Weekend in Pictures.

Ramone takes a drive in his little car!
Jacob and his newly aqcuired snake
Jacob putting the snakes head in his bellybutton!!!!

Once again, our busy weekend is over. Ralph will go back to work and relax.
We got alot done this weekend. I have been refinishing a kitchen table and chairs and FINALLY finished them up. We needed a round table to fit into our breakfast area. I had looked at a few at Antique weekend in Warrenton, but wasn't going to pay over $1000 bucks for a table that would soon have holes from forks and inexplicable goop that has to be scraped up with a knife. I don't know about other people's kids, but Jacob is hard on a table. I'm also into the distressed look so I figured I would have a go at refinishing a really nice set I bought from a lady on Craigslist. It did turn out pretty cool.

I did pick up an old headboard and vanity stool at Warrenton and those were a different story. I paid $75 bucks for the headboard and footboard and, after all is said and done, it should be worth about $2000 bucks. Of course, that includes 2 things of stripper, I don't know how many cans of mineral spirits, and what seems like 200 hours of labor between my mom and I. Halfway through stripping this thing I said "I give up!!!!" The paint was not stripping well (the headboard and footboard have large posts that are "spindle-like" with LOTS of grooves. Ralph said "that is fine, we can get something else for the guestroom." I was ready to take that offer, but Mom talked me out of it. She said that we had to finish it; we couldn't just toss our treasure. She even spent some time stripping and sanding after I left. Well, after all is said and done, it's looks pretty good. If you come to my house and think it looks crappy, just don't say it out loud. I will cry. Then I will call my mom and we will both cry and our fingers will hurt in rememberence of the blood, sweat and tears that went into our project. And we will never like you again.

The boys always have a great time at Nana's. If you are wondering where Jacob got this snake, he told us he took it from the cats. Brave man. Very brave. The last time I saw one of the cats with a snake in town, it was a Coral snake (not the fake kind, the red on yellow, kill a fellow kind). Did I ever mention that the cat's name is Jacob? Jacob named his cat Jacob. We call him "Jacob Cat" to distinguish whom we are speaking to. Jacob (the boy) did get a lecture about just taking a snake from a cat or playing with any snake. This one was just a grass snake and probably not putting up much of a fight anymore after being played with by the cats. It was alive though.

So, if you are 3 and you have a snake what do you do with it? Well, you let it stick it's head in your belly button, of course!!! I was terrified of snakes when I was a child. I still don't really care for them, but when Jacob dropped it in the grass and couldn't find it, who do you think picked it up for him?? I did!!! I didn't really even think about it, until after I did it. The things we will do for our kids.

Austin wanted to play with the snake too, but Jungleman Jacob wasn't sharing. So then Austin told him to "rip in it half!!". For some reason the kids were watching that "Survivorman" show the other night and the guy ripped open and little snake and ate it. BAARRRRF. I would probably just starve. We told him not to ever do that. Nana told him that harming animals would make him turn into a serial killer. Nana always has a way to explain things in a loving and meaningful way.

Jacob shared the snake with Austin for a second and then went about playing with it. Mom and I got busy again and I was going to run down to the house to help Ralphie run some telephone wire. Jacob has disappeared and then resurfaced from the house. I heard Nana say "where is your snake." What I thought I heard was "I left it in the house." That would be just great. We need to go find it so Nana doesn't find it later. HOWEVER, what Nana heard was "I broke it in half." So apparently my son did what big brother told him to do and pulled that poor snake apart. BAAAARRRRF. We scolded him and then Nana told Austin that Jacob was going to end up being a serial killer and it was going to be all his (Austin's fault).

We sometimes joke with Jacob and tell him to be nice to Austin because Austin is going to be the only one coming to visit him in prison when he is older. The kids laugh and, of course, we really don't mean it. One day Ralph said to me "You know how you always joke about Jacob being in prison?" I said "Yes". He said "Well, don't you think that, if he ever were actually in prison, that he would be able to break out?" I had never thought about that before, but I think he would. He would break out and come to see his Mommy, and then I would tell the people at the prison that they should let him out if he is smart enought to get out on his own. That's gotta count for something right???