March of Dimes Walk

Okay, so today I'm am going to attempt to catch up on all the blog postings I've been meaning to do, so there may be a few.

A few of weeks ago, we participated in the March of Dimes walk here, which was held at Sea World.  Addy and Ethan were both born full term, but I had a few friends who had children born early, and I thought it would be a great way to support them, and all the other moms who have gone through that experience.  

Ethan is such an early bird, that he didn't mind being up and at Sea World by 7:30.  Chris and I weren't quite as awake, and poor Addy just wanted to drink her bottle and pretend she was still sleeping bed.                     

    It was kind of a cloudy, windy day, which I actually didn't mind.  It has already reached the 90's a few days here, so I was glad that the weather was mild and we weren't sweating the whole time.  

We got to see the Longhorns at Sea World for the first time.  Sea World was recently sold by Busch, so they no longer have the Anheuser Busch Clydesdales; they have the "Animal Encounter," with horses and Texas Longhorns.  

At the end of the race, they had some characters from a few of the sponsor companies.  Ethan couldn't wait to jump out of the stroller and take pictures with them.  

Best BBQ Ever

Okay, so one of the best things about living in Texas is the food.  My personal favorite food is Mexican, and BBQ is probably my second favorite food.  Chris' favorite food is BBQ.  So, we were really psyched when we watched "Diners, Drive-in's and Dives" on Food Network and saw them highlight a BBQ place about 30 minutes from here.  We've since been at least 5 times, and it's one of those places that gets better every time we go.  

The last time we went, we got a special treat. There were two people on horses directing the cars where to park and providing "security" for the parking lot.  Now, first let me say, that this BBQ place is out in the middle of no where.  It's at least 4 to 5 miles off of the highway, and you can't see anything except fields and long horns from the place. So I have always felt safe there and never really thought security was needed.  I think it was done more for the fun effect.  Ethan loved the horses.  Addy wasn't scared of them, but wasn't really interested either.  

Snakes Alive...or at least they were....

Since moving to Texas, one of my biggest fears has been that a kiddo or dog would get bitten by a rattlesnake.  It's probably not very common, but I'm ridiculously afraid of that. So, today, after Ethan and I had finished planting all of the veggies and herbs in our new garden, I flipped out when Chris said he saw baby snakes!  He said he was pretty sure they were baby rattle snakes.

He grabbed a shovel to try to kill them.  After hitting one of the snakes several times, the thing kept trying to slither away.  I grabbed a butcher knife  (in hindsight, I realize how ridiculous this sounds!), and attacked the snakes.  I hacked one practically in half, and the resilient little thing kept sticking his tongue out and trying to move.

 

 I snapped a few pics to compare to ones online and make sure they were baby rattlesnakes.  Unfortunately for the snakes, they were only innocent garter snakes, which are actually helpful to gardens.  Now I'm praying that I didn't anger the "garden gods" and this won't be a bad omen for the rest of the season.  In my defense, I really did think they were rattle snakes.  Baby rattle snakes aren't born with the "rattles," so I didn't know how else to distinguish them, and had to make a quick call.  Sorry baby snakes!

As if that weren't bad enough, Chris then used the weed-eater a few minutes later and killed a big frog living under our tree.  It wasn't a good day for wildlife in our backyard!