Yes, there was a circus in Monroe this weekend.  And yes, we went.  Halle got her ticket at school on Tuesday and asked 10 times a day every day until it was time to actually leave.  Needless to say, we couldn’t let her down. 

Funny story about the circus though.  On Saturday morning, we were leaving the house to go to a picnic (more on that later).  From the back of the van, I overhear the kids talking about going to the circus.  My dad would be so proud of them.
     Brad:  “I can’t believe there’s a circus here tonight.”
     Halle:  “Yeah, in MONROE CITY!!!!”
    {Insert loads of laughter here from me and David.}

 Anyway, the circus was a one-day only kind of thing, and boy they really know how to draw you in.  They send home free entrance tickets with the kids at school.  So all kids get in free basically.  And then of course the parents have to pay like $12 a ticket to get in.  And then there’s the cost if your kids want to ride the ponies, camels, or elephant.  (Yes, I said elephant.  They did in fact have elephant rides.)  And more $$ if you want a photo of your child on said ride.  We did pretty good though.  Aside from our adult ticket fees, we only bought one cotton candy ($3), one small bag of peanuts ($1 for like 8 peanuts), one can of soda ($2), one balloon on a stick ($1), and one pony ride for Halle ($4).  So basically for $35 we had a fun filled night.  The kids really enjoyed it.  They had some cute acts.  The first one that came out was a lady and about 5 or 6 dogs.  They all took their turns jumping through hoops, playing leapfrog, riding on a pony, etc.  Halle was laughing hysterically.  Almost all other memorable acts were of children.  In fact, almost all the acts either included children (we’re talking a max age here of maybe 12) or were solely kids.  The circus clown was a kid too!  Apparently child labor laws don’t apply to the circus crew….who knew.  And then those same kids would change clothes and be selling the junk toys at the “souvenir” stand or taking your money for the animal rides.  It was pretty amusing actually.  Their final act was the elephant.  Of course 3 kids were riding on him, being held in his mouth, doing hand stands on his back, etc.  Well the first time he went up high on his hind legs, he apparently had the urge to pee.  I’m telling you, an elephant’s bladder must hold like 40 gallons.  It just gushed and gushed.  Brad was highly amused….he couldn’t stop laughing.  What is it with boys and bodily functions?!?!  And then later, of course he had to go #2 as well.  Again…roars of laughter from the crowd and Brad.  During intermission, Halle rode a pony.  She loved it!  I was kind of skeptical at first because she has a tendency to want to do things but then gets too scared to actually go through with it.  But that was what she picked out to do and she did great!  Maybe we’ll have a little equestrian on our hands….

Ok…onto the picnic.  The baptist church in town had a family fun picnic on Saturday afternoon (the circus was later that night) and the whole community was invited.  The had games for the kids with little candy and prizes for getting the ball in the bucket or choosing the right duck.  There were also two bouncy houses, face painting, a marshmellow spitting contest (Brad spit his 74 inches!!), clowns making balloon figures, food, and live entertainment.  Both of the kids choose one thing to have painted on their cheek (though Brad later met back up with us with another image on his other cheek, forehead, and right forearm….so much for the meaning of ONE….haha) and played all the little games.  Halle won a cupcake in the cupcake walk and got a heart shaped balloon from a clown.  She really wanted to jump in the bouncy houses, but she would get too scared with so many kids in them.  She was, however, very interested in the hot dogs they were giving away.  I believe she ate two.  Haha!

All in all, we had a pretty good weekend.  The weather was nice, there were fun activities to do, and the kids were pretty well behaved.  Well, well behaved considering all the changes that they’ve had to deal with as well.

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Yes, I have an enemy.  So does the rest of my family–though I think I may be this enemy’s biggest target.  It doesn’t seem to matter where I am….at home, at work, in my car, in my classroom, even in my bed asleep!  I MUST watch my back at all times.

