Six and counting

Okay I am finally over the embarrassment and have decided to share this little story. The reason I share, I will tell later.

Last March I was STILL raking and burning leaves. I have a big yard with a ton of really big, bushy trees. Anyway, it was kind of windy and I really was just trying to get my back corner raked up and burned. Our yard is fenced in. Anyway, it is way too windy to be burning but I really want those leaves gone so I decide to make a small pile to burn and just add a few leaves at a time so I can keep it under control. I clear out about a 2 foot area around the fire so if it spreads it won't go anywhere.
I am doing good and have been burning for about an hour or so. Cole and Sage were jumping on the trampoline. All of a sudden, we get a huge burst of wind, it blows the fire out of the burn pit and catches a few leaves, I go to rake them in and here comes another burst, I try to rake them in and then another burst of fire. I am now trying my hardest to get the fire back in control. Soon, it takes off to my neighbors yard, and then my other neighbors yard. I am fenced in on both sides. I yell for Cole to run and get Aunt Victoria. He kind of saunters in, I tell him to run, so he walks faster (seriously, I can't get them to slow down in a parking lot). He goes in and a minute or two later, Victoria kind comes out in her flip flop kind of shoes. I don't think she was at all expecting to see this. I am trying to bring buckets of water out (our hose is not even close enough to reach)but it is not working at all. So I throw her my rake and have her jump the back fence to rake a fire line while I try to put my other neighbors yard out with the water. Not working, at this time, I decide I had better call the fire department. I do so and then I grab my neighbors rake (it happened to be sitting there and it was missing almost all of the prongs) and jump the side fence to make a fire line over there. The fire is spreading at an uncontrollable rate and starting to go up some trees. By the way, my yard is not on fire at all! The people behind me have a Huge back yard and they only rake about 1/3 of it so there are plenty of leaves to feed the fire. People are all the time riding four wheelers on their property and stuff. This man goes by on his gator and just watches Victoria and I. A few minutes later, he comes back with a few teenage boys with him and he points out a spot we are missing. Seriously?! Did I mention I was 9 months pregnant? After about 15 minutes of this, the fire starts to put itself out. Ahh, still no fire trucks so Victoria says I should call back and tell them it is under control and they don't need to come. So I do. We are hauling some buckets of water to hot spots just to try to put them out when 2 fire trucks pull up. Victoria (did I mention that she rock?) walks up to the firemen and tells them that their assistance is no longer needed. They say they would like to look things over just to make sure. She tells them that we don't want them to because we don't have any money to pay a fine they will surely give us. I am so embarrassed about this whole scenario. Okay, this is why people like firemen and not policemen: They say something to the effect of: Mam, we are not here to give any fines. We don't do that, we just come to help. Let's take care of this before a policeman or the forestry people come and do give you a fine. So I hop back over the fence to my yard and ask if they want any help or any water or anything (trying to reconcile my imbecilic behavior. They decline but do give me a small lecture on burning. They were very respectful about it though and they didn't demean me at all. As they go to work, Victoria asks me why I asked them if I could help. I told her because I felt like a fool. She looks at me and starts to laugh, she says "you are hugely pregnant, how would that look if they actually let you help?" After they are done, they let Cole, Sage, Zeke, and Dempsey take a tour on the fire trucks. THANKS ROSSVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT.




It is about 3:30 when this is all over. You look out and the very back corner of our yard and the two neighbors yards are black. Victoria asks me what I am going to tell Will. I tell her, I am not going to tell him. She asks how I am going to manage that one. I told her that he was mowing tonight, the next day, he had had some other stuff going on and he wouldn't be home in the daylight for the next 2 days, after that, I would just play dumb. If the kids mentioned it, I would deal with it then.

I get in the shower so I can wash the clothes and get rid of any smelly evidence. As I get out of the shower, my phone rings. It is Will.
Will: Hey, what is going on there?
Me: Nothing much, what are you doing?
Will: Is everything alright?
Me: Yeah, are you okay?
Will: Polly! What is going on? How come the fire department was at our house?
ME: Which neighbor has the big mouth?
Will: Matt
Me: Tell him to mind his own business especially if he won't come over and help.
Will: What happened?

***

Later that night, Will is working on his truck (he didn't have to mow after all so my plan wasn't going to work anyway)and I am out with him. My neighbor behind me comes over to the back fence. I can tell he wants to talk. I just stare at him and ignore him. I tell Will he is standing there. Will tells me to go over and talk, I tell him no because he sure didn't want to talk when he was watching Victoria and I put out the fire. I just stare at him and don't move. Finally, Will gets up to talk to him, I go inside. Turns out, it wasn't him who saw us, it was someone down the road. He just wanted to know why I didn't start on the other end of the yard so I could have burned all of his leaves for him. HA ha ha, everyone is a comedian aren't they.

