Everything bigger in TX? I disagree!

I'd like to give props to Cary, Shanan and the girls for signing in to the guest book!! Thanks so much!! I think they are on here as much as me, and I am on theirs equally!! Shanan singlehandedly "encouraged" this blog way of communication, so we can either thank her or not, but I do love seeing the girls and glimpses into all of their lives so far away from me. Obviously a lot of our friends here don't know much about "blogging" so we are all learning together. While in WI, I told a friend of ours to get on here to see our pictures from the waterpark. Well, he did, and then saw my links on the left of the page. Not being "blog savvy", he clicked the "CF husband" link that I have. (this is a blog that I have been following for MONTHS of a man who is married to a woman with cystic fibrosis, and her wait for a lung transplant, only to find out she is going to have a baby, and all of the miracles they have encountered. -how I found this, I am not sure) He clicked on this link, thinking that "cf husband" meant "chicken farmer". This not only didn't work out for him, he couldn't find the link between these people, and me. Well, there's not one, other than I read about them. He then wanted to see the "second page" of my blog, and clicked on "the Fowler Family", only to take him to Texas, and see lots of pictures of my nieces, and Cary and Shanan. He called me to see why I had so many pictures of this other family on mine, and asked me how I was related to the Sweeney's, who he knew from here. Bless his heart, hopefully I have now "schooled" him in blogging, and anxiously await for him, as well as everyone who reads this, to start one so that I can check it daily!! :o)

OK, my family in TX may disagree here, but I am going to have to go out on a limb here, and say that I think that things here in the country grow every bit as big as things in Texas. Now whatever would make me think this? Well, today I decided to go out to the pool, and try to pull a few weeds and clean out the skimmer. There were a few weeds taller than Graceson, and it has only been since last Saturday that I pulled them. NEXT, upon examination of the contents of the skimmer, there were 3, yes THREE grasshoppers in the basket, that were 4 inches long. Have you EVER seen a grasshopper that was 4"? That is only 2 inches shy of a typical Subway sandwich (unless of course, you are Shane and choose the foot long), but you get the idea!! I could never have used them for fishing, as they would have been ENTIRELY to big for most of our fish's mouths!! I really don't know why I felt the need to share that with you all, but thought I would!! I actually cringe each time I take the lid off of the skimmer, because you NEVER know what is going to be in there. MOST days, it is water bugs and lots of spiders, but we have had our share of snakes, frogs, moles, mice, lizards, etc. OHHHHHHHHHH!! Also, I have proof of my previous theory, as I learned something from my boys just this week. It seems that either Garrett or Shane one, got a BAT out of the skimmer a few weeks ago, and I am just learning of it. Does anyone see a pattern here? There sonar is DEFINITELY not error proof, so I will continue to "duck" them when we are in towards night fall and they are swooping down for their evening drink. Just what I need, is to be hit in the face by one of those beasts!!

I am going to share our Garmin story and then head to bed. Tomorrow is an inservice day, and I am just not looking forward to it at all. It tells me that summer is ending and I HATE that!! Oh well, I need to be thankful that I am working, instead of ill about my summer time ending!! So, back to Garmin. My mom has the GPS system, and we borrowed it for our trip. We thought it'd be a good idea, since we've never been to Wisconsin Dells, and figured it could always get us to our destination. If you make a wrong turn, it recalculates your route, and "fixes" the directions to get you to where you are going, no matter how many wrong turns you make. If you just can't get yourself out of the pickle you're in, it will tell you to make a u-turn as soon as safely possible. We have learned that Garmin doesn't necessarily know about road construction. That makes sense NOW, but it didn't when we were relying on her to get us to Illinois. Something else it does, is it will tell you what time you should arrive based on how fast you are going. So, when you make a wrong turn, and she refigures your route, it will often add minutes.

If you will remember a post from a few days ago, I am the rule follower and Shane is the "figure it out on the way" type of guy. Well, on our way home, for whatever reason, he would listen to NOTHING but Garmin. See, I have been to my Aunt Beetle's MANY times, and I always go ONE way, and it includes 3 interstates. We were within ONE mile of the first interstate and Garmin told us to turn left. I told Shane to go on ahead, and he insisted otherwise. Oh, we ended up on the interstate, and it may have saved us about 2/10's of a mile, but it added about 10 minutes to the trip, or so it seemed. We get a little farther and it tells us to exit. This was HOURS before I normally get onto the next interstate, and I didn't feel good about it, but Shane, by jiggy, was doing what this mechanical woman's voice, was telling him to do. We DID get home, but I was so car sick at one point in the journey, I could hardly stand it. We were on every pig path, and chip and seal road between Effingham, IL, and Evansville. The FBI calls it a clue when there are not even lines on the roads, that you are in the country, but Shane refused to do anything different than what Garmin said. I have learned a lesson from this experience however. I will put her (she sort of sounds like the robot maid on the Jetsons) on mute next time. I will turn the screen so that only I can see her, and then *I* will tell him what "she" is telling us to do. I think that may save BOTH of us some stress!!

Well, I better get in the bed to rest for tomorrow!! Have a great night!! Thanks for sharing a day in the life of a chicken farmer's wife!! love to all!! JA