Now THAT is a poinsettia

A couple of weeks ago, Levi and I happened to wander through the garden section of WalMart and we saw some poinsettias. I commented on how nice they looked (similar to the white one in the picture). Levi let out a big sigh and said "Mom, these are a shame! You haven't seen the poinsettias that we grew at school, THEY put these to shame."

This picture shows the difference in size (they are in the same size pot). How dare I even look at plants from other places. Levi's landscaping class grows plants in their greenhouses and sell them to earn money so they can buy new equipment for their program. I have learned my lesson and will ask Levi first before I go to those OTHER places.

Even the Cats are Traumatized

Are you sure the snakes are gone???


Well, they're not back here!


I think we'd better curl up on Mom's bed where it's safe!

Lapse in Communication

I guess my mind has been kind of like this picture lately..... scattered and not communicating very well. We spent a good Thanksgiving with friends. Kirk was home and actually didn't have to work, so he got to eat with us. Of course, the day AFTER Thanksgiving, I think he secretly volunteered to work so he wouldn't have to go out shopping. I was brave! I faced it alone! I got almost everything that I had set out to get. As my friend Janie put it, "it was like herds of wild animals being chased and hunted, darting every-which-way and forgetting what you were looking for in the first place." You start grabbing items because that is what everybody else is grabbing, so it must be a good deal! Anyway, despite the crowds it was a pretty good weekend. Not much new to report on this homefront. Oh, I guess I should explain what the picture is from. One day early in the fall, Levi came in the house and his face was very pale. I asked what was wrong and he opened his hand and showed me pieces of his phone. He had been out on the riding mower, sculpting his precious lawn and his phone fell out of the case and this is how it ended up. Since the phone was insured, we put a claim in and they asked for the old one back. We sent the pieces of phone AND the grass blades in a little plastic baggie. The moral of the story is don't talk and drive.

SSSssssnake update!!

Just a quick update on the snake situation in our kitchen.

I finally got my nerve up (after I bought good leather gloves) to dig through the bottom cupboards looking for any possible way for snakes to get in. Unfortunately, I didn't find any holes, but fortunately we haven't seen any more snakes. Just to let you know, people that design cabinets need to use their head and put corner cabinets in that have a lazy-susan, or something other than the wasted space that is in my corner cabinet. First of all, if you store anything in there, it usually gets pushed to the very back corner over time, which means that you have to literally crawl into the cabinet. I guess it is good in a way, because you pray constantly while you are in there, that you won't meet up with a snake or any other creepy critter while you are in there. I would've been in bad shape if I would have met up with something, because I was kinda stuck and couldn't get out fast. Anyway, I am hoping it was just a fluke that there were two baby snakes, and that we won't find a snake nest in our house. (Uggg............I can't handle it and neither can Kirk).

Kelby -- The Youngest Tatertot

Kelby is the youngest.

He is 11 yrs. old and in 5th grade.

Kelby found out last fall that he loves soccer

and is really good at it.

When Kelby is on the soccer field he really

(I mean literally) uses his head a lot. Wish that concept would carry over to the classroom, but at least he is good at math.

Kelby is a happy go-lucky kid.

He still loves to go for car trips

(as long as he has his shades and earphones ).

He especially likes to go to the beach, and just like his grandma, can't resist the temptation to "just get our feet wet" (they come back wet to the knee).

I guess that's why we always have a

towel in the car now.

Kelby used to get called "little Levi"

before Levi let his hair grow out.

They do look alike in many ways.

Kelby wishes he could do the things

that his big brothers get to do, but is usually

content playing and running outside.

Nellysa -- The Tatertot Girl

Nellysa is 13 and in 8th grade. She is the only girl and has three brothers. This is a very tramatic thing for her -- to be the only girl. She is known to hold her own as well as any boy and she is pretty famous on the church basketball court.

Nellysa loves to play sports -- especially vollyball and basketball. She likes to be on the computer and has recently discovered e-mail. I am just afraid of when she takes over the phone. She's already begging for a cell phone. When I was 13, I didn't even know what a cell phone was......(and it wasn't too long ago when I was 13).

This is Nellysa' s "claim to fame" picture. This was taken the same day that she had her first ride on a friend's yacht. Big Day!!! Aren't you lucky that you know her??

Nellysa loves to go to the beach. She also loves to see her dad's ship. We often go and watch the ship go out and Nellysa & Kelby like to climb all over the rocks and comb the beach. She acts pretty tough, but she is still a girl at heart.

Snakes & snails ........

