Snuggle Bug

My baby is not as much of a baby anymore, but she sure does try. Hattie has always been a little petite, so staying a baby hasn't been hard. She starts kindergarten in August and still wears an 8 1/2 size shoe. We went to the free movies today, and Hattie thought it was a little chilly. She climbed into my lap and got really snuggly and cozy. I loved it when she wrapped her soft little hands around the back of my neck and pulled me closer to her baby soft cheeks. I smooched her cheeks A LOT. I still like to carry her like a baby and trace her face with my finger over and over again to help her get sleepy. She is helping fill that void of not having Lydda in my arms yet. She promises me that she will give Lydda my lap and the spot next to me in bed. I will be shocked if it goes smoothly. I guess we all have to grow up, but I'm thankful Hattie is taking longer than most. I love the extra snuggle time.

Emogene

Oh my Emogene. You keep me smiling all day. You are incessant about wanting to play on w#kinz. You are so kind to bring out popsicles for me and Sheldon when we are working outside. You are always thinking of animals and how to make their lives better. According to you all animals should be in a zoo so they won't get hit by cars. You give up your spot next to me so Hattie will not have a meltdown. When Hattie only wants to give a cookie to Mommy, you convince Hattie that Mommy needs two (because she is such a good mommy) so you can sneak one to Daddy. I love your love for safety in a car. Your dance moves are unmatched by any other human. You are my one and only Emogene and no one could ever be like you.

The Traveling Gnome

Eric came home with a surprise for me. He bought a garden gnome for my front yard. I have told him many times that I'm not a fan of garden gnomes, instead I like the shiny mushrooms. He got me a gnome with a mushroom on it. Thanks baby.

Here is the chubby, happy little gnome. He seems to be praising God for beautiful plants and asking for rain. Well, that is what I think he is saying.
Hattie saw it this morning in the kitchen. She wanted to put it outside. She was with Daddy when he bought it. She grabbed it, and I told her she could go and find a place for it in the garden out front. She was soooo excited. She told Eric as she walked out the door that it needed to go in the garden. Off she went. We finished getting ready for church. I was the last one to walk outside. I got a huge grin on my face when I looked in the front yard. I had been anticipating seeing her placement of the gnome. I was completely surprised by her choice.


There he was in the front yard. Eric didn't realize he had purchased a traveling gnome. It travels away from the garden. Hattie said it wanted to look at the garden. Now I don't think I have the heart to move it.

Swimming... Again

We have been swimming a lot lately. We are back at our summer home for a week. It is great. We've only swam in it once. Hattie practiced a lot of her skills without her floaties on. She is a little too daring and has to be watched like a hawk. One of her skills is holding her breath for a really long time. She liked to follow the stair's pole down to the bottom of the pool and stay. Eric and I would panic almost everytime. She would then come back up. She was also convinced she could swim all the way across the pool. I stood in the middle to assist. She came up for air and let out a "hel" and then went back under. I held her for 5 seconds, and she was ready to continue. She then slammed her face into the side of the pool before she realized she was there. Her nose started pouring with blood. I wonder what kind of insurance the summer home owner's have. Hmmmmm. I'll have to inquire. Hattie might need a nose job one day. I am not paying for it, that's for sure. I mean, how could I have prevented the accident? The fault/negligence is in no way pointed at me. Maybe they need to install loud alarms and lights to let children know when they are close to the side of the pool. The home owners can't rely on the parents to stop the children. I can't believe they have such a dangerous pool. I think we will only swim in it for at least five more days.
At one point I was sitting next to the pool, and Hattie decided to kick off from the stairs to swim across. I threw a noodle at her. It hit her in the head and she popped up. She grabbed the noodle, and then proceeded to holler because she can swim all the way across by herself. She got in big trouble for taking off without someone there to help her. Today she wasn't so brave. I'm glad.
Hattie has learned to float on her back. I told her to stick out her tummy really far to help her float. She said, "There's a floaty in there." I said, "Yes, it is called your lungs." She then floated like a pro.
Emogene has learned to do a backwards flip under the water. She has super skills.
I did something completely idiotic today. I took the kids to a public pool. I paid $15. We stayed from 10:30-1:00. Now why would I do that when we could have used the summer home's pool? It was because some friends were going. We had fun.

