The flu- June.

Yesterday, we just hung out at home, because Henry came down with the flu and couldn't go to school. He had a nasty cough that kept everyone up most of the night and a fever. We don't think it was the big one because he's already feeling better today thanks to some powerful cough medicine. Mama is hoping for H1N1 to hit soon, because it's inevitable that we'll get it thanks to the fact that we are going to be regularly exposed to the germs of a preschool and a college campus (that already has over 150 confirmed cases). She figures we should just get in now while we still have our summer strength instead of this winter when we're compromised by harsh 50 degree temperatures.

Mama walked into the living room to big this doozy of a spider last night. We tried to find a ruler, but had to use this pencil for reference. That is terrifying huge.

`Here's papa ready to pounce on the kill. This spider was fast and ran under the mama was standing on before mama could catch it. The exterminators come tomorrow morning.

Mama needed a picture of Henry to send to his school. She was looking through our archives when she realized that we only have pictures of Henry looking down at his workbooks or toys or acting goofy with someone else. We had to go back to early August to find a picture of Henry in a truck that worked, even though Henry wasn't looking at the camera.

'
This one is nice, if you don't count that Henry is standing with his hands down the back of his underpants. Why are they on inside out, you ask? Because this morning, mama was upstairs getting me dressed (I slept in until 9). She could here me downstairs yelling, but was choosing to ignore the old fashioned Seibert intercom system. When we got downstairs, we were surprised that Henry was in the bathroom washing his hands. He went to the potty all by himself! We were impressed because Henry suffered from "I can't pull up my my pants by myself" syndrome. He got his pants and underpants back on, but mama had to take this picture when they were getting dressed and she saw his underpants were on inside out. All that matters is that they're on, right?

I'm so hip- Juner.

We hung out at home today. Bubba is coming down sick with a cold and that means just about anything will make him cry. Including me touching him or looking at his toys.

Luckily, after I drove cars on his train track, I left him alone so I could play with my dolls and look cool in my glasses.

I love my glasses. I put them on first thing in the morning and only take them off when I go to bed. I even wear them when I eat.

Mama thinks I'm really starting to act like a little girl. Today, I was rooting though all the toys (and throwing them all over the floor) and picked one up, brought it to mama and said clear as day "Fish!"

Here's a video of us tonight. After we dumped every toy out, we played a game Henry called "chase tag." All I know is that it's super fun. We played for over 25 minutes.

My biggest fear about the south- Mama.

My biggest fear about the south (maybe just below the whole family lapsing into southern accents) has been the threat of enormous bugs. Thanks to our overactive condo association in North Carolina, our house was always well sprayed and only had to worry about some ants and an occasional spider. I can handle that.

What I can't handle is the Palmetto bug. Basically, Palmetto is the southern, gentile way of saying "There are cockroaches EVERYWHERE." I shouldn't get too out of hand, because we've come across 5 in the past week. I called our real estate agent for advice and when I told her we had Palmetto bugs, she was worried we'd opened a cabinet and hundreds came spilling out. (God help me if that ever happens.) I called the exterminator and they said it's normal this time of year. The weather is cooling down and it's very dry due to the drought, so the cockroaches are trying to get inside. Yippee.

(I'm not putting up a picture of them, because it gets me too worked up to look at them, even in picture form, so if you want to see one, google it.)
We (I) have been lucky enough that each sighting has been when Brandon was home. Henry did find one on Sunday when Brandon was gone, but it was flipped over on its back and wouldn't move with any lights on, so we kept it stunned in the bathroom until Brandon got back.

But today when I took Henry upstairs for his nap, we found one sitting on the ceiling of the kids' bedroom (our first sighting upstairs- I probably won't sleep tonight). I tried to keep my cool when we saw it. I don't want the kids growing up to be scared of seemingly harmless things, so I try to downplay my complete abhorrence of bugs. (First, it's not that I'm scared of them, I just don't like squishing them. Second, this is also the philosophy I take when I have to touch dogs. I think dogs are dirty. I don't want them to lick me, but I'll let it happen so my kids don't grow up with weird phobias. One exception- butterflies. I will never let one touch me if I have anything to do about it.)

