Big Foot, Bugs, & Bilbo

This weekend was nice. I got to go on a nice day out with my mom. Two months after dad passed, we went to go see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in the theater to kind of honor him. He loved the Lord of the Rings. And I do mean love. It was his all time favorite movie. He gave my own fandom of Star Wars new heights to reach. We even played the soundtrack at his funeral. So when the last installment of the trilogy came out this past December, mom was set on taking me for my birthday to keep in our new tradition of watching movies that we know dad would love. It's little and may sound crazy, but sometimes it's all we have. Due to several weekends of crazy, we didn't get to go for my birthday and just got our first shot to see it today. It was wonderful. I really love spending these days with mom. And I think it helps her too. So we got to watch Bilbo Baggins finish is trek to The Lonely Mountain. It was really well done!

Saturday was a nice day. Other than the wind, we enjoyed the 60 degree weather and the kids got to play outside a lot. That is rare during the winter so we take it when we can. A tiny two bedroom house can get a little cramped with three crazy kids tearing through it. Later that evening we all were being silly and I noticed how big Alex's feet were getting. So when we put them up against each other I was shocked to see that he's about to match my own feet. How did my first born almost catch up to me by 8 years of age?? Crazy! He's just one foot shy of being the same height as his short mama. Of course, he is in size 4 shoes and I'm a size 5 in boys/men shoes. So just one more year and we should be able to share shoes. Never thought I'd say that. I lined us all up (without Josh regrettably - could have been a fun family photo) and snapped a shot of our feet.

Alex's giant foot.

Every winter we have uninvited house guests. Each year they grow in numbers. I think they are getting the word out that a house of really nice and understanding people are willing to accept them as part of our family. We have a ton of boxelder bugs that enjoy the warmth of our house all winter. If you don't know anything about these bugs, then you should know they are about as sweet and harmless as lady bugs. They don't bite and don't make messes or anything, so we let them stay. A few years back, we started referring to them as Fred. Each one is named the same. You know...purely for convenience. They regularly fly into our hair and crawl on us. Whenever we see one caught in the shower or fly into the trash, I go in for the great rescue. What can I say? I have a strange soft spot in my heart for the little beasties. I hope they aren't reason we can't sell our house. You know, I stopped spraying for spiders because the bug-dude told me it would "also get rid of my little boxelder bug problem." If we do move eventually, I'm totally packing a few boxes of Freds for good measure. I'd sure miss them.

Fred #275