Well, our latest adventure seems to be of the reptile family. We found two baby garter snakes in our kitchen -- yes, the kitchen. Of course the cats are upstairs lounging.....they're not going downstairs, there are snakes! Today I get the adventure of tearing everything out of the bottom cabinets to see where they are coming in at. I'll start there......(then probably chicken out). The kids were scared of it until Levi put it in a little container. Then they wanted to know if we could keep it as a "pet". Ummm...........NO!!! I'll let you know what I find.

Annual Autumn Trip

We went to Yorktown today to see the leaves. It was a pretty day.

The kids humored me so I could take their pictures, but they could not wait to get back on the interstate so they could stop at Bass Pro Shop!

"Okay Mom, enough already!

Look! Craw fish! Where's my pole? Oh yea, leaves.

Finally! BASS PRO SHOP!

Levi -- The Git R' Done Tatertot

This is Levi. He is 16 and a Junior in H.S. Levi LOVES to fish. He can be sound asleep and if he hears the word "fish", he is wide awake and right there. When we go to stores, he goes directly to the fishing isle.

This summer, Levi was telling a friend of our family about the canoe that he and his best friend, Clint, were saving money to buy. She said "oh, I have a canoe that washed up in my yard after one of the hurricains. Nobody would ever claim it. Do you want it?" Hello, do fish swim???

After he got the canoe, he and Clint decided to take it out on the waterways around the city. They carried it down the street to the canal and went exploring. A few hours later, I drove into our neighborhood and this was the sight I saw........A big red canoe sitting on the sidewalk with two very weary fishermen sitting on it. I pulled up and asked them what they were doing, and they told me that they were just taking a little break and trying to get the energy to continue on home. Amazingly, Grandpa Bishop just happened to pull up in his truck (how did he ever know ??? Levi!!!) and they loaded the canoe in the back of the truck for a ride home.

Levi is in a school program called Landscape Design & Management. This has been an interest of Levi's for years. He has re-done our front yard....new grass, new flowerbeds, new shrubs, etc. He is having fun. He can get pretty creative with his landscaping.

Clancy - The oldest Tatertot

This is Clancy. He is now 18 and Graduated from high school with an advanced diploma. Clancy now works at Blockbuster and is trying to save money (yea, he saves his mom's money - and spends his :-)




Clancy loves track and ran cross country, the mile, the two mile, and a 4x8 relay (I think that is what it is called). He is a very good runner and still get up early to run with friends.



He went with sarah to the prom. Don't they look nice (I can be a proud mom).

Clancy just graduated to driving a '91 plymouth and not a mini-van. He is pretty glad to be out of the family vehicle.

As you can see from the picture, he is quite famous for his ability to fall asleep anywhere! He has even fallen asleep standing up (scary).

Oh, Clancy wants me to tell you that he loves to read and wants to own a bookstore some day.

Our Furry Kids

We have three furry kids. Jasper is the oldest. He is a character as you can see as he scolds Callie and hugs bandit in the pictures. He loves Levi and will walk over you like you were just a bump in the rug if Levi walks through the door. Callie is Nellysa's cat. She just kind of hangs out wherever she wants during the day and has to be right next to Nellysa at night. Bandit is our baby. We thought she was a male when we named her, but she's a she. Bandit is playful and torments Jasper and then lays right by him so he she can cuddle. They are quite entertaining.

One of our favorite Jasper stories is when he escaped out the front door one day and would not come in the house. Finally I had to leave and he was still out. Since he is an indoor cat, I didn't want to leave him outside, so I went out to find him. I called and called, and finally found him down at the end of our court. He and another neighborhood cat were having a stand-off. I told Jasper to get home. He wouldn't budge. The neighbors were probably thinking that I had lost it because I was yelling at a cat. Finally the other cat ran off and Jasper turned around, hissed at me, and started towards home. Every couple of steps, he would turn and hiss at me. He did that all the way home. When we got home, I opened the door and he stomped, yes I said stomped up the stairs. That was my introduction to teenage attitude. Pretty scary that it was a cat.

Autumn is here!

Today is a beautiful fall day. The leaves are finally starting to change color, but it is not as enjoyable since they cut the woods down that were behind our house. They were going to build self-storage units and a mini-mall, but that was three years ago and they cut and hauled the trees and then made many piles of debree and have not touched the land since. Well, at least things are starting to grow again and maybe in a few years we'll have our personal forest again. The kids are in school and looking forward to a few days off this week. Now, mind you I said THEY were looking forward to it. I had better get mega food on hand because you know that they will think that they are starving to death if they get bored. Kelby has his last soccer game for the season on Saturday. He loves soccer. Levi starts his Behind the Wheel class today which means that he will probably have his drivers lisence by the 16th. I'd better go pluck some more money off that money tree out back to send to the insurance company -- oh wait, I think they cut that tree down too. Well, I'd better go and get something done today.