We're all batty! Let's go fishing!

Because there is still hope that someday I will actually WRITE something again, I am posting here to make sure you keep coming back. I swear I'm still full of redneckedy humor, but right now it's 87 degrees in my house and we have no water. Excuse me if I'm feeling a bit uninspired. Yes, I realize this does not excuse the previous week of not posting, but you just hush now and look at the pretty pictures.

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Mom and Dad picked up Kady weekend before last to spend the night. When they left, they stopped the car about halfway down the driveway and sat there awhile. I assumed there was a moment of panic when Kady couldn't find her lip gloss or something. Eventually they took off again and then the phone rang. Mom said, "There's a bat hanging on your fence down the driveway." I thanked her for the info, announced that there was a nocturnal flying mammal hanging on the fence and watched as Abby and Sam scurried around for shoes while Paul headed for the gun cabinet.

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Here's my brave husband checking out the situation. Please do not comment on his white legs. He owns many, many guns. The camera was on ultra mega zoom because no way in HECK was i getting close to that mouse with wings.

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You've heard people say, "Well, it's better than a poke with a stick," right? Well, I'm not sure the bat could answer that way, seeing as how he was repeatedly poked with the barrel of a gun that particular day.

Poor nasty critter was caught on a barb and had managed to entangle itself around and around the strand of fence. It was really angry about it, too. Tried to bite the gun several times. Ingrate. Paul was just trying to help.

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It was when the bat did THIS that Abby, Sam and I all screamed at the top of our lungs like the big girlie babies we are.

It wasn't long after that Paul managed to untangle the nasty critter and it flew off to say to his family members, "How many rednecks does it take to free a bat from a fence? One! Two! Three! Four! Four magnificent rednecks! MUAH HAHAHAHAH" *thunder and lightning*

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Last Friday the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Dept. held a fishing day for kids at the Vo-Tech. Since I am not working this summer and Paul recently took a $2/hr pay cut we are on a summerlong mission to find free or incredibly cheap things to do with the kids this summer. They stocked the pond, provided the pole and bait - all we had to do was show up. I got Tater's tots for the day and hauled us all down for a day of fishing. I am not a fisher-person, but I am trying to be open to new experiences and not let me squeamishness keep my children from experiencing things. You may pat me on the back.

Here's Tater's tots and Kady in the background) gearing up for some fishy goodness. Yay.

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You can tell this child is mine - who else wears bows when they go fishing? She was the only one there wearing bows, by the way. Big surprise, right?

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Kady caught the first fish of the day and ended up catching three before the morning was over. Abby caught two and Sam caught one. The Tots didn't catch a durn thing. However, TotOne won some lures in the doorprize drawings. She held them up to me with a look of total disgust on her face and said, "Oh. Great. I'm supposed to use these for the fish I can't seem to catch?" Poor thing.

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My Aunt Janet had Nonner for the day and decided to come down and experience the fun with us. She was a great help, considering she knew how to bait a hook. Wait, let me clarify - I know how to bait a hook, I just choose NOT to. Anyway, I don't know what I'd have done without her because she was incredibly helpful when lines got tangled and bait got snatched. Nonner wanted his hands on that fish soooooo bad....

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I was proud of myself for taking the kids without Paul. So proud that I became an official redneck that day.

Ow.

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If you're not a friend of mine on Facebook you probably don't know that I just recently got about 14 inches of hair cut off of my little redneck head. It was down past my bra strap in the back when I straightened it, just above when left curly.

I had let it kind of get out of hand and really never intended to let it get that long, but Paul really likes long hair and if I haven't mentioned it before, we're stinkin' BROKE this summer so a haircut was kind of low priority for me. However, one day Paul found me digging through the bathroom cabinet looking for his hair trimmers because I was going to shave my mane right then and there and I didn't care if I looked like Susan Powter when it was over, my hair was DRIVING ME BATTY. (punny, huh?)

Here's my hair at Christmas, which was a whole 6 months ago. Long and not fuzzy and well-behaved. I loved my hair then. We got along fabulously, my hair and I.

But something happened when humidity came along this year....maybe my hair was just longing for some attention that I couldn't give it. Maybe it was just hanging around with the wrong crowd. We'll never know. I sent it away. Don't judge me.

And here I am just last night with my little sis, looking happy and far less hairy. Granted, not a particularly glamorous shot of my new 'do, but hey, we were at a park in 900% humidity a mere hour before my NOAA weather radio started chirping, alerting us of impending doom. I don't think it's too awful bad.

And while there's a rare picture of the two of us here for all the innerweb to see, give us your opinion, Constant Reader - do we look alike? We do not see it AT ALL, yet we've each had people stop us in public places to ask if we're related to each other. We see no resemblance whatsoever, seeing as how she looks looks like a tanned, blonde cutie pie and I look like a pale, unkempt redneck.

But I'm curious - what do you think?