I Have Been Compromised

If you caught last night's blog you might've thought, for a quick second, I was a kind and compassionate human being.  I want to assure you, if you speak to my children they will completely disagree.  Today I needed someone to buy me a bag of vegetables.  Chloe and I skipped the afternoon of school and ended up at Dairy Queen for a delicious blizzard.  My debit card was denied three times. I happened to have enough cash in my wallet to pay for the treat and headed straight to the bank.  Someone had stolen my card information and was trying to use it.  Luckily, Visa caught them and shut my card down.  I received a call from Visa instructing me to call my financial institution immediately as my account had been compromised.  They issued me a new card and all is good for now.  I think I am going to use cash from now on.  It did remind me of how important it is to be yourself and to avoid hijacking someone else's credentials.  It was a quick thought.

Earlier in the day I received a phone call from a friend asking me if I knew of anyone who might want a sweet Border Collie.  After speaking to my husband, he agreed to let me try her out.  Next week she will make her first appearance here at the house and I'm excited to see how it all works out.  Her name is Ruby.

the snake I found this morning

Brett has adopted a few creatures this week and one was a dragonfly larvae that he was feeding tiny minnows and frog eggs from the pond.  I actually watched it eat a tiny fish and wondered, "Why am I watching this?"  A tiny praying mantis and a walking stick were all escorted outdoors before bed.  It would be my luck to awaken with a walking stick on my face at 6am.  Although I'm not afraid of the walking stick, I am not a fan of having them wander around the house without permission.  I don't like ANYTHING wandering around my house without permission.

This morning after the rain stopped I opened the chicken coop and milked the goat, but on my way I found a friend.  A checkered garter snake.  I considered catching it and showing Brett, but I knew he would want to take it to school and then keep it in a tank in his room.  Currently the number of creatures in containers in his room out number the stars in the night sky.  I think I forgot to post a photo of the moth Brett was given when we visited as friend's house recently.  The moth either laid eggs or pooped.  Brett saved the eggs or poop and today discovered that they had, indeed, been eggs and are now growing up to be something.  When the moth dropped these white hard balls from its back end I watched Brett gather them and relocate them to the safety of his bedroom creature retreat.  I was positive it was waste.  Oh how I hate being wrong.

The afternoon finally arrived and Brett and I assembled parts of his Wisconsin state project due on Friday and to be presented on Tuesday.  I did minimal help and mostly did what he told me to do while he colored and organized all of the dollar store items I collected.  Letters, pictures, flags and cards all spread across my twelve foot dining room table.  It looks like a bomb went off.  Brett has very strong ideas of what he does and does not want on his project.  He does want me to do all of the writing and he does want to use Sharpie for everything.  He does NOT want to use crayons and he does NOT want to write long facts about the state.  We compromised and I wrote a little and he wrote a little, but mostly in Sharpie.  I have a strict policy on my children's projects and it is as follows:  If this is a parent competition of who made the best project, I WILL WIN.  Unfortunately for my creativity it is my child's project and therefore I am the provider of the tools but not the creator of the project. Brett has asked me to figure out a way to attach deer horns to his project.  His tri-fold is going to be a disaster with all sorts of random weirdness, but I can't really complain as I'm certain his eclectic-ness comes from me.  I will make sure to post a photo of the epic Wisconsin deer horned tri-fold on Tuesday.  I did try and contact my dear friend, the former Miss Wisconsin 1997, for an autographed headshot, but she was out of the country on vacation.  I'm sure a huge photo of Miss Wisconsin (from the 90's) with deer horns and a real(dead) bee hanging from the horns would look more like one of those crazy "modern art" pieces.   Good times at the Stricker house.

I am thankful for all of the creatures that bring my son such joy.(Day 136).  Goodnight Friends.