Who is this awful enemy, you ask?  BUGS!  :shudder

I absolutely hate bugs.  The animals themselves don’t really bother me…though they are a bit annoying flying around intruding in my personal space.  No, what really gets me is when they feel the need to bite me!  I mean really…what did I ever do to them?  I must mention that I am pretty allergic to bug bites.  Thankfully I’m not allergic to bees, but if I get a mosquito bite, I alsmost instantly swell up and have a whelt the size of a nickel at minimum.  If I happen to scratch them?  Forget it….I’m going to look like I have elephantitis.

When I was living in St. Louis, I had encounters with the little devils, sure.  When I was younger my parents played softball several nights a week and mosquitos seem to swarm at those ball field lights.  Calamine lotion was our friend.  And we often smelled of Off.  As I got older, I became more of an inside person and tried to wear bug spray if I knew I’d be somewhere that I could become Mr. Mosquito’s supper.  It seemed to work fairly well, less those few that got me here and there.

Fast forward to the new Country-Fried way of life.  Bugs are out to get me, I’m telling you.  Not just mosquitos either!  In the three weeks I’ve been here, I’ve been bitten my ants, mosquitos, spiders, funky flying things that are nameless to me, and other miscellaneous things that would look better on the bottom of my shoe.  I’ve had immediate whelts the size of a quarter.  One got bigger and redder everyday and freaked David out so much that he drew a line around it’s perimeter to make sure it didn’t continue to grow.  Thankfully, it started going away.  Though I do have several bites that have been there for over 2 weeks now.  What’s with that?

And yes, when I said I had to be cautious when I was in bed, I was serious.  I’ve woken up with bites down the backside of my arm before.  Very strange indeed!

I guess maybe because there’s more undeveloped land up here that there is free for them to breed in, they’re more prevalent up here.  Not sure.  I do know that they drive me insane though.  I’m sure at some point we’ll come to a co-existence that works, but for now, they’re still on my black list.  Haha!

Anyone have any ideas on what to do to get rid of them all?  Or at least have them not bother us?  (I know….it’s like asking for the moon, but hey!  A girl’s gotta try…)

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Hopefully today will be the first day of many more posts to come. Just as a little background, I have lived in a big metropolis (St. Louis) for my entire life, less a few semesters away at college. My husband and I have lived there since we married in 1999 and it is the only place our kids have ever called home. Nearly a month ago (in Aug 2007), we moved to a little bitty small town in Northeast Missouri. It’s where my husband grew up and his family still lives. We decided that we wanted to give our kids the opportunity to romp in the country and live in a more relaxed atmosphere. It wasn’t an easy decision by any means and it was incredibly hard to leave my mom especially. Actually, it still is. I’m the oldest and the only girl and we have a pretty great relationship. But we had this opportunity for our little family and didn’t want to pass it by. If for some reason it doesn’t work out the way we’d hoped, we can always return to St. Louis I suppose….though we’re hoping that isn’t the case. And in the mean time, we’re only about an hour and 40 minutes away.

I’m sure (and so is my hubby) that there will be some interesting adjustments for me to make to country life. We shall see. I’m sure when things calm down a bit more and we get settled those will start rearing their heads. (Well, one already has, but I’ll save that for tomorrow…) For now, we’re living with his grandma. Our house in St. Louis is due to close at the end of the month and then we plan on either buying or building up here.

I am also in my first year of teaching. And just in case your first year isn’t overwhelming enough, I’m teaching 8th grade! What an interesting age! I also teach one class each day at the high school…so I get to travel back and forth each day. Nothing like jumping in head first, eh? I’m sure that I’ll have some funny stories to share about my classes too. Heck, we’ve only been in school for 3 weeks and I already have some stunners! HaHa…

I really wanted to have a little spot on the web for two purposes. First, I wanted a place to document our transition and story so that I could remember all of the details later. Second, I wanted an easily accessible spot for all of my family to be able to “catch-up” to what’s going on in our lives since we’re no longer a mile apart. I forsee this serving both.

Well….I believe that will be all for tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow….

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