Emogene didn't learn to do a flip in this pool.

Hattie is a master at holding her breath.

Happy Father's Day

I want to give a shout out to my girls' awesome daddy and my daddy. They are both incredible, loving fathers that make my life a better place.


We spent the day at my brother's house. We ate hamburgers, BLTs, and brownies. We also watched a movie.

I scrounged up enough eggs and leftover queso dip to make him an omelet for breakfast in bed. It was quite tasty. He was shocked. I think he was expecting instant oatmeal.


I still want to take Eric out for a steak. I was supposed to take him out tonight, but we weren't hungry. We will go later this week.


My brother-in-law had a very sad Father's Day. My sister's 13 year old dog passed away this morning. It was a sad day. His name was Bryant. He was born on my wedding day. My parents came home to a yard scattered with puppies. He was the only golden puppy. The rest had a lot of black fur. He was a special dog and will be missed. I hope the next Father's Day will be better for their family.

Here is one of those times a dad was needed to get the picture taken.

Here is the goofy dad Emogene and Hattie crave. They love it when he acts like he is five. He is much better at acting insane with the children. I've learned a lot from him, but he is still preferred when goofiness is needed.

Here is a not so recent picture of my dad (right) and his dad, Paw Paw Pete. I love this picture. They looked like they were having a good time. My dad had on his "Z" shoes. That was what I called them growing up. I was in my 20s before I figured out they were N's.

( I stole this picture from my aunt's blog. Thanks Dee Dee.)

Daddy's Little Helpers

I didn't take a picture of the actual helping, but it was so entertaining for me. Eric received a cart on wheels for Father's Day. He got it a little early and started putting it together in the living room. If Sheldon would have been inside, it would have been even better. Emogene and Hattie love to help Daddy put things together. They were such a big help. Everytime Eric got up to do something, he would come back to find pieces and parts missing. He would find them put on the cart in the wrong places. It was hide and seek for most of his construction time. He also was aggravated at one point because he put something on backwards. He said that wasn't the only aggravating thing going on with his construction. Emogene said, "Are you talking about us?" She thought it was funny. I was very proud of him for not showing any aggravation towards the girls. He repeatedly told them that they were great helpers. Emogene and Hattie even got to use a ratchet and crescent wrench. They were in "B*b the Builder" heaven. I'm not sure tomorrow will be as great for Eric. He might be driving metal poles in the ground to set up a fence for our next pet. I told him I would work on it tomorrow, I am totally strong and capable. Eric doubts my abilities. I don't want his Father's Day pooped upon. Oh wait, that was last year. Our old dog Angus pooped all over the living room floor before church. Eric scrubbed it and then used a carpet steamer thing after church. We are hoping to have a better smelling Father's Day this year.

Getting Ready

We needed a little warmth to start out our day. Don't they look like they are enjoying it? Mmmmmm, good.

I try to do something everyday to cheer up Emogene after swimming lessons. She was not a happy camper by just watching the lessons.

Hattie was such a little popsicle after her lessons. I think she warmed up quite nicely with the cup of yum.

That is Gross

Guess which animal Hattie had morped into today. It was actually two of them. In the picture she is a fox needing some water. She also gave birth to many sea turtles today. She walked around with the hose in her suit. Babies were just pouring out of her. She also wanted to know when I was going to clean up all the pee the babies were doing.
I enjoyed our day in the blow up pool and water hose fun. I did some yard work and then sat down to cool off and look through a catalog while they played. They had such sweet giggles and full on laughter going on in that pool. I had to draw the line at licking up water off of the concrete though. I'm not saying it is bad for other children to do it, but we have been landscaping and some fertilizer could be on the driveway. From then on, the fox had to pick up the hose to get water. This mommy had a horrified look on her face when she looked up to see Hattie's activities.

