Viva Las Vegas

After the extremely draining snake episode, I was forced to take a one-day hiatus to recover. Unfortunately, I didn't really take the opportunity to rest, and instead ended up attending a George Strait concert and a having a very late night of shenanigans.

Yesterday Grandma, Ollie, and I took our car to Mike Castrucci to have the oil changed. Instead of waiting at the dealer, we decided to walk across 27 and enjoy a cold beverage at Sonic. Although this was a lot of fun, who knew how difficult it would be to find a crosswalk that would be easy to maneuver with a stroller. I'm so not used to being that mom with the kid in a stroller, that I have no idea how to scope out the best route.

Once we got home I handed Ollie over to Daddy and prepped for the concert. After giving detailed instructions about how many prunes to feed for bedtime snack, I kissed my boys and rushed off to meet Anna. George was too much fun, so much so that we didn't want the night to end. Next thing we knew, we were in MainStrausse with Jeremy and the crew. I'm certain Anna had no idea what she was agreeing to when I said, "Let's meet up with my brother and his friends." As you can imagine, this did not end early...or should I say this ended really early Saturday morning.

My punishment for staying out so late was Ollie waking up at 6:00 am this morning, just a mere 2 hours after I crawled into bed. Usually when he wakes up early he goes right back to sleep after breakfast. Not this morning. He was full of spunk and ready to play. I suppose this is punishment for years of tormenting Jeremy after late nights by playing the piano as loudly as possible to wake him up. Sorry Jeremy.

Luckily, we didn't have too much to do that was absolutely necessary until 5:00 this evening, so I reverted back to the advice I was given as a brand-new mother to "sleep when your baby sleeps." I shouldn't complain too much however, because Daddy had to work 15 hours today and since I was a little late getting home had to deal with Ollie waking up at midnight all by himself.

I did have to bake the peanut butter cookies that I promised to make my snake heroes and heroine. This did not go as well as planned even though I have made my blue-ribbon-winning peanut butter cookies hundreds of times. I guess my sleep deprivation kept me from looking at all of my ingredients, because I accidentally used reduced-fat peanut butter. The cookies ended up being brownie-like and I didn't have enough butter to make another batch. I guess I'm still indebted to Grandpa, Grammie, and most importantly Jordan.

At 5:00 Ollie and I headed to the Queen Palace Casino on Jerry Wright Road to celebrate Aunt Peggy's birthday. Luckily, we're related to the management, so they admitted Ollie even though he's not quite 21. The best part was he got to meet his cousins and Uncle Bud, and hang with his church buddy, Aunt Georganne.

After enjoying the Grand Buffet and pawning the peanut butter mistake off on the unsuspecting gamblers, we watched Aunt Peggy open her birthday gifts. This took approximately 4-1/2 hours (or maybe 45 minutes). Finally, the casino opened for play and Ollie got his first taste of gambling. We opted for roulette, which was probably not a wise choice. Within 10 minutes we were busted. Since we were out of dough and it was approaching bedtime, we headed home.

Tomorrow we'll be going to church and helping in the garden. Hopefully the sun won't be too hot.

Cold Hearted Snake

Where do I begin? I'll summarize and then get to the juicy part. Up at 1:30 AM, back up at 7:00, prunes, Grammie's at 9:00, work, pick up Ollie. Finally, before the big show one small disclaimer: I'm fully aware that most pictures do not depict the events very well. This is not intentional, but I refused to get closer to document the specimen. I'll attempt to give reference points for clarification where needed. Now, on with the show!

Picture it. My house 1:45. I'm nosing the car into the driveway when I notice a long, foreign object stretched out directly in front of my parking space. My first thought: "That can't be what I think it...OH MY GOD IT IS!" You guessed it! A SNAKE! And not just a tiny snake. It was somewhere between 3 and 53 feet long. Now, anybody who has known me for more than a couple of days knows my irrational fear of snakes, and has probably heard my rambling tales of run-ins with the nasty creatures.

My gut reaction was to throw the car in reverse and fly back to Grammie's. She was really surprised to see Ollie and me crashing through her door. I can only imagine the look on my face as I held my sweet baby with a death grip, subconsciously protecting him from the evil intruder. All I said was, "I can't go home! Can we stay here?" After filling her in on the details, Grammie came up with a plan. I think she was looking forward to an afternoon of peace and quiet, and that didn't involve me nervously rocking back and forth in the corner holding Ollie.

So Grammie touched up her lipstick, grabbed Dorothy Louise's cane, and confidently walked toward our house. Ollie and I followed in the car, inching along. I didn't want to see that evil thing again, but I think I feared even more the thought of it not being there and having no idea where it went. Just for reference, the snake is alongside the Jeep next to the foundation wall.

