unwanted garden guest

"Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?"

Well, with lots of this Jamaican sunshine

 and a cheerful little helper who's chore is to water them.

Want to meet my {cheerful} little helper?

 Well, mama and Brynlee were watering some of our flowers

 and were greeted with a little BIG surprise.

I've learned to live with the truckload of lizards that zip in and out among the leaves.

I even talk to them and name them....well the little ones that is.

And I even help catch the little baby frogs
 so my girls can oh and ah over their tiny features.

The snails...ek...they're snails and I don't like them and each one I meet is so deceased.

 But this feller is unwanted in my garden.

Can you see him?

I didn't see him myself until we poured water and he wiggled.

I calmly calmed for the girls to come see.

Ok, I screamed  and jumped around on the veranda till they came running.

He was big.

As carefully and closely as I dared I measured him to my hand,

 his body was as big as my palm and fingers!

Alexis said, "Mama, can I poke the plant with a stick?"

I said {with wild-eyes}, "You do, he jumps out, and I'll jump through the bars on the windows!"

Alexis turns to Moriah and whispered, "I'd like to see that."

Wonder what bothers me worse.  Seeing this unwanted visitor on my porch or seeing him not there the next morning!

my eyes pop open

Last night on my regular "check the windows make sure no one's sawing through the bars" check, something caught my eye when I was walking down the hallway from the back door.  To start with, it was dark.  The only lights on was a faint glow coming from the little night light over the kitchen sink and then the moonlight through the windows.  A darker patch on the ceiling waaaaay above me drew my attention.  I stopped, squeezed my eyes shut a few times to clear them and strained to make it out.  Yep, it was a lizard.  {squeaky whisper} A big lizard.  {clear throat} A big lizard.

I instantly flattened my body against the opposite wall and did a flat shuffle quickly away.  When I reached the light switch I instantly flipped on the light and did a {aughhh} body jiggle.  {blink...blink...blink}

He looked at me.  I looked at him. Normally when I see a big bug {....or creature} my 2nd thought is grab the camera.  Not this time...it was....survival.  {snicker}

This was literally the biggest lizard I've seen in my house.  Every bit of 8 inches.  He had a really fat tail also.  Now I'm really gonna scare you.  {whisper} I just shut the light off and went to bed.

Snuggled in my bed all safe and sound my eyes pop open, "I wonder where he sleeps at during the day?"
 

hide the ripple

"Look, mom, he's so 'tute."

An {eager} little face leans close to mine and shows me the baby lizard....

{clear throat}as she leans over my bed.

  To her credit, I do think he's kinda cute.

  Trying to "hide the ripple" that goes through your body when the first thing you see in the morning is lizard eyeballs.

The day has begun in the life of a missionary wife.

"freshin" up the baby

fix steaming bowls of oatmeal with dark brown sugar

start the laundry, (Thank You, Lord, for my machine!)

pour my coffee

feed the baby her oatmeal and {fresh from the tree} banana

(so teeny tiny, but so perfect in detail)

sip on my forgotten and now lukewarm coffee {shrug}

duck into my bedroom to hide from the children so I can read my Bible

hang a big load of clothes on the line

arrange the poles holding the lines up to catch the most sunshine

smile at the two big bunches of bananas growing in my own little banana "plantation"

move my 3 week old baby chickens into the bigger coop

water my rose and hibiscus bushes

frown at the dark clouds peeking over the mountain

remember my coffee sitting on the kitchen counter

prepare for spelling tests

consider making my bed

decide instead to pile on it with my little princesses and read story books

"watch out, chickie baby, Drago has his eye on you!" 

Just a note: this sticky little hand with the dirt, dog hair, and lizard was taken after she'd played in the yard for a few hours....not when she greeted me in the morning!  Just want to be clear, I bath my kids....a lot!  {goofy grin}

count your blessings

#134 girls who don't scream at the sight of creepy crawlies

#135 girls who aren't afraid to get dirty

#136 girls who sit still a listen to mama read

Crocodile hunting on the Black River

We have, veteran missionary to Jamaica, "Papa" Hutchens visiting us.  Papa told us he wanted us to visit the South Coast with him today and take a boat ride.  The princesses were so excited.  I had never been to that area before so I was eager for our adventure to begin.