I Have a Problem

I have discovered I have a problem, and I wanted to give a tutorial on how to deal with me when you are approached by my problem.
Well here it goes. I have a telephone problem. I tend to call friends often and ramble on and on and on. I just can't stop. The root of the problem comes from me not knowing how to end a conversation and terrified of uncomfortable silence. I sometimes make a list of things I can talk about so I keep the conversation going. I keep trying to come up with more things to say so I won't have to be the closer. Some of you may be saying, "Ahhhh! She does do that." I have tried in the past to end a conversation by saying, "Uh oh, one of the kids is crying. I gotta go." The children got tired of me hitting them with things or pinching them, so they stay very far away from me while I'm on the phone. I need help. I need you to help me.
I want to tell you how to deal with me so you are not trapped by my incessant talking and it will keep me from having to end the conversation or panic when there is silence.

#1 Most of you have caller id. You need to use it when I call. If you are busy, or just don't want to talk to me, DON'T answer the phone.

#2 If you feel that you want to hear a little of what I am going to say, answer the phone in this manner: "Hey Tricia. I am in a huge hurry, so I can only talk for a minute." I will completely understand, even if I think you are saying this to get rid of me. This way I can tell you one thing and then say, "I know you are in a hurry. I'll talk to you later." See, how this will be better for all parties involved.

#3 Now, if on the off chance you want to spend an hour on the phone, just let me ramble on. I'll probably bring up childhood experiences, anything I've done in the past month, and stuff you never wanted to know about me.

This is the end of the tutorial. I hope it helped you.

Another Day of Swimming

We had a great day at swimming lessons. Hattie was the only one in her class to move up. I was very proud of her. I'm sure more are going to move up tomorrow especially that little boy that had some behaviour issues on day 1. He had his own personal helper today to keep him out of trouble. He even jumped in the big pool without anyone to catch him. He got in trouble.

Hattie has such a joy for swimming and risk taking. It makes me a little nervous sometimes. I took some pictures of her and had trouble picking my favorites so I included a few.
My next post is mainly for her daddy to see. It will be some videos of her swimming.

She got to come by me for a minute and loved being close to Mommy.
She was anticipating the next activity. I think it was going to the big pool.

Hattie was checking out her loot from a game.

Hattie was waiting for her turn to get in the big pool. She got to go a lot.

Hattie was in La La Land. My children stare off into this land often. They get that from me. She may have been looking at that boy in front of her.

This is my little mischievious fish.

Swimming Lessons Day 1

Hattie started swimming lessons today.

The man teaching the class was very soft spoken and liked to ease the kids into the thought of swimming. This is a very far cry from Emogene's swimming teacher (same as mine). Emogene's teacher would not hesitate to tell a parent to leave if their child was crying or toss a child off the side of the pool if they were hesitant to jump. You may not have liked her the first week, but by the second week you were swimming and loving it. I do believe Ms. Marylou softened as she got older. She seemed a lot meaner when I took lessons from her. She admitted to not being as harsh. I guess old age will do that to you. She has retired, so we had to find a different instructor for Hattie. I'm pretty sure Ms. Marylou was 70 when she taught Emogene. She didn't look it, but if our calculations were correct she was pretty up there in age.

