another weekend and back to monday again!

i don't remember what day it was, but the other evening was really nice - great weather, feeling like fall outside. i had the sliding door open in the back so we could enjoy it even though we were inside. i glanced over toward the door and noticed cosmo (our big fat cat) stalking something. i'm thinking mouse, mole, bird, something like that. i looked out there and he had cornered one of luke's old plastic snakes. cracked me up! i like to watch cosmo jump and i thought it'd be fun to scare him a little, so i reached in the little corner with my foot and flicked the snake at him. it was really strange then how that little plastic snake started to wiggle around! needless to say i was the surprised one! it was tiny, about a foot long maybe and around an inch thick, but it was mad. it coiled up and held it's teeny little head up and was looking right at me. he slinked off under the big container we keep bats and balls and skateboards in so i left him alone, but not before i took his picture. when greg and the big boys got home max and i asked if they knew what kind of snake was in that picture on my computer, and of course no one knew. they wondered why so i said "there's one on our back porch." (that caused a stir!) the picture on the screen made it look ginormous so they probably thought we'd need to call animal control or something. of course he was teeny but i wanted him gone and so my husband took care of that detail. and don't be giving me any grief about snakes being my friends because they are not! by the way, the picture online that came closest to our little "friend" was a swamp rattler.

i mentioned before that we've been in a class at church called financial peace university. we've decided we're going to just do it and do it the way the course outlines. we've made our budget and made some cuts and have done well so far sticking to it. we had what appeared at first to be an urgent car situation. our first instinct in recent months (weeks?) would have been to whip out the credit card and just fix the thing. we decided instead to just park it for the time being until we put aside enough cash to take care of it. that night at church we heard from at least 3 people that they had the same problem before and drove for a long time with no problems. and our good friend who works on it said the same thing. so we're just going to wait. and by waiting we kept from accumulating that debt! we believe God sent a little blessing our way to say "good job on that one!" we've been trying to get rid of our bunk beds and get a regular twin bed for max but the new budget does not allow just yet! greg got a call at church from a couple who had a twin bed they wanted to give away and wondered if greg knew anyone who needed one. (umm....yes!!) we went out and looked at it and brought it home that day. they were happy it was out of their garage and we were happy to have it in max's room. max was thrilled, especially because it has little cubby holes where he can stash a bunch of his stuff.

saturday was a busy day, full of soccer and our church's block party. it was a hot day and very long, but very good as well. max played GREAT! even scored a goal. unfortunately my camera was in the bottom of my purse to keep it out of the sprinklie rain we were having so i missed that action. oh well. i did get a picture of him relaxing after all his hard work. he has the best coach ever - he is so good with the kids and so patient and encouraging, and still is teaching them good soccer skills. we've really appreciated his way with max. the block party is something we started last year at church. we have a HUGE turnout, lots of fun things to do, good food to eat and just a really good day together as a church family along with people new to us from the community. greg was here there and everywhere, blake and luke ran the dunking booth, max and i made cotton candy and popcorn. greg and i even got to push sweet baby carter around on his little car thingie. why didn't they have those when our boys were little?? max and i left early for his 2nd soccer game. he got to be goalie for the first time and did a pretty good job. he stopped a lot of balls. i don't think i like the goalie thing, too much pressure on the mom with all eyes on my boy. max heard me say that and he said "well i don't care" - didn't bother him a bit. good for him! i'm so glad my boys are more confident than their mom! today they were back to school and greg was working. i was off today and got to spend some time with sarah beth. we had a little starbucks and had lots of time to talk - i LOVED it. we'll be doing lots more of that!