Murder, Mystery & Mayham!

Saturday night Alohaknitter invited us all over to watch Rear Window, a classic murder mystery.

I love this movie! I can watch it over and over and always find something new. This movie is kinda like Facebook. The main character, Jimmy Stewart, watches his neighbors all day cause he is stuck at home and bored. We don't have to do that anymore...we just get on Facebook and check every one's status.

As if yummy food and drinks were not enough Alohaknitter made up a murder mystery game. Each of us would draw out a slip of paper. One slip would have 'Killer' written on it and all the others would have various ways for us to die....such as 'fall from chair, choke to death, or die dramatically'. The Killer would 'kill us' by winking at us. We would die but we couldn't tell anyone else who had killed us....they would have to guess. We got very creative as the night wore on. Some of us died from consumption (ketchup in a Kleenex), knitting needle to the neck, falling down stairs, SCREAMING or being shot to death.

We were having a lot of fun with this game and then someone brought up dreams and Alohaknitter said the night before she had dreamed there was a bat in the house. She woke up and wasn't sure if she had REALLY seen a bat or if it had all been a dream. We all laughed and told her it was just a dream and not to worry...expect for All Natural Mama who HATES bats! She was not amused.

So, with the dream forgotten we all were watching the movie when Esther says, 'There is a bat in the house.' She said it very calmly and we didn't pay that much attention. She then said it two more times. We were all a little jaded at this point and thought maybe she was trying to 'scare someone to death'. Then all of a sudden I SEE A BAT! in the dining room!!! I screamed 'THERE REALLY IS A BAT!!' All hell broke loose at this point.

All Natural Mama dove OVER Cheryl and between Andi's legs to get under a chair. I've never seen anything like it. Esther jumps up, grabs a bag, and goes after the bat! We couldn't believe it! All Natural Mama, myself and Nikki all make it to the front porch. We turn around and watch Esther, through the safety of the glass door, chasing the bat with a tote bag. (All Natural Mama is in the street at the point.) Nikki and I decide we HAVE to get this on camera so we run back in.

Esther has now abandoned the tote bag and picked up a plastic bin that had been filled with yarn. (Keep in mind we are ALL screaming at this point and Alohaknitter's husband is upstairs and has not come down to see if an axe murderer has killed us all yet.) Notice the plastic tote says, 'Yarn bin NUMBER THREE'. Alohaknitter has way too much yarn!Esther manages to capture the bat under the plastic tote. She turns around and we are all standing there taking pictures or video (be prepared for screaming!) She yells for some help and we tell her to pose for the blogs. She screams again for us to PLEASE HELP HER AND TO STOP TAKING PICTURES!

Esther manages to get the bat out of the house. She was amazing and from this point forward shall be called Batwoman. I really never knew she had this in her. She was seriously ready to kill this bat to protect us. I personally think she thought the bat was Edward and she was going to take him home.

My friends are amazing!

Graduation!

My baby graduated from Kindergarten! I'm so excited for her to go to 1st grade. I'm especially excited that I don't have to do the pick up at school anymore! Everyone around here knows how crazy it is. One lane, 40 SUV's trying to get a spot, people who can't seem to wait their turn and cut in line, and others who can't parallel park....oh wait...that's me! Well, we just won't mention my illegal u-turn everyday and my lack of parallel parking skills.

Side note: Made the sign with my Cricut! So much fun!!

I'm working on it!

Issues with the blog...I'm working on them. Bear with me.

Family Picnic

Family picnic which included lot's of fresh fruits and veggies right out of our own garden. The first watermelon of the season seems like it's always the BEST watermelon of the season. Lot's of outdoor fun. Riding with Papa. He would have NEVER let me ride on the back of the mower like that. Of course we didn't have a riding mower back then so that was probably a good rule. Aunt Nancy and Sissy eating strawberries and whipcream.

Of course it does

Strawberries!

One of the advantages of having family 8 hours south of me is I can go down to visit and pick up fabulous produce that isn't even thinking about being ripe up here....like cherries and strawberries.