Back to Hattie's lesson. Hattie loves to swim. She will jump off of the side of a pool with zero hesitation. She dunks her head under and kicks her legs all over the pool. I call her my little fish. I'm not sure what happened to that little fish, but she wasn't with me today. She began the lesson with some hesitation. She allowed the water to splash her in the face, but then it all went down hill. I'm not sure what caused her defiance and impulse to back away from all of the instructors if they tried to get her to do something. There she was, giving them her sour face and saying no. She was looking at me to save her. The instructors would have probably been more than willing for me to come and pick her up and baby her, because they didn't want anyone upset. I guess they thought her not learning to swim was an okay alternative, NOT. I just kept giving her my evil eye and telling her she'd better do what they told her to do. She then saw a floating bug and had a mini freak out. The bug was removed. She started acting a little fish like after that, and then my little fish completely returned. She was awesome. She would puff out her cheeks, dunk her face in, stick her booty in the air, and kick away. She was so cute. I am very partial, but I think she was the star of her class. That isn't completely true, one other child definitely got a lot more attention from the instructor. It was a little boy that refused to go with the flow. The instructor had finally had enough after 35 minutes of him throwing things (aimed at the instructor many times). He raised his voice slightly and put him in time out. The little boy was probably three and would even repeat the instructor in a mocking voice. This kid definitely had the other mothers' attentions. He was entertaining.

At the end of the lesson, Hattie was very upset that her group didn't get in the olympic sized pool. Her group had stayed in the 2- 2.5 foot wading pool. I asked if she could get in the big pool for just a minute. They said, "Sure!" I showed her the ladder. She stepped down and stepped off the last rung. It was 3.5 feet deep. She sank like a stone. I grabbed her ponytail and pulled her back up. She climbed out and asked if I thought she would get to go in the big pool tomorrow. I asked the instructor and he said she would probably move up to the next group because of her advanced swimming skills (my words, not his). She might get in the big pool tomorrow. I told him I had to pull her out by her hair. He was worried that Hattie had gotten freaked out or scared from it. I said, "Absolutely not! She can't wait to do it again tomorrow."

As we were leaving, Hattie said, "Mommy, I had a lot of fun today."

Emogene said, "That was really boring. Can I go to Mrs. Amanda's tomorrow instead of having to watch all these kids swim?"
On a side note: I noticed that my children will never have a problem filling out the rear of a bathing suit. I saw quite a few saggy suits and realized this little fact about Hattie and Emogene.

Waiting to get in the poolPlaying "If Your Happy and You Know It"
The Attitude Began

Sorry the pictures are terrible. My battery in my camera died, so I had to use my phone. I hope to bring a charged camera tomorrow.

Hard Workers

We took a couple of pictures of our day of work yesterday. We would like to thank my dad for loaning us his truck for the day. I would also like to add that Eric loves this truck and personally engraved his name somewhere on it to mark it as his inheritance. Instead of playing Where's Waldo, my dad needs to play Where's Eric's Name.

Emogene was the first hardworking child to join us. I had gotten down just long enough to snap this picture. I was a very hard worker. Notice Eric is no where to be seen.

Again, only three hard workers. Where is Eric you might ask? He was taking a VERY LONG break. He begrudgingly got up just to snap this picture. Then he went back to playing games on my phone. I am pretty sure our neighbors are shocked at the hard work his fragile wife is doing in the yard all week while he is working. They don't see the hard work he does, therefore it doesn't exist in their minds. They think he is lazy, and I am superwoman. I see no reason to change their thinking. This was our last load of dirt. Do I look like I was going to pass out? I am much stronger than Eric thinks. I just like to portray weakness. It gets me out of doing lots of things. One of those things is NOT unloading dirt.

My mother also did not help us one iota. Emogene asked why Nannie was sitting on her rump, drinking the hard workers P*werade, and visiting with Eric. I very bluntly put it as, "Nannie is old." Eric added frail. I think I'll take old and frail any day, over having to unload dirt.