So we went downstairs, got the vacuum, lugged it back upstairs and tried to suck the little devil off the ceiling. Now, if anyone has ever dealt with the American cockroach, you'll know these suckers are fast. I believe Brandon read somewhere that if they were the size of humans (cripes!), they would be able to run at 220 miles/hours. That's fast. So I knocked down the bug instead of getting it on the first shot, then chased it around the room until it ran- of all places- under Henry's bed. Henry's meanwhile was standing on a chair yelling "Suck it up! It's getting away!"

So we proceed to pull Henry's entire bed apart. We pull the mattress off, followed by the box springs. Of course, there are about 50 books under Henry's bed. We carefully lift each book up- and never find the stinking Palmetto bug. We stripped all 4 layers of sheets and mattress pads off his bed and nothing. We moved the bookshelf by his bed and cleaned all the books off it of- still no bug. I have no idea where this thing could have gone.

Finally we had to give up and put everything back together. Henry concluded it must have run out the window (which was closed). I heard they can squeeze through anything, so who knows where it is. I do feel bad putting Henry to bed up there, but he doesn't seem to mind. Hopefully he doesn't wake up with it running across his face.

Oh, and the exterminators are coming on Friday. We've already scheduled our next 4 quarterly appointments.

Our weekend- Henry.

We were pretty busy this weekend, though we didn't take many pictures to prove it.

June spent every free minute playing with the foam stickers.

While I worked on my workbooks.

We've officially declared Thursday night Pancake Night. (Along with Taco Tuesday and Fast Food Friday, we've only got 4 more days to work themes into.) Papa had to run to the store for syrup and came back with some real treats to celebrate the first NFL game of the season. Did you know Dwight Yoakam had his own line of chicken-product products? We don't know what we like more- the Buffalo "style" bites that are formed to look like chicken wings and drumsticks or the pizza fries that boast the catch phrase "My O Mia! That sure taste'a like's pizza!" That must be southernese for Italian. We've only tried the bites, we'll let you know how the chicken fries.

On Friday night, we picked up some Wendy's and went to the women's soccer game. We were pleased to see that people were there early tailgating. And they were handing out stickers!

On Saturday morning, we woke up to an email for PawPaw. I emailed him earlier this week because I wanted to know what he does when he's not in his army truck. (He helps people learn how to help themselves, in short.) Check out this cool shirt Pawps got me!

It's my new 16th engineet brigade t-shirt. Looks pretty good!

On Saturday morning, we went to to Westminster for the South Carolina Apple Festival. Of course, the camera battery was dead, so we didn't get any pictures, but I did ride the caterpillar train and ate a train lollipop. Then we all ate ourselves sick on whoopie pies (mama knows what they put in those, so she didn't eat it), the best fried fish and fries ever (catered by Manna from Heaven!-Jesus would have approved of multiplying this fish), and our new southern favorite- deep fried apple pie. Think a McDonalds apple pie, but delicious. We took in all the sights and sounds, including a local Happy Hands sign language club (just like in Napoleon Dynamite), lots of Christian live entertainment, and multiple churches handing out free bottles of water. Score!

Mama took a certain amount of pride in the fact that she had all of the foam stickers seperated into little plastic bags by letter. On Saturday night, we walked in to find that June had discovered all the bags that were hidden in a drawer, dragged them all to the table, and was ceremoniously shaking them all out.

Thanks to June, this spurned a massive cleanout of toys by mama. She put 2 bins of toys away and the toy room is much easier to navigate now. She also threw away every tiny Happy Meal toy or knick knack that we owned. Then she resorted the foam stickers, leaving June only the O's.

