Visiting the Farm

Okay, to my military friends and family, DON'T LAUGH. When Chad goes out of town, I need a baby-sitter. Not for the girls... for me. I hate being by myself!!! So, since he has been travelling quite a bit lately, I have been arranging sleepovers with obliging friends and family members. Of course, I try to warn them: We don't visit, we COLONIZE. In a matter of minutes after our arrival, you will sense our presence in every room. A stack of books here, a sippy cup there... Not to mention the fact it takes about five trips from the car to bring in all the stuff we need for an overnight stay. ANYWAY, the lucky recipient of our sojourns last week was my Aunt Rene. My mom even came with us, and we had so much fun! Elianna loves to visit the farm, especially if "Meesta John" (Mr. John, Aunt Rene's fiance who lives just a few miles down the road) is there. He is just a big, loud kid himself, emphasis on the LOUD part, so naturally Elianna thinks he is just the greatest thing. She follows him all over the place, and he is always up for something fun. He even grabbed her and they ran outside after 10:00 to play with flashlights. I think you could hear them in Chicago running around and shrieking...

Speaking of shrieking, we had an unexpected guest that night. We were sitting up LATE that night blabbing, as only three women can do, when we hear this "squeak." We all agreed it sounded like a bat, and later I heard what sounded like a hiss. Well, as soon as we turned out the lights to go to bed, Batley decided to come join our party! (The joys of country living.) He swooped and fluttered and seemed to be enjoying himself... until Aunt Rene bonked him with a broom. I don't know what was funnier, the fact that he didn't seem to mind or the fact that she kept apologizing to him! There she was, trying to shoo him out the door saying, "Oops, sorry! Get out, get out.. Oops! Sorry!" Yes, she had to say "Oops, sorry!" every time she hit him. After chasing him around for a while (and this is 2:30 in the morning, might I add) my mom got the brilliant idea to throw a sheet on him. So, they each grabbed a sheet, and attempted to throw them at our little dive-bombing friend. I mostly hid in the other room and took pictures, so I wasn't much help. We finally gave up, and ended up sleeping with him circling overhead all night. In the morning, he decided to roost (or whatever you call it when bats sleep) right on the wall! It's funny how cute and tiny he looked during the day. I will try to get the pics uploaded, and I had a video clip of Aunt Rene shooing him with the broom. Unfortunately, my mom was "herding" the bat towards the door by holding up a blanket, and she kept holding it up in front of my camera. (Darn them, can't they see I'm trying to get blog fodder here?!?!) I'll see what I can do.

The next day, although it was hard to top the Bat Adventure, we went to see a herd of longhorn steers. Elianna wanted to ride them, but was eventually content to just watch them. We went to a nearby lake as well, but it was too chilly and windy to go swimming. It is a beautiful lake, though - the water is turquoise and very warm and shallow. We ended the day by being treated to dinner at the restaurant where Aunt Rene works, and by this time (almost 6:00) my napless daughters were getting to be quite disagreeable. Fortunately we managed to have a yummy dinner before being asked to leave (just kidding), and I packed the girls into the car and hoped they'd sleep all the way home. (They didn't.) We had a great time, and since we were invited back I don't think we scared them too much!

Here is Aunt Rene trying to get the bat outside... without hurting him. Mom is holding up a sheet to keep the bat from flying back into the living room. (This was before she started throwing the sheet at the bat.) We were remarkably calm, but keep in mind it was the middle of the night and we were not fully awake.