Since we know there are golden eagles in the world, I'm pretty sure there are golden rattlers, too.) How many of its kind are still in the yard? What if Amelia had been the one to find it?

When I got home, Allison the Fearless and Ryan the Valiant unveiled the snake for my viewing displeasure. Since I was expecting to see a snake, and I wasn't surprised to see the snake, I didn't scream at all. (The lack of a scream, actually, brought a couple of neighbors over....they had been bracing themselves for the scream.)

Here are some action shots of the Snake Charmers and the hideousness heinousness that is the snake. (Note: the snake in the following shots is actually FAR BIGGER than it appears in the pictures!)

Yuck!!!

So sick!!!!

I'm gonna barf!!!!

The nightmares are already comin' on!!!

Why oh why, Eve, did you do it?

As I type, Allison and Ryan are fearlessly and valiantly delivering the snake to the nearby lake. Ewwwwww!!!!

I saw some "snake repellant" at Home Depot the other day. I think I'll be picking some up tomorrow.

YOURS

Check out this video of the fourth graders at Abby's school--Rocky Mountain Christian Academy. I'm crying a bit just watching it. So beautiful! It's definitely worth the watch. (And our friend/daughter/sister Morgan is one of the hands!)

She's walkin'! (action shots included)

As of today, Amelia is an official WALKER! She has toyed and flirted with the idea off and on for some time, but she has definitely made the move to the bi-ped mode.

These pictures are just so action-packed, and I'm such an amateur photographer, I know there are some occasional blurs. Just think of it as MOTION!

Now that Amelia is walking, life around here will never be the same, that's for sure!

(And yes, I was moving furniture today...hence the strange lack of stuff in places one would expect to see stuff.)