It only happens in the summer...

The air-conditioner is dead. Officially. Totally. Irretrievably. Of course. It's 101 degrees outside. And it will take a few days to get the parts/compressor/whatever in to fix it. Yee-frickin'-haw. Please pardon my pity post but, no matter what we do to try and get ahead and get some money saved, something like this happens and totally screws us and we are back down to ZERO in our savings account. Raising three kids is a lot harder than it used to be when I was a kid! I don't need tons of money, I just want to go for a whole year without SOMETHING breaking our bank! Yes, we are a one income family, and we decided I would stay home with our kids before we ever even had them. The fact is though, I am/was a Social Worker, and going back to work would actually COST us money, so it's actually cheaper for me to stay home.

ANYWAY...

This is what we have been finding in our yard as of late...

We've seen a few in the backyard, and found this one all cured up on the front porch one night. I ran to get my camera, came back and he started slithering away, down into the *ahem* flower garden *ahem* (a term used VERY loosely around this house! lol!). See, it's so hot the snakes are all over the place! So not only is it too hot to go outside, it's also too scary.

We have also had a visitor who wasn't my mom and dad! Steven's brother came up to see us; we haven't seen him since Claire was a newborn, so it's been a while.

Steven is on the left...trying to cover up a ketchup stain on his shirt.

Here is Uncle Bobby with the kids. Personally, I don't think it's very fair that I have given him 3 neices and nephews, and he hasn't given me any...I was trying to make deals with him the whole time he was here but, for some reason, he just doesn't seem to be interested right now. He is dating a girl who is in medical school and will be a Neurologist, so I think the kids would be pretty cool. I told him I would even keep them/it while she is still in school and also gave him the option of just letting me adopt, because I know she doesn't really have the time for all of that, but he still wasn't swayed. I even played my last card: "You're my only hope!" Yet again, for some unknown reason, the puppy-dog eyes I use on Steven, and work so well, didn't move him at all. It's just not right! I need a baby that I can carry around wearing all of the cute things I make for it! ;)

My last baby, Claire, is losing her baby teeth...on top, but not on bottom. Her first two permanent teeth on the bottom have already come in but the baby ones did not come out-leaving her with a double row of teeth and a new nickname..."Sharkey". So next week we get to take her into the dentist and have those two teeth pulled. Because hey, why wiggle and pull them out yourself for free when you can pay a dentist a couple hundred bucks or so to do it for you...and you'll get free stickers, too.

This is her "cute little hole", as she calls it. At least the top ones are coming out before the permanent ones come in.

That's about it...guess I need to find something for three hot kids to do. I think we'll have ice cream for dinner! Hey...I gotta find a silver lining somewhere!