 Princess Eden dressed herself in the bustle of preparing to leave.  She came out wearing some sparkly Church shoes that her sister recently outgrew.  I tried to hide my smile as she proudly marched on by to the van.  "Excuse me, what are you wearing?"  Her proud little reply was, "Boat riding shoes, mom."   Her sister convinced her that if we saw a crocodile she wouldn't be able to run very fast in these... she changed.

 The German tourist sitting next to us didn't believe this 12(ish) foot guy was real.  Papa said, "Why don't you just go try to brush his teeth then."  Notice the skinny little gate with the missing....um....everything.  If the picture isn't clear enough, there was only the metal frame....nothin' else!  Yeah, that's what divided him from the sidewalk we got out on.

This guy was hungry.  He started coming up to the boat.

 This guys teeth gave me the shivers....maybe 'cause his eyes were creepy too.

 Did you know: a crocodile holds it's mouth open to let the heat out of his body?   I'm gonna start trying that.

 I took several pictures of the interesting birds, but this guy was the winner.  The princesses loved his hairdo.

 Papa and Eden

 It was a very peaceful and relaxing ride.

 Aren't these nifty?

 Papa and the girls in front of our boat.

Princess Brynlee and our captain.

It amazes me that the area around where we loaded up has businesses and everyone just kinda excepted and lived with the crocodiles like they were common lizards.  This guy was laying up on the concrete dock with a man working on some machinery behind him.  Remarkable.

I'll leave you with this cheesy grin.  Wonder what kind of stories this old guy could tell?

 

Ewkkkkk!!! Missionary Moment

Remember that monster slug I pictured on here a few weeks ago?

That creepy guy doesn't hold a candle to this dude.

I found him in my flower bed....right by my red rose bush.

Prince killed him with the weed eater.....

{evil chuckle ...buwhahahahah}!

Bless Your Pea-Pickin' Heart

peek-a-boo   

I love you

Day #5 of no running water.....ugh.

It rained last night though so our 3 rain barrels filled up some.  At least I don't have to worry about carrying water to the garden...God already watered it.   {Thank you, Lord}

Speaking of the garden... {pouty lip}I started out with really high hopes.  Drought is a foul word.  All the grass in our yard was shriveled up and scratchy on the toes.  Then suddenly we went from no rain for months and months to showers every day.  The rain feels so cool and refreshing.  Did you know it's possible to get sick of sunshine?  Uh-huh. {raised eyebrows}  It happens.

We do have green beans producing and we've had a few squash.  Oh, and the sweet corn.  But, Princess Eden has fallen in love with the fresh peas.  My pitiful little plants are giving it their very best, but only producing a handful every few days.  Which are promptly gobbled up by my little pea-picker.

Nobody ever told Eden that it's not normal to love vegetables.  She eats tomatoes like an apple...strange I know.

Wanna see something really....gross.  Well here it is!  I saw this giant...yucky thing on the side of the house.  And no....we did not put it in a jar for observation.  Even though my "scientific minded" children tried to coax me to do so.

The girls thought it was "so cool".

The mom thought, "eiieie...where did that come from."  {jiggly body shake}

The girls said, "get a picture mom."

The mom said, "don't you dare touch that!!!!"

(Alexis's (5 yr) hand and the monster slug)

Stomp...Stomp...Stomp

Without a doubt... that has to be one of my children singing "Take me out to the Ballgame", at the top of their lungs, in the back yard.

Outside, three happy little kids are sitting with chickens in their laps.  A strange toy you say?  Did I mention they were happy?

(forgive the early morning hair...

