Big Messes and Chalk Outlines...

I always seem to get bit by the cleanin' bug late in the week. Usually thursdays are my "Gitrdun" days. Well i had some things to do yesterday so i didn't. So today is that day. I started in and worked my way back to the Royal closet. Lord have mercy. For the past...11 months, if i couldn't quite find a place in the house for it, it went...yup, into the closet. And with huntin' season comin' up, well it was time. So i dove in, and things started flyin' out.

At one point, Princess #2 steps warily around the corner, "Daddy, why you makin' a big mess?"

"Well, sometimes you gotta make a mess when you're cleanin' up."

I'm certain that made a big impression on a 3 year old mind. So she backed cautiously away to consider the statement, and resumed her position in front of 'Mary Poppins' a good distance away, in another room. These girls we're raisin', they got sense, and Leah got herself a big wagonload of it, and she don't mind pullin' it out and usin' it.

The Prince on the other hand...oh, he's got sense alright, a sackful, he just likes to set his down and walk on the edge sometimes (eerily familiar). So, he waded in to help. I mean, to the one year old boy's mind, nothing says fun like Dad throwin all his huntin gear out of the closet. Its gotta be almost heavenly. Don't worry, there weren't any hammers and a box of .270 shells handy, they were already secured. He had fun anyway, he allocated a couple pairs of "jhooos" (that's 'shoes' to you and me) and re-positioned them elsewhere. I even found a shirt i'd been missing for months, i wondered where it had gone to. But, in the end, everything cleaned up nicely and i found a kodak moment. He was pointing at something up on the newly discovered shelf and so i picked him up and he seemed to want a closer look so i sat him up there and he was satisfied at his elevated throne.

Quick litte story before i go... Last night we came back from Lawton where i had a PC show. I was driving my truck and the Queen was in her car. Upon entering the driveway i waited for her to open the garage door (since she has the opener in her car) and when it opened i pulled on in and she came in right after. We got the girls out, and they went out into the driveway to look at the night sky, we heard a couple comments about the stars and then, you have to use your imagination here, we heard (in perfect 3 and 4 year old symphonic modulation)...

"EEEeeeEEEEEEEEWWwwwwwwwwWWWuh"!!!!

See, we have had a plague, of sorts, of toads that come out every evening. They are EVERYWHERE. Big ones, little ones, all sizes, and even an occasional leopard tree frog in the mix, which are really cool by the way. I really don't mind them so much since i know they are great for the bug population,and learned from a friend the other night that "if you have frogs, you don't have snakes." Well, i certainly haven't seen any snakes for sure. Well, we are now one fairly large toad short now. Normally, they are great at getting out of the way when we pull in, perhaps it was the pause of me waiting for the door to open, maybe it was just those big Yokohama offroads just mesmerized him, i don't know, but what i do know is that he... POPPED like a water balloon full of guts.

Hence, the harmonic progression.

Then, to top it off, comes the dulcet tones of the Queen...

"NO,DON'T TOUCH IT!!!"


UPDATED NOTE:
I discovered that they did kinda chalk outline him this morning, with their sidewalk chalk, you know, like the old murder mystery scenes where the victim is outlined. I thought it was funny.