Night-night-I-love-you-bye-bye

My girls spend every other weekend at their dad's house and have done this for about 6 years now. Every night that they are at my house, he calls to talk to them. Every night they're at his house, I call to talk to them. And for several years, every phone call I had with my eldest ended not just with "bye bye," but with "Night-night-I-love-you-bye-bye!" She would rattle it off as if it were one huge word sometimes.

Well a little less than a year into this schedule of the girls spending weekends at their dad's, I happened to take a trip. The girls were spending the couple days I was gone with some close friends. It was a treat for them, while I was getting to have a fun weekend myself. Nothing like a sleepover with your bestest friends.

Anyway, I had gone to Las Vegas (no, not into gambling) to see Greg Page in concert. (Not familiar with him? Check out the linkie on the side.) He was the original Yellow Wiggle, but was doing some solo singing with the TCB Band for two nights in Vegas. I went out to see the shows and for the chance to meet him. If you've read much of my blog you've already gotten some glimpses of that weekend, and doubtless more will come at one time or another.

Anyway, one morning...the morning of the evening of his first show (sorry, I can't word that any simpler!)...my friends and I saw him. Ok, yes we were trying to see him, but that's beside the point, ha ha.

I asked him if he'd mind saying hello to my oldest who was then only four and a BIG Wiggles fan. And he was her favorite...wearing her favorite color and...well...he rocks. Anyway, he was very gracious and said he would. So I called her up and got her on the phone and Greg took the phone and had a little conversation.

Now understand, Megan was a great conversationalist from the time she was tiny, but like many children she was VERY difficult to understand on the phone...especially with someone who is unfamiliar with her. But he hung in there and did his best to understand and talk to her for a few minutes.

Finally after he said goodbye to her and hung up the phone, he started laughing as he handed the phone back to me. He hadn't been able to understand much of what she said, but her "closing" was quite clear. He laughed and said, "She said, 'night-night-I-love-you-bye-bye!'"...which was funny at 9 in the morning.

Frogs Freak Me Out!

Ok, so we weathered the tropical storm the night before last. Apparently a small critter took refuge in our garage...and who can blame him? That's a lot of rain...even if you ARE an amphibian.
This photo was taken out in the garage. The clothes you see at the sides of the photo are on the rack where I hang my laundry when I pull it out of the dryer. In the background you see the drawers of my dresser stacked (I'm storing it in the garage until I can sell it...I think). But look at that nasty creature perched on the drawer's edge!

I couldn't live with the thought of it touching me...or worse yet, hiding out in my garage for a sneak attack. So I went to the kitchen and got a grocery bag...plastic. My girls were asleep and I didn't want them to wake up to my screams, so I was trying to remain calm.

Not easy.

I walked out to the garage with the bag puffed open, opening down and I slowly lowered it somewhat over the frog. As I predicted the frog hopped into the bag...at which point I DROPPED the bag.

Try not to focus on the fact that I dropped the bag, but focus on my success at NOT screaming!

The frog was still inside the bag so I reached down, scared silly, and closed the bag and lifted it. So far, so good. (And I'm being generous with the term "good" here.) I carried it into the house, across the living room to the front door, opened the door, (all the while the frog is jumping every which way inside the bag...guess it was freaked, too)... and I managed to get the bag opened AWAY FROM ME and after a bit of shaking (the bag, NOT me, lol)...I got the frog out.

I am SO glad I saw the frog before it jumped on me. The screams would have been heard round the world.