Moriah was mortified that I was taking pictures)

Do you want to know something really gross?  Of course you don't... so stop reading and click somewhere else.  Go look at someones cute craft idea or pictures.  You don't want to hear about the perils of living where there is bugs and creepy crawling things...well do you?  Come back later and I'll have a nice sweet post.

Still here?  Boy, you're brave.

Bugs, bugs....everywhere!  Here on the Island we have bugs...{gasp!} Real shocker right?  Missionary's wives are supposed to deal with things like that and accept it.

{stomp...stomp...stomp!}  Well I don't like them! Remember when the giant roach crawled out of the shower drain and up my leg, while I had soap in my eyes?  Remember the season where I continually found bug eggs on my laundry?  Remember the story of the zillions of ants that got in the sealed container to eat my chocolate chip cookies?  I could go on.  (Just look under my "creepy, crawly things label)

Not to mention the lizards.  Ok, did I mention the 4 or 5 inch lizard that fell on me while I was walking down the hall several weeks back? {full body shudder}  Apparently there is some kind of "have eggs in the white ladies kitchen" party going on....'cause we've been finding lizard eggs here and there for weeks.  One morning there was one in the center of the dining room table.  Just laying there on my "nice, clean" table cloth.

The "straw that broke the camel's back" is the ticks.  A few weeks ago we started finding big fat gray ticks in the house.  Maybe about 4 or 5 every day, for about a week. Just sporadicly.  We thought they were coming in on our German Shepherd.  So we redid his Frontline and heavily sprayed the yard for a few days and the problem seem to go away.

One day last week I was sweeping the living room.  I noticed that there were black circles all over the place in one corner of the room.  I didn't have the light on, and I had the door closed to keep the breeze from blowing the dirt.  I continued to sweep all the little circles up and then noticed they were all over the wall.  {Humm}  "What kind of a mess did the girl's do now?"

I flip on the light and lean closer for an inspection.   {spastic jiggle dance}  They were ticks!  Hundreds of them!  All over the floor and walls.  "Joooooosh!"

Nope.  I'll never get used to the bugs.  Still, no matter if I decide to rant and rave or stomp up and down they won't go away.  I just might decide to do that every now and then... it makes me feel better.  But life goes on and when it is all said and done....it was only a bug.

Nancy, Delbert, and {....euwk!}

..... oh, and Fred!  Can't forget him.  Fred is every lizard and gecko the princesses find.  There are Freds on the walls of practically every room in the house, and many Freds on the veranda.  A particularly large Fred fell on Mommy the other night when I was walking down the hall.  I saw him running across the wall in front of me, but just kept walking.  He tried to jump across a corner and lost his footing. Bless my soul, I thought I was having a heart attack as he came sailing down towards me.  I let out a {well practiced} Comanche war cry.  Didn't do much good.  After a full body shake, Fred landed with all feet (?) on the floor and skittered away into the princess's bathroom.  Good riddance!

Meet Nancy the crow
Princess Alexis and I were doing addition in the dining room, this morning, and heard some {curious} noises coming from the other room.  After a few minutes I was pretty ticked at Moriah for not doing her school work and it stomped in there just sure she was horsin' around.  I was pretty surprised to see Nancy sitting on my scrapbook shelf.  Ok, I gasped a little, then this seasoned mom yelled, "Moriah, go get the camera!"  {Quick snap}...before there was a mess to gross to describe!   Then we chased him around the house (and got our physical education class in) until he (or she) finally went out on the veranda and escaped.

We have several black crows around, I think because they like to snitch Drago's dogfood.  We started calling them Nancy after the princess's love of Nancy Drew mystery novels.

Meet Delbert the frog
My (!!!!) bathtub has become home to a very fast little frog.  Or should I say, the tub's drain.  The last several times we shower, he climbs out, hops around enough to hear a few shrill screams then slips back in his home.  Soooo, whenever it's my turn to shower, I watch the drain for about 30 seconds first to make sure there's no movement.  Then I quick as lightening jump in the tub and cover the drain plug.  The girl's have affectionately named him Delbert, after a man who's their friend in Missouri.