***

Why did I tell this little/long story? Well, now every time I burn leaves or boxes, Cole has to say something like, "Mom, please don't burn our yard...or the neighbors." I think it is kind of funny. He really is concerned though and since then, fire makes him a little nervous.
***

p.s. the pictures are not actually from my fire, they are stolen off of google images.

Alas, I am a lone in the south again. I am kind of bummed about it and then I think, what unexpected surprises to have 2 of my siblings live so close to me. So instead of being bummed, I try to be happy that I was able to enjoy them for so long. We are really going to miss Wesley and his family. It was so fun getting 2 and a half years to spend time with them. Sage, is especially sad because not only does she love her cousins, aunt and uncle, for some strange reason, she thinks she needs to live in Alabama. I don't understand it. I don't but then again, it is warmer weather (can be a good and bad thing) much flatter (only good when you are talking about your yard), and the welcoming sign even tells you how it is, "Alabama the beautiful". I will even miss my little road trips. On the upside, people there drive WAY to SLOW. There are cops everywhere (GA and TN are that way too)and well, no and, I guess.

As all of my kids cousins move back to UT. we are here in the south enjoying the southern hospitality and no snow winters. (I didn't even need to wear a jacket to church this morning). My kids are excited for our pilgrimage out to Utah this summer to reunite with our loved ones.

Bloggers picture thing won't post so I will try to post some pictures later.

I hope you all have a very scary Halloween!

The day after Labor Day we went to Myrtle Beach in SC. It was so much fun. It was nice because everyone had told us that it would be an 8 hour drive. We made it in 7 without much speeding. Nice surprise. I think we must have gone a different way than other people but it is always better to drop an hour.

By the time that we got there, it was lunch time and then McKelle and Scott took a nap. Will slept with them while Cole, Sage and I explored our little timeshare neighborhood. They had a duck pond right behind our "blue house" and we chased them for awhile. Then we went to find the pool...wait I mean pools. How cool was that?! It had a baby pool (Sage's favorite. The one with the fountain in the picture), a hot tub, a regular hotel kind of swimming pool and a lazy river. That was just on the outside of the club house. You go in the club house and there was another swimming pool and a hot tub. You go to another part of the property and there was another large pool and a hot tub. I don't know if there were more pools over there or not because we just stayed in the other. We loved the lazy river. Cole was kind of swimming before we went out there (doggy paddling) and when we came back, he was doing the underwater breast stroke. It was so awesome! I am so proud of him. Also, Sage decided to become brave too and she was swimming underwater. What a breakthrough. Too bad we didn't have a few more days there and that summer is over and all the pools are closed here. Everyone loved the lazy river the most. Sage gathered all the tubes for the lazy river and stacked them up. Then whenever someone would go by, she would jump out at them and meow like an angry cat. It was kind of funny. She had a blast doing that.

Actually, we spent 90% of our time at the pools rather than the beach. Which was okay because the waves at the beach were too big to really swim in.
My kids keep asking if we can go back to the "blue house". It was a great vacation where we didn't feel like we needed a vacation from our vacation. Very relaxing and we all had a great time.





The water was very rough the whole time we were there. We just mostly waded in it. No one was in it but that was also nice because we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. The weather was warm. It would have been perfect but the wind was blowing so it made wet bodies kind of chilly. It was okay though because the water was so warm and that is more important. Sage had learned how to body surf and she would ride the wave in (sometimes not on purpose). It was hilarious watching the waves knock them over. The undertow was pretty strong though so we didn't really let the kids play very far from us. It was enticing enough to them that they want to go back. That is much better than them coming home scared of the water. Sage was disappointed not to see a dolphin.

In their own words:

"My favorite part was um, my favorite part was the waves in the salty ocean."
"I galloped away from that wave and away and then in and then away and then away again. My feet were in and galloping and splashing."
"The ocean washed me out of sight." -Cole

"The water was not safe."
"My favorite part was not building a sandcastle. My favorite part was SWIMMIN'."
"It knocked me over and Cole over." -Sage





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The way home was a little slower, we got stuck in construction. It was still fine though. It is amazing how having a t.v. in your car makes such a huge difference. Definately worth the investment. Here they are all crashed out! I love these kinds of pictures.