Hattie's Money for God

I have decided that I have done a poor job teaching my children to give to the church. For the past two Sundays, Hattie has been hiding some of the money I have handed her to give to God. I will give her a few bills and when the collection plate comes around, Hattie doesn't put in the same amount that I have given her. Last Sunday, this was not noticed until the plate passed her. She had to go after church to put the rest in the plate. Today, I gave her three bills. She gave one to Emogene and then neatly folded one. I think she thought I would think she had folded two bills, when in fact she had only one bill to give to God. Well, I asked her where the other bill went. She told me, "I don't know." I then told her she would have to find it and give it to God. I told her to stand up so we could find it. She didn't want to do that. Well the plate came her way, she dropped in one bill, and then the man waited and waited (he remembered last week's fiasco) until she dug the other bill from under her dress and placed it in the plate. She then turns to me with a not so kind look and said (quite loudly), "I wanted to keep it and buy a toy." Her paw paw was one of the collectors and thought it was quite humorous. I had to talk to her about why God needed it more and that she had plenty of toys. Hattie is full of embarassments. I think she will only get one bill next Sunday.

That's Better

We may never get yard of the month, but I think most improved should be ours.
I am soooo tired and in pain. We worked on our yard all day today. We had to go get three truck loads of dirt. I also want to mention that when you buy a yard of dirt, it is not as much as it sounds. It doesn't even come close to filling up your yard. That just sounds mean to me.
Eric made me rest some today. He said I looked like I was going to pass out. I'm good at looking like that. I told him I was fine, but I took a break anyway.

I love my new pot for my lantana tree.

I only have one more issue. It is my out of control ficus. I need to get it a bigger pot so it will stop falling over, and then I need to find somewhere to put it. Our entryway looks usable now. It is great. I even swept it off and cleaned out some things. I welcome some people over to see it, but you can't actually enter my home. I didn't work on it today.

I know I need to mow. I was supposed to on Friday, but my children and their cousins could not be trusted to be alone that long.

What Else?

I know many of you think I just do too much. I am a philanthropist, active and fun mom, great teacher, incredible wife, lawn caretaker, dog trainer, church youth programmer, chef, craft show seller, initial button maker, babysitter and possibly more. You may think my hands are just too full. Well, you would be wrong. I have added something else to my plate. Drum roll please...............
I have started a new business! You can stop applauding now and whispering to your friends, "How does she do it?"
You are one of the first 50 people I have told. I am now selling products from a company called Thirty-One. I looked through a catalog yesterday and fell in love with the purses, totes, bags, organizers, bibs, diaper bags, etc. I then signed up to sell them. I would love for EVERYONE (Did you hear the tone in my voice?), to stop by my website and look at the products. There are three catalogs. The kids and teens each have a catalog and then there is one for women. Browse, browse, browse, and then fall in love.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. I would be over the moon excited to have a show for anyone. If you live too far away, you could do a catalog party. Hey, you might get hooked like me and want to sell them. This might be the extra income some of you are looking for. Just let me know if you are interested.

www.mythirtyone.com/Tricia

Polkadot

We had an unwelcomed visitor one day. A wiener dog mix attached to us and would NOT leave. Hattie immediately told everyone it was Polkadot which led Aunt Risti to believe that Hattie knew the dog and where it lived. Aunt Risti was hopeful. Ohhhh she needs to be around Hattie more often. That child can name something in three seconds.
Polkadot repeatedly ran into my house and made Sheldon go crazy. Polkadot repeatedly got into the pools and hopefully didn't pee. Polkadot kept jumping up on Aunt Risti because he knew how much she LOVED him. We got very sick of Polkadot and were relieved when hours later he went to annoy a neighbor. Polkadot even loved to slowly walk back and forth behind your vehicle while you are trying to leave. Ahhhhh! I don't want Polkadot to come back. I even offered to accept a reward if someone came and got this dog. It didn't work. We were glad to see him leave.

Enersyn wasn't so sure about Polkadot.