Jesus paid it all...{squish}

I snapped a picture of my little goofies princesses this morning before we jumped in the bus for church.  I'll give you three guesses as to which one is the comedian.  They love Sunday School.    I had ten little very busy kiddies in my class this morning.  Ranging from ages 3 to 9.  I love teaching in my class and I love thinking of ways to make Bible stories exciting and interesting.    

Princess Brynlee gets to "sit" in the adult class.  For some reason there are many willing arms wanting to hold her.  She is loved.  {smile}  Last week there was a group of ladies crowded around her and they kept giggling.  When I stepped over, I found out they thought it was hilarious that her stringy little hair would blow straight up in the breeze.  {giggle}  One of my good friends kept asking her, "Do you want a dumplin'?" and Brynlee would give them a huge smile.  More laughter.

As we were singing our hymns this morning I noticed there was an over abundance of tiny ants crawling over my pages.  "Jesus paid it all.....{squish}....all to Him I owe....{squash}....Sin had left a crimson stain.... {squish...squash}..."  Get the picture?   Eughhh!  I couldn't find where they were coming from even though I thoroughly inspected the book a few times.  The straw that broke the camel's back was when one of the speedy little boogers crawled across my cheek and nose and I couldn't catch him.  I discreetly slipped my book under the chair in front of me, and pushed it as far away with my toe as possible.  

 

A Guest in the Night

Ok, so apparently you can't kill a giant cockroach with a plastic baby spoon.  Who knew?

Before I get started with my little story, please understand that our home is not invested with cockroaches.  Their sightings are few and far between....and usually so traumatic for me that I can't help myself from sharing.

There have been several break-ins in our area lately.  So "Nervous Nellie" me wakes up at the slightest sound and gets up to walk through the house and peek out the windows.  I've even whispered out my window,  "Drago, are you awake and listening?"

About 2 a.m., last night, I thought I heard something behind the house.  So I slipped out of bed and tiptoed through the house like .007.  Periodically stopping to listen and peeking around corners.  Something big ran across the floor, right in front of me, and under the couch.  I thought it was a lizard and I usually never bother them, but this one ran sorta "funny".  I quickly switched on a light and threw all my weight against the couch, to move it.  There, on the floor, was a cockroach over 2 inches long...not including his {honkin'} huge antennas!  I think he could get cable with those babies!  Moving the couch had flipped him over on his back and he was laying there kicking everyone of his sticky little feet, trying to get away.  I quickly scanned the room (with one eye) looking for a murder weapon.  Nothing.  That's what I get for having an immaculately clean house.    (Excuse me while I laugh historically at my own joke!)

I {sweetly} called to Prince, " Hey get up and kill this bug!!!"  Now, Prince is not very coherent when he's sleeping.  We hold some {brilliant} conversations, when he's half asleep, that he has no recollection of.  After a second frantic scream, I hear a groggy voice call quietly, "Kill who?"  That's when I knew I was on my own.

Then I saw it!  Laying against the wall was a plastic baby spoon.  I snatched it up and jabbed with all my might.  It bent in half.  The roach used two hands to grab the side, flip himself over and scurry under the other couch.  Within a split second I again used all my might (my couches are really heavy) and shoved the couch in the middle of the room.  I think the bug was sitting there in shock...not really believing I could move the couch.  He took two steps, then turned and stared at me.  On the other side of the room was one of Eden's sandals.  Me and the bug looked at the shoe then back at each other.  Well, sorta.  I think he knew what I was thinking though.  Because, when I made a break for the shoe, he darted across the room the other way.  My legs are longer {thankfully} and I made it back to squish him before he climbed under something else heavy.

I sat down on the concrete floor, sweat running down my back, and looked at the big greasy spot with antennas.  Want to know what ran through my pregnant mind?

I wish I had a doughnut.  {smile}

p.s. Giveaway ends tomorrow!