Next, I took Ollie inside (through the front door) and put him in his swing where he fell asleep almost immediately, and thankfully stayed there throughout the entire episode. After he was secured, I headed to the basement to let Betsy out, hoping she would nudge Mr. Slithers along his way. I cautiously opened the basement door bracing myself to slam it shut and assuming the snake would attempt to attack me at any moment. Come to find out, Betsy has a snake phobia too. As soon as she sniffed it, her tail tucked between her legs, her head dropped, and she darted back into the basement, nearly knocking me down as she came through the door. This whole time, the snake didn't so much as budge. On to plan B.

Meanwhile, Grammie gathered a chair and was watching guard to make certain it didn't escape without us knowing where it went. I'm still not sure what the deal is with Grandma's cane, but Grammie never did put it down. Besides, I wasn't about to question her method considering I wasn't prepared to take any action. At this point, I mustered up the courage to open the basement door just enough to make room for my hand, and attempt to get a decent picture. The things I do for my readers!

Grammie's confidence waned away with Betsy's display of cowardice. Plan B became waiting for Jordan to come home from school and enlist his help. I also called Grandpa to see if he could stop on his way through too. Now it was a waiting game. I took this opportunity to tell Grammie all of my scary snake stories, hoping she would understand my phobia. I could probably start another blog just to tell those horrific tales, but I certainly do not want to relive them any more than necessary.

Jordan finally drove by and we flagged him down. Grammie and Jordan surveyed the situation and came up with a plan involving a BB gun. I considered the possible damage to Daisy the Jeep, but I knew she would understand and be willing to be a casualty. I dug out the gun, but couldn't find ammunition except for the few BB's already loaded.


This plan didn't even budge the squatter so we had to consider using more force. In order to do this it was necessary to move the Jeep. Unfortunately, I was the only person capable of driving a standard transmission on a steep incline, so I was going to have to enter the vehicle with the snake hanging outside the driver's side door. Out of desperation, I found the courage to climb in the passenger door and crawl over the gear shift to get into the driver's seat, while the snake lurked almost within arm's reach. As I sat down, I caught a glimpse of the invader and jumped. This is quite possibly the closest I've ever been to a snake voluntarily.

I moved the Jeep without bodily injury, but believe me, I'm still experiencing post traumatic mental issues. I won't go into details as to what happened to Mr. Slithers, but I will say that my dear nephew "took care" of the problem and he won't be bothering me or Ollie anymore. As things were winding down, Grandpa pulled up. Note the length of the intruder on the right.

Just as the drama was coming to an end and I was promising my helpers some peanut butter cookies for their efforts, Ollie woke up. Grandpa filled him in on the details of the events and shook his head at the absurdity of my reaction the entire time. At least there were not policemen involved in the snake episode like some from my past. Maybe some day I'll learn to love or at least tolerate the creepy reptiles, but I'm sure that would only be possible with many years of psychotherapy.

This episode of The Mollie and Ollie show is dedicated to Jordan and Grandpa for their heroic efforts and Grammie for her moral support. Thanks to you all! The cookies are on the way.

The Show Must Go On

We're having computer problems, so I've retreated to Grammie's computer. I'm on a role with 20 consecutive updates and I don't want to start the bad habit of missing.

Today started out at 5:00 with problem after problem, but after that things improved by leaps and bounds...until about 6:30 this evening that is. You would think that I'd be used to getting up at all hours by now, but I just can't seem to get it together in the middle of the night. I stumbled to the kitchen to make his bottle, just barely opening my eyes. After a pit stop for me and diaper change for Ollie (all the while fussing) we finally landed on the couch.

I started to doze off, but jumped suddenly realizing the bottle was empty. Then I started to get a chill and realized my shirt was soaking wet. I'm sure we were quite a site as I was lifting Ollie looking for the leak while he cried and fussed. It took me a good 45-50 seconds to realize the bottle wasn't screwed together all the way. Poor Daddy had the night off, but we caused such a stir, I'm sure we woke him up anyway.

After another bottle that actually made it into his mouth, Ollie went right back to sleep. Daddy had to go off to work, but I headed back to bed. We both slept until nearly 8:00! After eating prunes and getting dressed, we were ready to face the day. We ran a couple of errands and rushed back home to enjoy the beautiful weather.

We both slathered on the sunscreen and gathered books and toys to head outside. After reclining the swing to bed position we snuggled up to take a nap. Ollie reminded me how much he loved sleeping there last summer since it was one of the few places I felt comfortable.

Once Daddy got home we had to go to Uncle Jeremy's to finish up the plumbing project. Just about the time we arrived it was time to eat. I improvised without a highchair and we watched the boys work while we shared green beans and pears.

After eating, Ollie's teeth really started to flare up and he had no patience with being at the "construction" site. I hope Uncle Jeremy's doesn't get a complex, because he wasn't crying at him, he just knew Jeremy would be understanding. Teething Bites!

Tomorrow I have to work, but not until 10:00 so Grammie and I can sleep in. I also get to pick up the family portraits...that should be interesting.