Hattie wanted Polkadot to stay forever.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been crazy busy the past few days. My sister is moving soon and needed extra packing time, so I kept her kids for a couple of days. I know many mothers are able to easily handle five children ages 3,4,6,6,and 7, but I'm not that mother. I think I need to be eased into it. I really think most of the aggravation was trying to keep the dog away from everyone. He barked incessantly when he was in his crate, and I had him on a leash with me if he was out of his crate. It was tiring. We had fun though, and they were in fair shape when Risti picked them up. We swam in the little blow up pools and also in a big pool at my friend's house. I invited myself over to Holly's house so the kids could see all of the cool animals and play in a Sheldon free area for a while. We also went to have snocones and to get pizza only to realize that I left my check card in my pants from the day before. We then had to go home pizzaless and wait for my hubby to bring it home. It put a slight damper on our evening, but I was still considered the best aunt in the world. I think the snocones cinched it for me. I also didn't completely loose it everytime I had to hook 4 children's seatbelts. It is obvious to me now that my van is not meant to have three car seats across the back seat and have the children able to hook the belt. The mom has to climb back there and do it. I had a major headache after doing it 4 times.

Here are a few picks from one of our swimming days.

Hattie was barely in the pool all day. She had a stray dog occupying her time.

I'll blog about that later.

Here are the older children. They had a lot of fun together as long as no one was losing any type of game. That quickly ended our Wii fun later that night.

Hudson was the joy of the bunch, unless his shoes were wet, his mom forgets to pack a night shirt, or he has to wear floaties. He was seriously going to wear one of Emogene's pink Cr*cs and one purple Cr*c because his Cr*cs were wet.

Keagan is extremely competitive. I am positive he gets this from his mother. He is a super swimmer.

Enersyn was soooo brave. She got wet this time. I was so proud of her.

She even slept all night for me.

Remember to protect them, I have changed the names of my niece, nephews, and sister.

A Little Hot, Spicy, and Naughty

We have taken the girls to a few places the last week. We went to Subway to eat the healthier fast food. I got pepper jack cheese on Hattie's sandwich because she loves the hot cheese. She was disappointed that it wasn't as hot as she would have liked. Eric then mentioned that he had gotten jalepenos on his sandwich and Hattie was ready to try it.She gave it a little lick.

It was toooo spicy for Hattie. She did like the jalepeno flavored chips though.





Here she is at the end of the meal giving the employees a slight heart attack. She has great balance. She also got a new pair of shades in her kid's meal. They broke quickly.

We took them to eat outside at a local restaurant. Hattie thought it would be a good idea to escape and not pay the bill. Sadly, we couldn't all fit through the bars.

I'm Terrible

I'm a terrible mom. Well, Emogene and Hattie think I am. I ,on the other hand, think I'm quite awesome.

Did you know that most moms will let their children have their own iPh*ne? Also, they are allowed to play on it all day long without any sharing.

Did you also know that most children do not have to learn the alphabet? Hattie's mean mommy tries to make it fun by giving her Pl*ydoh, but it is still learning. Don't you dare try to ask Hattie the name of any of those letters. She might just collapse on the table from the exhaustion of using her brain in the summer.

Letter Update

Hattie knows these letters.
A, C, E, H, I i, K, L, O, R, U, X
Well, the letter I gave her some trouble. She thought it was a 1 or lowercase L.
I think that is a normal mistake. I'm still keeping it in the know pile.

Hattie sometimes knows these letters, definitely not today.
B, M, N, P, S, T

Most other letters are called the letter E or A.

My Granddaughter

We went to Walmart. Hattie had found an old, nasty, mildewed stroller in the garage and wanted so badly to play with it. I strolled her around the driveway and she strolled it around too. Well we then had to go to Walm*rt. Hattie brought along her baby. I allowed her to stroll it around Walm*rt. I agree we looked strange and others were shocked that I would allow her to do this, but really the more occupied she was, the better. I decided I needed something to call Hattie's child. I was tired of calling her "Baby." I decided to ask her what her name was. It took her about three seconds to say, "Sour." So, my granddaughters name is Sour, and I had to repeatedly tell Hattie and Sour to stay with us and to walk faster. I hope the other shoppers knew that I named my child Hattie and the doll was Sour.
I wonder what she will name her children. I'm a little frightnened.