Sage had earned a sleeping bag for finally stop wetting the bed at night and McKelle got one for her birthday and Cole already had one. So Will told them if it wasn't too hot, he would sleep outside with them. (I would but I didn't want to have to come in 3 times to feed Scott). It was blazing hot and they were so excited to sleep outside. I knew that Will would probably not do it so I asked them if they would rather sleep in the living room. That was all it took and Will was off the hook. So I told them that the birthday party was going to be a slumber party. That was the fun birthday activity.

On one of my friends blogs, she put Crete paper over her daughters door so she had to rip it off to get out of her room. I thought that was such a fun idea. Will took the kids to get pizza and I put the Crete paper over the lower half of the front door. I left some of the bottom off because I didn't think it would matter. Will told the kids that McKelle was the first to come into the house....she looks at the paper and crawls under it. Sage did the same thing. I was up on the stairs telling them to rip it down. Cole decided that he would rip it down, well some of it. Will ended up having to rip it down so he could get through the door. My fun stolen idea was not as appreciated at my house. (surprise surprise, my kids are party poopers). They did like the paper hanging from the ceiling though. We did the same ole thing of eat presents and cake. McKelle did try to grab the fire though instead of blow it out. That was a new twist on birthdays. Of course, they didn't want to play any party games.

McKelle, who didn't have a nap that day was so pleasant (sarcasm) come 9:30 that night. She was screaming at everyone walking around throwing everything she came in contact with (mostly balloons) and saying "no" every chance she got. (when she gets that tired, she will not go to sleep unless someone holds her down and won't let her move. If you do that, it only takes 2 minutes before she is out.) So I had to turn off the t.v. and hold her down. She screamed for about 3 seconds and was then gone. Cole and Sage were not long after. Will and I stayed in the living room with them until they were asleep...well, I did and Will came to bed a few hours later, he fell asleep faster than Cole and Sage. Scott woke up at 12 to eat. Sage woke up screaming bloody murder about 2. I went in and calmed her down. Scott woke up at 3 to eat. McKelle was walking around at 4. I got her and put her in bed with us. Scott woke up again at 5 to eat. I decided to sleep in his room in Cole's bed and at 5:30, Sage woke up screaming bloody murder again. I let Will get her. Scott got up at 7:45 for the morning and we played in the bedroom. At 8, the others finally woke up. I got up to see them. Cole was so proud that he lasted the whole night in the living room. I was glad because I got his bed.

So one of my good friends, Tonya, decided to get some ducklings. They raised this ducklings in one of those kids plastic pools. When they got old enough, they took it to a neighbor's pond to let them live freely. The only thing was, they still loved feeding the ducks. Every morning, they go over to the pond and when they start getting close, they yell, "ducks, Ducks!" Those ducks come swimming over and waddle up to the Hazels and eat their food. It is so funny. You can't even see the pond when they start calling but by the time you get to the pond, those ducks are up and ready. We went over one morning to enjoy one of their daily feedings. It was really fun and the ducks were so use to people that they let the kids pet them and everything. After that, we just went back to Tonya's house and played.

Last weekend, the Tractor Supply Store was having some animal appreciation day or something. I got the kids in the car and went to see the what the festivities were about. There was a pony ride out front. The kids loved that. The guides would only take them around the circle one time so after we went inside and did everything, we went back to the pony rides and took another round (neither time were there other people in line so I didn't feel badly).

Inside there was a booth were they could hoola hoop, wear grass skirts and leis and color. The girl there gave a a "doggy bag" that had treats for dogs and a air freshener shaped like a bone. She told us that it smelled like new puppy. I asked her what a new puppy smelled like and she said it was really good. I then asked her if it really smelled like a new puppy. She said yes. I couldn't wait to see if I wanted my car to smell like a new puppy so I opened it up. She was right, it smelled really good! No, it did not smell like an animal new or old or bathed or anything. The girl was about 8 and she went with us everywhere. She was really cute. She is the one in the green on the pictures.

In the back of the store, they had a bunch of dogs that you could adopt and some miniature ponies that you could pet. The kids loved it. They stayed back there for about a half an hour just petting all the animals. Everyone was so nice. I don't know how the program ended up or what but I do think that if we ever do decide to get a dog, I will go to the rescue center instead of anywhere else. Unless, that cute kid at the grocery store is handing out puppies. For some reason, I just feel like that is the best place to get them. Will is against muts but I think they are the best. Either way, it will be awhile before we get a dog. To my children's shear delight, we are getting a cat in a few weeks.