I mentioned to Sarah I was getting strawberries and asked if she wanted me to pick her up some. She said yes.Then I get a text from Nikki, Stephanie, Rachel, and Penny (2 flats please) all wanting strawberries too! If you are keeping track that added up to SEVEN flats of strawberries in the back of my car...plus our luggage. We made it all fit though and everyone has been putting up strawberries like crazy around here. Then 2 days later we find out Aldi has them for .49 cents a box. So, like the crazy women we all are we bought more!

Cherries

While at my parents last weekend we picked a couple buckets of cherries. Gracie loved using the pitter...or is it a cherry stoner? I don't know...all I know is it worked way better than the one I have. The Hunter liked using the new bucket to pick the cherries. Made it a lot easier.

Sponge Rollers

Ya gotta love those pink sponge rollers. When Sissy saw me putting the rollers in my hair for the 80's party (I didn't' want to buy hot rollers) she wanted them in her hair also. Her hair has a natural curl to it so they made beautiful curls!! Now she wants them ALL the time!

Parting Gifts

As you can see I am still recovering from my 80's party. As if the party wasn't gift enough everyone gave me such wonderful gifts that I HAD to share.

You can't have an 80's party without a little Brat Pack.

Stephanie gave me a orange and black gift bag filled with local tasty treats. Most of them I have never even tried and now I'm leaving. It was so much fun to try them all! All Natural Mama made me a wonder apron and potholers. The fabric is so beautiful and vintage looking.

Alohaknitter informed me she would NOT make me anything knitted....so she crotcheted me a rug (Rebel!). I love it!! Even my hubby, The Hunter, loved it!

Sarah, The Clicky-Heeled-One, gave me heels so I can be part of her group. She also gave me socks cause you can't walk around barefoot in her house and wipes so that I can wipe my feet off after I take the new socks off....cause the socks might be dirty inside you know.

FarmerFoley gave me a beautiful hand drawn picture. I love it!! I had found a similar one online and told her I should just buy it cause it would be perfect in Sissy's room. I never bought it of course but she remembered and drew me one herself. I can't wait to buy a wall to hang it on!

Nikki photographed areas around town and had them framed for me. If you look very closely you will even see a squirrel in one picture.

I can't even begin to express how wonderful the party and gifts were. Some of these gifts brought me to tears cause they were so beautiful and thoughtful. And then some brought me to tears cause they were...well...so strange and random.....

Paying for my Raising

Can someone PLEASE explain to my children that it's summer vacation?! I have fought with Sissy ALL year to get her out of bed by 8am for school and now that school is out....up at 7am like clock work!

80's Lady's Gifts

I'm a little behind on this post but I wanted to go back and mention the gift bags I gave everyone at my 80's party. I wanted them each to have something from me that was cute, functional, and was unique to everyone....and cheap. I finally decided on grocery sacks for everyone. Who doesn't need another bag?

The Alohaknitter IS my knitting super hero! She is amazing!

When I first came to town I was VERY excited when the MOPS president invited me to her house. Little did I know she was just like everyone else...haha! Her bag says "THE (former) MOPS President....are you impressed?" I was VERY impressed by her though. You should see the way this woman can organize!
Nikki has an unnatural fear of squirrels.
PookMonster's bag says "You don't Gnome me at all!" Which is so true. Just when you think you have her figured out she throws something new at you and surprises you. The Sorority Pretzel Girl is not all that well-behaved but that is ok. She will definitely go down in history.
This is the All Natural Mama. Changing the world one garden at a time. Esther would much rather be lounging at Pemberly with Mr. Darcy.

These two say they clean to relieve stress. Yeah...I don't get it either but I love 'em anyway!

The bags are all courtesy of a rockin' little shop called Girls In The Garage. You need writing on something email Amy and Paige and they will hook you up! girlsinthegarage@verizon.net They did all these bags for me super cheap and shipped them to me in less than a month. I tried to go and have three more bags done at a local shop (cause everyone didn't get their RSVP's into me in time) and those three bags would have cost more than all twelve that I ordered from The Girls. So, email them....there motto is Anything you like we do for you.