A Little Yard Work

We went outside to do some yard work. I mowed the yard. I have been feeling like super woman lately. I know many women mow, but this is not the case with me. I was a mower at our old house and while I was pregnant with Emogene. I somehow lost the umph after Emogene's birth. I have regained that umph for my dear hubby. I'm hoping to keep it up all summer or I might have to scream, "I'm a wanna be celebrity, get me out of here."
Hattie was in charge of watering a couple of things. She had a spot where she insisted on planting some flower seeds. They were planted in an ant pile and then potting soil added to the top. Hattie had previously demolished the ant pile with the water hose. We will see if anything develops from the seeds. We also found many other seed packs that were an impluse buy from the dollar store. They had previously gotten wet and the packages were looking poor, but we planted them anyway. If they start growing, our mailbox will have very pretty white flowers that I will not be able to name. I am not holding my breath on the growth of these plants.
Hattie was in charge of watering both spots. I was going to water the soil around the mailbox, but Hattie insisted that she could do it.

Do you see a mailbox?

They then played a game called "Hide the Dirt Clod." I was the seeker. I was great. I was chastised for taking this picture by the way.
I took it before I knew they were hiding things for me to find.

Here I am hiding behind my jungle while they hid more clods.

Hattie thinks an ant bit her toe and needed water squirted on her foot over and over. Hattie told Emogene it would have to be squirted on her foot forever. I didn't think that was going to happen.

This was Emogene's reaction to hearing she was the official water girl

and that my feet also needed water on them.

Kind of Gardening

After enduring the neighbors and my mother's looks and disapproval for almost five years, we finally started landscaping our front yard. We had nothing planted in our front yard. Our back yard wasn't any prettier, but it does have some vegetables growing and one orange tree. To ease into our landscaping project, I have been collecting plants for the past two months. They have been blocking our front entry, and today was the day they were to go into the ground. Did you hear that? Listen closely. You can hear it if you are quiet. It is the tiller laughing at us. The tiller we have lovingly named The Beast. The Beast was coaxed and cajoled for three hours today, and it only worked for maybe 15 minutes. I was very proud of Eric for not tossing it into the street or using inappropriate language. I think it may have been because it was borrowed and the children were watching. I even helped try and get it to work. The amount of gasoline pouring out of the front of it was not a good sign from the get go. We were still able to get some umph from it, but only to have it die just as we would touch the ground with it. It was a disappointing day. We managed to get the dirt unloaded from the van and poured on the general area. Hattie lovingly wanted to help all day. Emogene did not. Emogene will be disappointed when we surprise Hattie with a fat pay check and give Emogene a few pennies. We'll see how that goes.
Hattie wanted to help dump out the dirt. She was very upset that we only had five bags left for her to dump. She wanted to do a lot. I then gave her the task of throwing away all the dirt bags. She was so excited and even told Emogene that she didn't need any help. Emogene announced her relief because, she didn't want to do that anyway. I took pictures of Hattie working hard. I also took pictures of Emogene "working" hard on her bike. Emogene later remembered something about a conversation we had had yesterday about getting paid a little for helping. She quickly wanted to do everything. Eric gave her the shovel and told her to start digging. She tried for 2 minutes and then left the landscaping area.
I hope we get more done this week.

Here is The Beast. Can you see the gasoline under the front of it?
Here is Hattie cleaning up the dirt bags.

As many of you may know, Hattie is terrified to walk on the grass barefooted. As usual, I think I caused this fear. Well, we have made progress. Grass is a little okay, manure is great. She tried to walk to and from everywhere on this soft black dirt.

She is so strong.

Emogene was trying.

Here she is doing the bulk of her "work."

Eric's jaw was tight and his veins started bulging every time Hattie asked when we were going to start working on the tortoise cage and was the tortoise going to live in the part where we were digging. She wanted us to go to the backyard immediately because the tortoise is more important than the plants. I agree with you 100 % Hattie, but Daddy is not in agreement, and he is the one that has to build the tortoise home.