Boys and Bees

In case you wanted to know how well I did in the Half Marathon, or are just curious about those things, here's the info: I finished in 1:51:29 meaning I averaged an 8:31 minute mile. I was 1638 out of 10,787 people and placed 81 out of 1007 women my age (30-34). I did better than I thought I'd do and I'm proud of myself for accomplishing that goal. Now I'm trying to figure out my next goal. But while that's in the works...

The other day I went with Riva to have Lynnea's picture taken. I brought the boys and she brought Tyler while Mikayla was in school. Ok we all know that Riva and I have a hard time making decisions (me especially I think) and while Riva and I were contemplating the choices of which package/which picture, etc., Austin was walking his little cousin around the studio and beyond. It was so adorable and she was just living it up. What better than to have someone a little bigger than her to hold hands with while learning to walk? I had to capture it on camera. Austin was so tender with her and didn't want to hurt her. He held her up when she almost fell, and was there for her to pull herself up with also. It was so sweet!

He loves being the big cousin.

I had to post this one because look at how proud he looks as he's walking. I can just see the man in him coming out - even at 2! That's my boy!!

So after the Super Bowl, my boys just couldn't get enough football. I was laughing during this little game because Austin HAD to wear his helmet. (Bob the Builder tool helmet, that is). If the helmet fell off, the game had to stop in order for him to put his helmet back on and continue. But the funniest thing was that he didn't even really care about the ball. Ethan would throw it, they'd both rush after it, but Austin would grab Ethan's shirt and take him down - not even caring where the ball was. What was even funnier was this week when they played, Austin wouldn't tackle or get the ball, but see the ball, plant his bottom on the floor and lift his legs up in the air. It looked like he was doing a Pilates move.

So the bee problem is back...and weirder than ever. I don't know if you remember the bee episode from a few months back. I know - I'm linking to everything in this one. It helps mommy memories like mine (that are non-existent). Well the bees were continuing to haunt our eave, and so we called the bee guy back. He had never seen anything like it before (of course that would be our case) and I mentioned to him that two houses down was the same model home, same color, with a HUGE bee hive in the roof at the same location they are trying to get in on our house. He said that could very well be the problem and because they locate their hive by landscape markers, they could be confused. Well that doesn't help us, because regardless of what people tell these neighbors, or how many times I call the HOA, these people are NOT caring about their hive. So our problem will continue until their problem goes away. I'm NOT happy. I even walked a business card down to their house and told them that if that hive gets too big to handle, the honey will start dripping into their ceiling and down their walls this summer (so the bee guy said and I wanted to use SOME kind of scare tactic). Ya - they still haven't called anyone. Soo......

I can get really good closeups now of dead bees that look like they're alive (like the one above - ya, he's dead - or is it a she?). And you saw the carnage in the picture above. It looks like a bee massacre. I'm serious there are about 50-100 on my deck each day, having died from exhaustion after hanging on like this....

....for as long as their little bee legs could hold them. Then they slowly rain down on the deck and other surfaces in my backyard, and die. Isn't that pleasant? So now all I hear when we go outside is, "Mom, there's a BEE!!!! Don't TOUCH it!!!" and, "Mom, can you scrape off the bees please?" I may have to appeal to a higher source - the city. By the time they get the hive two doors down, their whole attic may be overtaken. It's a regular bee metropolis over there. I mean come on bees, can you NOT understand that there is nowhere to GO in my house??? Everything is blocked, but they still come and hang out...hoping that a hole will open up so they can get in? I used to think bees were really smart......now I'm just trying to figure out how I can make a landscape arrow to point them in the right direction. **sigh**