This week, June went in for her 18 month checkup. we don't know if we like the doctor or not, because June was mad that she couldn't stay in the waiting room to watch SuperWhy! and screamed for the whole appointment. We do know that she weighed 23 pounds and 7 ounces (25th percentile) and was 30.5 inches tall (also in the 25th percentile). The doctor recommended that she see an allergist about her hives, so mama took her on Friday morning. She was slightly more cooperative with the allergist. He took her history and didn't think she had any factors that would lead to allergies. Add on the fact that we haven't been able to figure out any kind of pattern to her breakouts. He decided not to do any blood work yet. His theory is that June was probably exposed to something that triggered an immune response, and now her immune system is out of whack and is responding to just about anything. Because her hives don't seem to be bothering her, he didn't want to do much besides put her on Zyrtec for a couple weeks. After that he hopes the hives should go away. Hopefully this works.

Finally- mama.

Without further delay, we've finally got some pictures of the house. These are the highlights, there are plenty more on our picasa page that you can access by following this link.

This is the view from the road. We live on a big hill. The neighbors across the street live farther down the hill so that their roof is below the road. We like the view from up here. The grass looks okay despite a year long drought that has hit the Piedmont. Papa has only had to mow once, and we're looking into solutions for the really steep section in the front. I'm taking a class at the Botanical Garden about gardening in southern soil.

Everything in Clemson is built on a hill, so we love that the backyard was graded to have a little bit of flat ground. We need to plant something or put up a fence to protect little ones from the 3 foot drop, but the kids haven't even gone close yet. The playground is too appealing. Behind the playground is bare dirt covered in leaves and sticks. The former inhabitants were also a professor's family and we think they spent so much time updating the inside of the house, they never got around to working outside. We poked around on the pile of wood sitting in the side yard and it all disintegrated instantly because termites got to it. We're going to get rid of that soon. They also left this grill behind for us.

This is the back bedroom downstairs. Note the guest bed (we haven't got a frame yet). This will ultimately also double as a craft room. T

The downstairs bathroom. The tub is olive, but olive is in right now, so it doesn't look too bad.

The front downstairs bedroom is the office and needs the most work. But we can't do anything until we buy about 8 bookshelves for all the books.

The front room is the tv room. It's looking a little bare and is also in need of some bookshelves and artwork. We just found the lampshade to our big light, but need to work on getting it higher before we can sit on the couch with the shade on.

Another view of the front room. Here's the front door and the stairs upstairs.

The next room is the toy room. And there are a lot of toys. We got these white bookshelves from Ikea and love them as toyshelves.

Henry just today noticed that we have a fireplace. Well, a woodburning insert in the fireplace. I'd like to take it out, but we're going to wait for Grandpa Seibert to come down before we undertake that task. Note the other front door. We have two back doors too.

Our laundry/utility room, right beside the doors to the garage and the back yard. Perfect for stripping down and washing off filthy kids.

Our very white kitchen with ample storage. For the first time in my life, I can fit all of my kitchen accessories in the kitchen. The only thing I want to change about the house is these countertops. They are white, stain easily and show every crumb. I far cry from out old black marble countertops that disguised filth so well, you could lose multiple chocolate chips for days.

The dining room. I really like this room. They painted over the old textured wallpaper and it looks very cool. I was very glad to have hard floors under the table after eating on carpet for the past 8 years, but it requires contant sweeping with two kids and my worry of large disgusting southern bugs feasting in my house. I can even see crumbs in this picture.

I'll take pictures of the upstairs tomorrow. The kids are sleeping. If you want to see more, check out this link.

Around the house-Juner.

We were glad to be back home after 3 weeks of moving and traveling. On Monday, we just hung out around the house, napped and watched some tv. Mama tried to get a picture of me laying on the ground clutching my new best friend- this ceramic doll- but she didn't get there in time.

My new doll is the best. Actually, it's mama's bank from when she was a little girl, but I've claimed it as my own. I carry it everywhere, which makes mama a little nervous, especially when I'm walking on the tile in the kitchen.

Buster was too engrossed in his new Banjamin Bear DVD from GG and GG to look at the camera.

Today, Henry had his first day of his new school. There was no separation anxiety when we left him, though I was upset we didn't get to stay and play with all the toys in his classroom. His teachers said he did great, but when questioned, Henry just kept saying "I said I didn't want to talk about it!" What an attitude. But he must have liked it because he keeps asking when he can go back.

