Do Bats wear Pants?

1) So we've had bats in our house recently. We woke up early one morning (like early June) to a bat, sleeping soundly on our front door window cover. We covered it with a plastic bowl, slid a plastic cutting board under it, and escorted it outside (where it sat, with no food and water, getting angrier and angrier, in the humid plastic bowl, until my sister called the police to come take it away while I was off attending my graduation ceremony).

Just the other night, I was watching TV, and thought, "Man, I'm down here way too much, watching too much TV each night..." Well, I'm cured of that. I went to bed, and John came home just a few minutes later and was watching TV in the same spot--and rushed back upstairs to tell me that a bat was flying around his head!! Needless to say, we thumb-tacked a sheet over the stair way entry to our basement, and John and a friend came over the next day and escorted the bat outside. Caleb was really curious about the "bat downstairs" and asked the above question. And, just so you know, I'm cured of my watching-TV-downstairs-every-night habits. :)

2) We just got back from a 10 day va-k, meandering around the NE Kingdom. Actually, it was a well planned trip; we saw lots of friends and family, and it was wonderful. Three of our good friends from Huntington/Fuller/LA have moved to eastern side of the country, and we got to see them. It was wonderful. And, we got to visit my old family's vacation stomping grounds: Squam Lake, Meredith, NH, Center Sandwich, Barvel Pond (where my Granny has a cabin). Caleb and I had read "Blueberries for Sal" all year in anticipation of picking blueberries on Barvel Pond. We got to kayak out to the island, and although we found a meager crop, we hit the jackpot on our way into shore: we literally sat in the kayak, and while mosquitoes feasted on us, we feasted off a blueberry bush (with these huge, luscious blueberries) that was growing from the shore out over the kayak.. it was fun. :)

3) I turn 30 tomorrow. Yikes! I am becoming quite introspective as I leave my 20's... When I turned 20, I was a sophomore/junior at Truman, and had been living there, in the dorms, for a few days, as a 19 yr old. And then I entered my 20's. What a huge, life-changing decade this has been for me! What a ride it's been! Not without tears, cussing, counseling, laughter, friends and family, of course. I think meeting/falling in love with John getting married was a huge change.. And then taking my nursing boards--and finding out that I'd passed in a Paris train station (I'd called my dad, who'd paid $8 for those who want to obtain early results, who'd called the MO Board of nursing. His first words on the phone--for he knew why I was calling-- were: "YOU PASSED! YOU ARE AN RN!!!!" I cried tears of joy right there, in the train station...). Then, a few years later, pushing a baby out was a ginourmous victourious feeling (and doing it again was also victorious!)! Walking across the stage this past June and getting my master's degree was awesome.. and calling John and crying tears of joy in the parking lot after I passed my Nurse Practitioner exam was exhilarating, too... Moving from MO to CO to CA to OH has been quite an adventure, too. It's not without some trepidation, but I look forward to the next adventures life has for me and our little family. Who knows what the future holds for us?? :)

4) My dad was here today. He breezed into Dayton for a 24 hr stint as he had business a few hrs away. We spent the afternoon riding bikes on a trail outside of Dayton, just talking and laughing and catching up, just he and I. It was actually quite lovely. I'm pretty lucky to have a dad like mine. Not perfect, nope, but definitely in love with his kids, and I'm one lucky girl.

I think that's it for now.. I'm going to spend the last few minutes of my 20's.... cleaning the kitchen.

PS Our camera is truly on the fritz; it won't be until I get another one that there will be pictures up here. :(