A Little Visitor

This morning (after dropping Lauren off at school), I put on the "Cars" movie for Nolan upstairs in our bonus room and ran downstairs to make some breakfast for myself. As I was cooking the egg whites on the stove, I glanced over to see Casey (our cat) sniffing at something behind the drapes in the dining room. I went over to see what she was doing (half afraid that she had thrown up on the carpet) and screamed when I saw what it really was - a HUGE lizard!! I am not talking about the cute little salamanders that you see...I am talking a big Daddy lizard. Gross!














I was completely freaked out so I called Ryan at work and asked him what I should do. He said I had to open the front door and "usher" it back outside. Oh, sure, no problem...easier said than done!! The first thing I did was run upstairs and grab Nolan - I needed someone to protect me! I explained to him the whole process of what we needed to do and he was game. So, together we approached the lizard - me, with broom in hand, and Nolan, with the squirt bottle. At first it didn't move and I thought maybe it crawled in our house only to die. But, finally on the third nudge of the broom it scurried out from behind the curtain.

Nolan quickly ran over and squirted it with water (which he thought was helping, but I think the lizard liked it). I had the front door open and we were trying to get it headed in that direction. Well, this was either the dumbest lizard ever born or it really liked our house. Instead of crawling towards the door to freedom, it darted under the piano. GREAT...now how was I going to get it out?!? After about 5 minutes of working and aggravating the poor thing, it reluctantly came out and (appropriately) ran over to the time-out stool. :) From there, it was just one more corner and it would be out!

We finally succeeded and I quickly slammed the door and locked it shut. Nolan & I gave each other high-fives and then he said to me, "More!". As cute as it was, I informed him that we would not be doing any more of that (hopefully)! I checked the front porch 30 minutes later and "our little friend" was nowhere to be seen. I was relieved our adventure was over, but then I started thinking...how did it get inside the house...and how long had it been here? There is probably no way to know, but I am just praying we don't have any more visitors this spring!! :)

Back to My Roots

In an effort to save money at the hairdressers AND to look more "natural" as I grow older, I finally took the plunge and died my hair back to its true color. I had begun this process in January and was slowly but surely getting there...but this time I decided to just go for it all the way - this brown is a little more golden than my real color, but pretty much the same shade. Blondes may have more fun, but I think brunettes are more mysterious looking! :) Ryan loved it right away (because this is how I looked when we first met in high school), but Lauren & Nolan may need some more time to get used to it - her words were, "You look like a whole different mother!" Here is the before and after:

Family Visit

We are blessed to have Ryan's mom and 98-year-old grandmother with us for the week of Lauren's spring break! The kids are thrilled to have them here and we have had so much fun spending time together. The weather has been beautiful for their entire visit - in the low to mid 80's and not a cloud in sight! We've had the chance to go to a botanical garden, go for walks through the neighborhood and spend Easter Sunday together. Here are some pictures we've taken...