I am in my room getting ready. My kids had been following me everywhere this particular morning and I really just wanted a little bit of space. So I locked my bedroom door and let their shouts, cries, and demands filter through with not much notice. Soon, I could hear them running down the hall and my absence had been forgotten and taken over by a game. I don't know what game but they were happy and so I didn't really care. I was almost done, 10 minutes or so had passed and I hear some whispers and giggles. I listen a little closer and hear the giggles get more and more uncontrollable. They are singing their favorite Wonder Pets song, "what's going to work, team work!" and so I knew it was a mischief that was taking many hands to accomplish. Not really wanting to ruin their fun but not being able to contain my curiosity, I opened the door to this
They had hauled the bed from the kitchen (we were going to get rid of it) through the hall by the door. They had placed it up and was pretending it was their cave. When they saw my open the door, they burst into laughter and looked so proud of their accomplishment. It was really funny. Of course I gave them the expected reaction of shear shock and surprise, making comments on how strong they were and not to mention amazing. They loved it...so did I.

Hey, don't take my picture yet, I'm not ready!

Still not ready, just give me a minute. I know we are ready to leave but I just have to finish my makeup. Come on, I'm a girl, you should be expecting this.

Okay, I am dressed, done up and ready to go. Don't I look beautiful?

After all that work and now my hair is ruined. COME ON PEOPLE!


P.S. Look at my awesome cat I chipped into the wall. I did it all myself and I would not let anyone get in the way of my dreams. Believe me, they tried. I am an artist!

I really need a hobby, or two or more. I don't know where to start. I would love to take up rock climbing again but I have 4 problems with that: Cole, Sage, Mckelle, and Scott. I guess that will have to wait a few years. I would love to take up kayaking again but the same four problems and will have to wait for that as well. I am not a much do it yourself-er. I don't sing. I could try to learn the piano better but I don't even have a keyboard worth talking about. We do have a guitar...maybe I will try learning how to play that. Any suggestions? Feel free to make mundane to crazy
suggestions.



In the meantime, I am looking for some hobbies while McKelle is mastering her new improved, infuriating habit. I have painted this wall 4 times. She gets her nails in there every time and starts peeling. I have scolded her, spanked her, stopped her just before and now have moved her bed. So far, her bed being moved has worked but it is in the middle of the room. Not to great considering it is not a large room to start with plus another bed and dresser. Also, she falls off her bed all the time. It is kind of funny. At least this peel job kind of looks like a cat. She loves cats so maybe if I don't paint again, she might leave alone and be proud of her art work.
p.s. I am not surprised by this hobby, she has always been an avid scab peeler, she will scratch her mosquito bites clean off, yes, to the blood, and she is always trying to get away with peeling off the plastic part of books.

How many pets do we have? To the unseeing eye, one would say, "none". Take a close look though




We actually have 3 pets. One baby horse, one Mamma Cat ("I'm a Mamma Cat because I have my whiskers on and my tail on") and one baby cat. Yes, we are those people who love our pets so much that we dress them, let them eat all of our food, talk to them, at times sleep with them, kiss them, talk about them all the time, and even let them live in our house at all times. Our pets get along so well that baby horse gives our cats rides all the time. He loves to buck them off but the cats don't mind (they always land on their feet) and jump back on. Who would have guessed that I would be such a pet lover?

Sorry it has been so long since I have written. I tell you, time is just going by faster and faster. Then, when I was going to post, my monitor went out. We got a new one last night and are back in business.We had another tornado hit down in Chickamauga. This time, it took down one of our trees, trimmed up a few in the front and probably every house on our street had at least one tree come down. Most damage is fence damage but a few roofs need to be fixed. It was kind of cool watching it come in. The kids were watching out the window and watched the branches fall off and then we heard them hit our roof. It bent our gutter a little bit. Then our whole house shakes and We run to the kitchen to look out and our tree had fallen down, it our neighbors house (empty) and did some damage to his garage door. As I am looking at that, I see the empty houses tree fall. We decided to take the kids to the basement for a bit. It was over about 5 minutes after it started. Our power was out for a few hours. Not too long. Other people had it out for about a week. Will and I sat on the front porch until about 12 that night to direct the traffic through the power line that had been knocked into the street. Other streets were closed down and our street was the detour. Kind of exciting. I am glad that is as much excitement as we got though.





The last is our tree that hit the neighbors and the other pics are around the neighborhood. Like I said, not a lot done but enough to get your heart pumping a bit.