Life with Boys!

A few Sundays ago a rattlesnake slithered into our yard.  The dog was barking and I told Dennis it sounded like the “I got something you should see” bark.  Dennis went out with a shovel and when I opened the back door I could hear it rattling!  So loud!  Dennis killed it and skinned it.  The skin is rumored to be in our deep freeze.

Sunday afternoon, Dennis asked me for a lid for the Tupperware and said the snake had almost crawled all the way out!!  with NO head and NO skin!  GROSS!!!
A few days later I got home and nothing had been done all day.  Kids off-mom at work= lazy boys and messy house.  So I laid on the couch and said I was on strike.  Dennis decided to fry up the rattlesnake…in the kitchen.  When it was time to eat, I tried to sit at the table and eat my left over tortellini but could not stand it.  All I could think about was that thing crawling out after it was dead!  The kids loved it and even offered to pay me to eat it.  I did not.
The next Friday night we all sat around the dinner table and Dennis asked me to get the app “predator calls”.  It is an app of screeching animals in distress to attract predators! Something, possibly a coyote, got our little ram lamb and Dennis is out to get it.  They spent hours playing those horrible sounds over and over. Drove me and the cat crazy!
The next day I went with them, against my better judgment, to the Buckmasters Expo.  Lots of booths of guns, knives, hunting equipment and “stuffed” animals (the zebra head was pretty disturbing).  I only went to go out to eat afterward and to get out of the house.  Can't do much else with all this rain!  Anyway, the boys and Dennis all bought turkey calls and Dennis bought a hog call so guess what I listened to all the way home (almost 2 hours)!  I did find a fudge stand!  YUM!
Now we are washing sweaty, stinky football practice clothes every night and buying spirit shirts in preparation for the first football game next week.  Preston and Grant will be playing varsity football and Ryan is in the marching band this year playing the baritone saxophone.  We have a jamboree game this Friday, the Night of the Gamecocks community pep rally and autograph session Tuesday night and the first home game next Friday night!  Love this time of year!
Preston was chosen as one of the Elite 11 in the area to watch.  Here is a picture from the article in the paper.

The boys have finally started school.  They acted like they were not going to let us take “first day” pictures but it is Preston’s LAST first day !  I had to go to work and left Dennis with instructions!

It is an EVEN year:  Preston in 12th, Ryan in 8th and Grant in 10th
After open house we had a football meeting in the field house.  I had to snap a picture of P and G’s lockers side by side!

Hey, Look what I dug around and found…. our very FIRST “first day of school” picture.  Preston’s first day of Kindergarten in Texas at Mountain View ES!  August 2001

Preston was 5, Ryan was 11 mos and Grant was almost 4!  Seems like yesterday and now we are receiving college admissions stuff by mail and  email everyday!
Sorry Preston, I tried to resist and could not:  Here is the Preston funny of the day…
M: hey you got invitations to apply to two colleges on email today, Troy and the University of  Denver
P: Colorado?!
M: yes
P: I’M going mom, sorry, Hasta la vista baby, skiing in the ALPS!
M: They will not let you attend if you don’t know the correct mountain range
P:  just kidding! I know it’s the Rocky Mountains, The alps are ……..somewhere else right?
M:  (look of horror)
P: like another country I mean, I know! gosh!
Maybe we should start at a junior college…with Geography!  Just Kidding P!  Love your sense of humor! Brightens my day!