Tonight, I wanted to play at the table with Bubba, so mama got some foam sticker out and I spent 40 minutes putting them in my dolly.

She's pretty and functional. Mama said she'll take a video, because you have to see how much I love this ceramic doll. When I see her, there is much hugging, glazing and sighing.

I wanted to sit at the table because Henry was busy working on his new love- workbooks. Now that he's getting older, mama lets him stay up a little later after I go down for my nap so they can work on workbooks. (Don't worry, he still take naps- mama insists on it.) This workbook features hidden picture pages (the hardest), connect the dots (Henry's favorite), and mazes (the easiest).

Tonight mama made salmon roulettes with a crab florentine stuffing (it was delicious and a premade entree from the grocery). I refused to eat it and Henry probably would have too, if it weren't for the caramel apples mama bought today. He ate his broccoli and baked potato without complaint and even seemed to enjoy the salmon! Could Buster finally be entering a stage when food is eaten willingly? Don't count on it.

"That's pretty good."

Lazy 5 Ranch- Henry.

By Sunday morning, all four kids were getting pretty tired, so mama decided that we better leave so the Paytons let us come back again. We called up mama's cousin Andy and his wife Christina and agreed to meet at the Lazy 5 Ranch.

We feel dumb for never having gone down to Lazy 5 Ranch before. It's an enormous drive-though exotic animal park with a petting zoo and a huge playground shaped like a ship. We had a great time on the ship before Andy and Christina showed up, but mama didn't get any pictures because the whole thing was 5 feet off the ground and she spent most of her time trying to make sure June didn't fall.

We stopped first at the petting zoo to feed some animals. I had the method of flat hand, stright fingers down, but June wouldn't do it, so she didn't get to feed the sheep.

I fed this goat because all the other big ones kept pushing him out of the way.

After we ate ice cream, Mister Andy bought us a big bucket of feed. I couldn't wait to find more animals to feed it to!

These camels were very eager to get some food. They would press their mouths wide open against the fence and then would use their big upper lips to get food out of the bucket. And it's true what they say about camel spit. They didn't spit on us, but it was really thick and gross.

Mister Andy and Miss Christina surprised us by making reservations on the wagon ride instead of just driving through in the mini van. This was a great idea because the animals came running when they saw the wagon because they knew there was plenty of food. This antelope licked all the spilled feed off the floor.

Mama loved the big animals. They strolled up, lifted their heads, stuck their tongues out and waited for you to feed them. This bison couldn't even keep his tongue in his mouth.

This little zebra was only 5 days old. It's skinny legs and knobby knees reminded us of Natalie.

This water buffalo got out of its mud hole just to see us.

June played it cool in her hat and sunglasses. We were glad Miss Christina held her for most of the ride so mama and I could feed animals.

This African cow (we can't remember its name) has the biggest horns for a cow. They wouldn't let us feed it because the "horns always get there before his mouth does."

The best part was when we visited the giraffes!

I got to feed a giraffe some leaves!

I told mama "it has a blue tongue" and "I can't wait to tell papa!"

This huge cow (it had to be 6 feet tall) was special because it was in the HBO miniseries John Adams. Mama and papa are watching it now and mama makes sure to point it out every time it's on the screen. This cow got a hold of our bucket and ate everything out of it and almost ate the bucket itself.

Thanks so much to Mister Andy and Miss Christina for spending the day with us and then inviting us back to their house for a cookout. I think we might have freaked them out a little bit when they found out that tired kids just get more hyper. We were so wound up that we may have worn a hole in their carpet when we ran laps around their house.

After supper, we headed to the Charlotte airport to pick up papa. We loved this airport because it has a cell-phone lot- a parking lot made just so you can wait for a call from the baggage claim. And you don't have to pay to park! Genius. Too bad Juner and I didn't have any patience for sitting in a parking lot. We drove around the loop and mama drove down a restricted road and almost drove onto a runway. It was awesome! We got to see 5 big planes up close!